The Birds of the Air Rest In His Shade

 

In The Light Of His Word

 

Lamps shouldn't be hidden...

Mark 4:30-34 Long Live the Emperor!

And He said, "How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches; so that THE BIRDS OF THE AIR can NEST UNDER ITS SHADE." With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it; and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples.


Jesus again emphasizes how the kingdom of God begins as something small and insignificant—the teaching of God’s word to a few people that seem to have no political significance at all. And yet the kingdom of God becomes so politically significant that the great nations of the world are in submission to the kingdom—this is the meaning of Jesus’ quote of Ezekiel 17:22-24 (See also Ezekiel 31:1-13). This is to speak to those who understand Jesus’ purpose to be political, but his methodology doesn’t seem to increase his political significance. He is saying that his actions are political, and that the entire political world will one day rest under his small school.

A comment is made at the end of the parables section to say that Jesus always used parables when he taught and yet most people didn’t understand them. As seen above, this is what Jesus wanted—most people were not worthy to understand the parables. But if they listened carefully then they could hear the explanations that Jesus gave to his disciples and then the truth would be known. Daniel 12

Justice will not be accomplished until all of the world is under God's rule. We can make compromises through this or that government, but nothing will be finally accomplished until the world is under God's law of love and under God's direct supervision through the person of Jesus.

Maybe that's not the kind of Jesus you believe in. Maybe you believe in a meek Jesus, who will gently lead the world to His ways. That the Jesus we have now, certainly. But in the end, if we want to see the whole world acting in love, we have to have them led by strong leadership. And Jesus saw himself as that strong leader.

Mark 4:26-29- I Want It All, I Want It Now

And He was saying, "The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows— how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come."

The coming of God’s promises to the earth was thought by many Jewish schools to be quick, immediate and world changing. There were other groups of Yahwists (worshipers of Yahweh) called Zealots who believed that it is the Yahwists who would enact the kingdom coming by their own violent, revolutionary action. In this parable, Jesus speaks against both of these misconceptions of the kingdom of God. He compares the coming of God’s nation to be like the planting of a seed. First of all, the seed grows gradually, not immediately. Secondly, the one who plants the seed does not know how it grows—he doesn’t do it himself, but is passive in the process of it growing. But once it is full grown, the man who planted the seed takes possession of the fruit of it, even though he had little to do with the growing of it. Even so, the kingdom of God begins with the teaching of God’s word, and people over a long time listen to it and accept it and join God’s kingdom. And no one except God knows how the kingdom grows or how it grows. But those who participate in the teaching of the word will take possession of the kingdom when it is finished. Joel 4:13

The hardest thing in the world is to wait for justice. When you are living in an unjust situation for years, all you want to do is to change it immediately. God promises justice, but he doesn't promise it quickly. I am not saying that we need to wait for the government to grant justice, because people have been waiting thousands of years to have a just government. But if we attempt to force justice ourselves, even if we succeed, all we do is to force on others a different form of injustice.

The most powerful tool for justice is prayer. Prayer requires patience, but it does the job. And through prayer the greatest changes the world has ever known have been accomplished.

Mark 4:24-25-- The Art of Listening

And He was saying to them, "Look at what you listen. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. For whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him."

Jesus had just concluded his previous statement with “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” He builds here on that statement, warning his disciples to take great care with how they listen. The spoken gospel is precious—within it is eternal life or eternal death, depending on how one responds to it. If one listens to the gospel carelessly, then they will find that they do not have the stamina to respond to Satan and persecutions and personal concerns in a gospel-ish manner. Only those who take the gospel seriously will gain the life and kingdom the gospel promises. In this context, Jesus’ statement of measure means, “Whatever you get out of the gospel, that’s what you’ll get in the next age.” If we take the gospel lightly, even what little we have gained will be taken from us. But if we receive the whole gospel and obey it, then we will gain more than we can imagine.

Listening is an art, not something that happens naturally. It is easy to half-heartedly listen to someone, and we can repeat what they say but not know the import of it. This is more so with Jesus. Many people repeat what Jesus says, use His words to justify what they are already doing and explain away that which doesn't make sense to them. But if we do not listen carefully to Jesus, focus on what HE meant, not what we mean by what he says, then we have nothing. We have nothing from Jesus, nothing from God, nothing from God's word.

How do we know that we have really listened to Jesus? The main focus of Jesus' teaching is one word: Repent. This means changing our actions, doing something differently with our lives. If Jesus' words do not stir us to change our lives, then we haven't really listened. Maybe we have appreciated Jesus, and maybe we have granted intellectual agreement with some of what he said. But unless His words infect our hearts and thus change our lives, we haven't really listened. Jesus becomes no better than our grandmother telling us a story we've heard a thousand times before.

