Serving Bread

The bulk of Mark 4 is Jesus teaching in parables. There’s five or six of them in this chapter, depending on one would interpret the story of the storm. But more on that later. The common question that stands out is “Why did Jesus teach in parables?” While some of the answer might be that it was a common way to teach, Jesus actually answers that question in Mark 10.11-12: “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything comes in parables; 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.’”

Jesus points out some sort of divide–those on the outside receive things as parables but to the disciples who asked him about the parables, they’ve been given insights into the secrets of the Kingdom. And the parable of the sower seems to be some sort of ‘meta-parable’ that explains the process of learning and processing God’s word.

The temptation in looking at these parables is to spiritualize them before we understand them. These are stories that point to deeper spiritual truths but on the surface they are just a story. A fine story for all to hear and for most listeners, it’s just a story. But when people have pressed Jesus about the parables, he gave them more truth. And that’s where I find Jesus to be a brilliant teacher. Only those who want his teaching will get his deeper teaching. Jesus is fishing for people of faith and curiosity.

As he says in Mark 4.24, “The measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you.” He’s right–the more we give the more we get and then some. And if we don’t want it, his teaching remains a surface level teaching.

So when it comes to the story of the storm in Mark 4, I wonder if that’s some sort of living parable for these disciples. Jesus calms a storm. What does that mean? And does Jesus want more for his disciples? Put it another way, does Mark want more for his readers?