In our adult Sunday school class this past week, we came across an interesting truth in the Gospel of Mark:
“Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables…” (Mark 4:1-2)
“And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables…” (Mark 4:10-11)
“With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.” (Mark 4:33-34)
What do we make of this? The basic facts are these:
- Jesus teaches in parables to the crowds (4:1, 4:21, etc.).
- Jesus then explains the parables to the disciples (4:13-20, 4:34).
- Jesus, however, does not explain the parables to the crowds (4:11-12).
The big questions that arise are at least two: what is the purpose of always using a parable rather than communicating the truths of the kingdom directly? And: how come He doesn’t explain the parables to all of His listeners?
While entire books have been written on the answers, the growing truth that we are seeing in Mark is that the parables function as a sort of wedge, forcing those who hear to respond in one of two ways: either they will think on the meaning of the parable, and so show themselves to desire the kingdom of God; or they will not, in which case the parables will be misunderstood or seen simply as moralistic stories. This same line of thinking is recorded in Luke 8:9-10 and is said even more clearly in Matthew 13:10-17.
Said another way, those who respond to Christ’s parables are those whom the Lord has chosen to understand (Matthew 13:11); those who do not are those whom the Lord has not chosen to understand (Matthew 13:12). Now why would the Lord do this? We know that He is loving and that He desires that nobody should perish (2 Peter 3:9, 1 Timothy 2:1-4), and yet we also know that God is the One who sovereignly saves sinners – and He does this out of His own grace and goodness, not because He is somehow obligated to do so or because we can earn His care for us (John 6:44, Ephesians 2:1-10, etc.).
Therefore, the parables function as part of this separating action of God: nobody deserves to be saved at all, and yet He has decreed that some will be saved, some will trust Christ, some will enter the kingdom. Here, in Mark 4, we find that it is those who respond to the parables. Their very act of wanting to understand is part of how the Lord is building up disciples. Similarly, those who do not care to understand – who just follow Jesus because He performs amazing miracles or because they like how He isn’t afraid to talk back to the pharisees – they will find that their lack of care for the kingdom, their lack of desire to understand what Jesus is teaching, will ultimately reveal their true colors.
There is much here about God’s sovereignty, which nobody on earth can say they fully understand. But what is clear is that the purpose of the parables is to make a teaching point, one that requires Christ’s hearers to not simply listen, but to think. Why is this important today? For the exact same reasons – and all the more-so since we in the West live in a world where standardized testing is all that matters in many educational settings. We are expected to be able to repeat the right answers, and if we do so, then we pass. But far too often we have substituted memory (“do I remember the correct box to check?”) for understanding (“do I know why this is the correct box to check?”) and application (“I want to check this box because it is good and true and faithful.”). Christ doesn’t want followers who simply know the “right” answers, but instead wants ones who engage with their heart, who are being formed to care for the very things that He has come to usher in. This is the danger of our information age: we think that knowledge alone is enough (and, increasingly, that so long as Google can give us the answer, we don’t even really need knowledge anymore), whereas the Scriptures call us not just to know, but to believe, to respond to what we are being taught (Acts 16:30 would be one example: the Philippian jailer doesn’t simply need to know something about the Lord and about his own sin, no, he must also act on that knowledge by believing in Jesus Christ).
The final piece of our puzzle is to realize that all of this is not simply an example of Jesus being coy with His audience, but instead this has been prophesied long ago, by Isaiah himself (Matthew 13:14-15, quoting from Isaiah 6:9-10): there are those who will hear and see, but they will care little for understanding or perceiving. Why? Because “this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed…” And yet, there is hope even here, because the quote continues: “…lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.” While the context of Isaiah is judgment, the picture here in Matthew – and in Mark – is of being right at the tip of that wedge: how will Jesus’ hearers respond? Which way will they go? Which direction will you go?
Our role is to respond to Christ’s teachings. And all who respond can be confident that the Lord is at work in them. For any who don’t, then perhaps that very realization is the wakeup call that the sovereign Lord is giving to you so that you would not only hear, but respond to the goodness and mercy of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