Mark 4:21-23-- What We Do Is What We Believe

And He was saying to them, "A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Jesus is talking about the nature of hidden things. All hidden things, Jesus says, will be revealed in the end—eventually, every secret will be revealed. In the context of the parable he just explained, Jesus is talking about the nature of people’s faith in the teaching of Jesus. No matter what they say, people’s real faith is hidden until it is tested. In the parable, people’s statements of faith in the gospel is tested by trials and by the concerns of this world, and then their true faith is revealed. And so Jesus says that it is the nature of a person’s faith in the gospel to be revealed—if a person really believes in the gospel, they should display it in their actions, or else their true unbelief will be revealed in the end. This is confirmed by the other contexts that this passage is found (Matthew 5:15; Luke 8:16; Luke 11:33). Jesus concludes the statement with an injunction to listen carefully.

People talk about their faith being a "personal thing", kept in one's heart until revealed by God. The fact is, every action we do shows what we really believe. If we think that our beliefs and our actions are contrary, in all honesty, they are not. Our actions show our true faith. Our speech sometimes can describe what goes on in our heads, but we have a harder time expressing our belief than we do living it out.

Mark 4:13-21- Responses to the Gospel

And then there's the soil the sower forgot to water...

And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."

Jesus now explains what the parable of the sower means. The context of the parable is one who is giving God’s word, to anyone and everyone. Jesus then uses the different soils to explain people’s different reactions to God’s word—specifically the word that God’s kingdom is coming to take the place of the current authorities of God’s kingdom.

The first response is one who hears God’s word, but rejects it immediately. Jesus explains that it is because Satan takes away from these the truth of God’s word. The second response is one who receives the word and immediately accepts it. However, because of the word—either through obedience to it or through proclaiming it—they are rejected and hated by those around them, and so they do not continue to obey it or proclaim it, and thus they fail to endure in the word. The third response is that of those who also accept the word as true and obey it and proclaim it, but they also want the comforts and wealth of this world. This causes them to compromise their stand with the message of revolution, and so they too do not endure in the word. The final response is that of those who hear the word, totally accept it and remain with it through the sacrifices and difficulties that the word requires. Such people continually obey the word and proclaim it, causing it to increase.

Jesus is speaking first to those whom he is training to be evangelists. He is telling them to not expect most people to follow or even listen to their message. In this story, only one fourth of the people listening actually follow through and fulfill the message of the kingdom.

It's frustrating to share the word of God.  So many people don't listen, or only listen hardheartedly.  In a sense, Jesus is getting us ready for that frustration.  Just like when God spoke to Jeremiah or Ezekiel and he told them, "I'll give you messages, but no one will pay attention to them."  That's a tough ministry.  Is it better to tell the truth that no one listens to or to tell a half-truth that everyone appreciates?  Hmmmm....

But Jesus is also speaking to those who are listening. He is saying that the requirements of hearing His word, in order to receive the blessing, is not simply to understand. Or even believe. The basic requirement is that one follows through. Belief is simply the first step, then one has to be consistent with Jesus' word-- through the temptations of a "normal" life and through the difficulties of people mocking you for following Jesus. If we aren't faithful with Jesus' word, then we haven't finished the process of faith.

Soils

 

Mark 4:10-12-- We Just Don't Get It

As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, OTHERWISE THEY MIGHT RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN."

Jesus’ disciples ask Jesus independently from the crowds about his teaching. Jesus says that he speaks in parables so that the majority of people could not understand them. He uses complex parables, so that only the disciples can understand them. Jesus only wants his teaching to be understood by those who are submitting to him. This is a result of the general rejection of the miracles he does—so only those who submit to God’s work can receive God’s truth, even though everyone hears the teaching. If they heard, they would be forgiven. Jesus then responds in amazement that the disciples didn’t already understand the parable. Perhaps this is because he expected the Spirit of God to explain it to them.

Jesus only teaches in confusion in order to separate those who believe in Him from those who do not. It is an act of faith and trust in Jesus that the stories not only make sense, but that Jesus is willing to give a straightforward interpretation.

It is a sign of a lack of faith in interpreters that they attempt to understand the parables apart from Jesus' explanation. They may not like Jesus' explanation, but it is the only one that really makes sense. So, rather than use our own imagination to understand the parables, we should instead examine what Jesus said about them.

Funny, how it keeps having to do with focusing on Jesus.

Mark 4:1-9-- Parable of the Soils

He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, "Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." And He was saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."


This is the beginning of a most important section of Mark, where Jesus’ teaching is clearly stated. The situation is that a large crowd is assembled and so Jesus teaches from a boat. Jesus’ manner of teaching is to teach in parable form, with this parable being the central one. It was not understood by the crowd, or by the disciples. The reason for parables is spoken in the next section, and the meaning of this parable is explained in verses 13-20.

Jesus was not afraid to give teachings that could not be understood. But we must remember that he did it as a judgment, not as a teaching technique. If we want to actually encourage people to get closer to God, then we should speak God's message clearly.