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1 the Gospel According to Saint Mark November 8, 2020 Mark 4:1-33

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1 the Gospel According to Saint Mark November 8, 2020 Mark 4:1-33 The Gospel according to Saint Mark November 8, 2020 Mark 4:1-33 4Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” The Purpose of the Parables 10 When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the 11 parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret[a] of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; 12 in order that ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’” 13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the 18 word, immediately they fall away.[b] And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20 And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” A Lamp under a Bushel Basket 21 He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22 For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23 Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” 24 And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25 For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.” The Parable of the Growing Seed 26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth 1 produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.” The Parable of the Mustard Seed 30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” The Use of Parables 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. Footnotes a. Mark 4:11 Or mystery b. Mark 4:17 Or stumble Notes The beginning of a series of parables. Lamar Williamson, Jr. suggests the following as questions raised by Mark the Evangelist for our consideration: (1) Is the effort to follow Jesus, to live in and to proclaim the Kingdom of God worthwhile? (2) Why does the preaching and teaching of the gospel not bear more fruit? (3) What difference, if any, does hearing the gospel make? (4) What do hearing, seeing, and understanding mean in this passage and in life? (5) Do the parables in this chapter each have a single meaning? (6) If so, what is it? If not, what limits, if any, does the text impose on meanings we find in the parables? A composite collection whose purpose is Mark’s first explicit elaboration about the message of the Kingdom of God (cf. 1:15). What are parables? The word parable (Gk. parabolē) is used in Greek much more broadly than in English for a range of literary types. In this chapter we have parable (vv. 3-9, 26-29, 30-32), allegory (vv. 13- 20), and saying (vv. 21-25). Proverb (7:15-17; compare Luke 4:23) Metaphor (3:23-27; 4:21-22) Brief similitude (4:26-29, 30-32); 13:28-29), where parabolē is translated “lesson” Developed narrative (4:3-9 and many Lukan parables) Allegory (4:13-20; 12:1-12). 2 The Parable of the Sower (vv. 1-9) Appears in all three Synoptic Gospels (the other instances are Matthew 13:1-9; Luke 8:4-8) and as saying nine in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. Thomas 9:1-5, “Look, the sower went out, took a handful (of seeds), and scattered (them). Some fell on the road, and the birds came and gathered them. Others fell on rock, and they didn’t take root in the soil and didn’t produce heads of grain. Others fell on thorns, and they choked the seeds and worms ate them. And others fell on good soil, and it produced a good crop: it yielded sixty per measure and one hundred twenty per measure.” It is believed that Thomas preserves the form of the parable that is closest to the original. Sowing and harvesting were common figures used as analogies in Hellenistic rhetoric for pedagogical failures and successes. ,Hear!”, as in “Hear“ ,(שְׁמ ַ֖ע) v. 3 – Gk. Akouete, Listen!, lit. “Look!”; equivalent of Heb. shema O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone” (Deuteronomy 6:4). Hearing as appropriation. Three possible interpretations: (1) The Parable of the Three Soils; (2) The Parable of the Sower; (3) The Parable of the Miraculous Yield Isaiah 55:10-11! The Purpose of the Parables (vv. 10-20) Private explanations often follow public teaching in Mark (4:34; 7:17; 9:28; 10:10; 13:3). v. 11 – “the secret,” Gk. mystērion (“mystery”), “God’s cosmic purposes, graciously disclosed to a select few.” Best understand as an “open secret,” in the NT used of the Gospel or the inclusion of the Gentiles. Or better “key.” Essential knowledge rather than privileged knowledge. v. 12 –quotation from Isaiah 6:9-10 from the LXX. vv. 13-20, probably a later Christian interpretation accentuating missionary hardships and the difficulty of discipleship [Lamar Williamson, Jr.] “The language used in this allegorizing interpretation and the problems to which it points reflect the life of the early church. (For fuller discussion, see Joachim Jeremias, The Parables of Jesus, 1963, rev. ed., pp. 77-79). In this explanation the church applies Jesus’ parable of the scattered seed to her own experiences in preaching and hearing the gospel (“the word”). Certain of these experiences are reflected also in the discourse about last things in Mark 13. The ‘tribulation or persecution’ of 4:17 is specified in 13:9-13 as being ‘delivered up’ and ‘brought to trial’ before religious and civil authorities, being betrayed by one’s own family, and being hated by all for the sake of Jesus’ name. The Book of Acts portrays many such scenes in the life of the early church. The epistles not only reflect similar experiences of believers, but also echo several of the key terms in Mark 4:13-20: tribulation (literally, ‘pressure’), persecution (literally, ‘the chase’), cares (anxiety, worry), riches, desire (longing, lust). These were the special problems of the early Christian community which first read the Gospel of Mark.” 3 A Group of Sayings (vv. 21-25) v. 21 – “bushel basket,” a dry measure of about two gallons. [V. Taylor] “The ultimate purpose of Jesus, he would say, is to make the secret of the Kingdom widely known, just as the function of a lamp is to give light: even when a thing is hidden, the hiding is the mercy of revelation!” v. 25 – for a kindred proverb, 2 Esdras 7:25, “empty things are for the empty, and full things are for the full.” [V.
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