Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 7 Study # 1
July 7, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
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Thesis: The final parable addresses the potency of the Word of God.
Introduction: We spent a lot of time (since January 14: 18 individual studies) considering Jesus' teaching by the use of parables. This evening we come to the last of Mark's record of Jesus' parables. This last one, like the one we considered last week, is deliberately focused on the larger audience and not just to the disciples. In that parable we saw that "The Kingdom of The God" was likened to a man who "cast a sowing" upon his field (earth) and that "earth" brought forth its harvest apart from any special application of knowledge by the man. The point was that it was not because of the man's knowledge that the harvest came; it was in spite of it. The man's sole responsibility consisted of "casting a sowing upon the earth". This
did mean that he had the knowledge involved in that "casting". What was "cast" was, as in the first parable, The Word of God. It was, however, the "earth" that produced the harvest automatically.
Thus, we conclude that the point of that parable is that the "harvest" is the result of the condition of the earth upon which the "casting" was made. This is, actually, a reaffirmation of the overall force of the very first parable: the fruitfulness of the seed is significantly dependent upon the condition of the "landing place" upon which the seed falls.
This evening we shall see that the last parable that Mark chose to record (there were others, as 4:33-34 attest) turns from the issue of "fruitfulness by reason of the good earth" to the other half of the issue of fruitfulness: the potency of the "seed" that is sown.
- I. The Continuing Emphasis: Fruitfulness in the Light of The Kingdom of The God.
- A. Jesus said that there was a "hidden" reality, in respect to this Kingdom, that was veiled so that only His select group would be able to see it.
- 1. In this light, Jesus interpreted the first parable for His disciples and then added two more parables primarily for their sake: the purpose of the coming of the Lamp to bring the "hidden" thing(s) to light, and the critical necessity of adopting the only "correct" standard of measure when looking at what the Lamp reveals.
- 2. Jesus' declaration was that only those "on the inside" would "get" it, and those "on the outside" would remain ignorant even though He was declaring the Truth in their sight and in their hearing (4:11-12).
- B. But, even with a certain kind of restriction upon the ability of "those outside" to comprehend His teaching, even they could get the main point: God's interest is "fruitfulness in view of the coming Kingdom."
- 1. This means that He is not interested in any who are not "fruitful" (Matthew 3:10 and 7:19, as well as Luke 13:7-9).
- 2. And this also means that "fruitfulness" needs to be understood as to its "How".
- II. The Second Explanation of the "How".
- A. Yet another word on "translation".
- 1. Mark chose his "jots and tittles" carefully.
- a. In respect to Jesus' "teaching", he used the basic word "lego" as opposed to other ways of writing about a person "speaking" (such as "lalew" in 4:33)
- b. In chapter four, he used three forms of "lego".
- 1. In 4:2, 9, 11, 21, 24, 26, and 30, he used "elegen", which is the form that indicates "continuing action in the past" and is typically translated "he was saying" (when the translators choose accuracy over other considerations, such as translation theory and stylistic issues).
- 2. In 4:13, and 35 he used "legei", which is the form that indicates "continuing action in the present" and is typically translated "he is saying" (when the translators choose accuracy over other considerations, such as translation theory and stylistic issues).
- 3. In 4:38 he used "legousin", which is "they are saying".
- c. However, the translators chose, for some reason, to translate "elegen" in 4:30 as "He said", and in 4:13 and 4:35 they chose to translate "legei" as "He said"; and, to compound the "problem", in 4:38 they chose to translate "legousin" as "they said" instead of the emphatic present "they are saying".
- 2. A writer has only a limited number of ways to point his readers to a "point" that he is making so that translators often completely obscure his "point" when he uses one of his limited options and they ignore him.
- B. What Jesus "was saying" in this last recorded parable.
- 1. "How?"
- a. This is sometimes an interrogative conjunction: How?
- b. But it is also a "methodological conjunction": making the "How?" a question of method.
- 2. The "method".
- a. The verb Jesus used is only recorded by Mark in this one place in his record.
- b. From thirteen other uses in the New Testament we can see that he is talking about placing two (or more) entities side by side and looking for "similarities" between distinctly different entities [Illustration: monkey compared to man; for all the similarities, a monkey is still a monkey and a man is still a man].
- c. In this case, the distinct entities are "the present experience" and "the experience in The Kingdom of The God".
- 3. The issue: "potent things".
- a. In the present experience, "potent things" are often determined by "size" (David compared to Goliath, or, more to the point, Babylon compared to Israel).
- b. In the experience of The Kingdom of The God, "potent things" are determined by "final impact".
- c. In Jesus' example of "comparison", the issue is still "fruitfulness", but He chooses the bare grain of a mustard plant that is initially seen as "incapable" of producing a very great result to point out that it finally does produce a very great result.
- 4. The imagery involved.
- a. Daniel 4:11-12 uses Jesus' imagery of greatness to refer to Nebuchadnezzar: he was very great.
- b. In our parables, the "seed sown" is "the Word".
- 1. In this parable the fact that Jesus identifies "the Word" with "a grain of mustard" is His way of pointing out how men view God's Word.
- 2. But, the first illustration of this "insignificant Word" in the Bible is Genesis 1:2 where the "insignificant" word (rma) is used to tell us that this entire 92 billion light year diameter universe came into instantaneous existence with God's utterance.
- a) The author of Hebrews emphasizes this in Hebrews 11:3 by using "rhmati" as the root of all creation (a single utterance of God).
- b) Romans 1:20 tells us also that it is this creation that reveals the "mustard" power of God.
- C. Jesus'/Mark's "Point".
- 1. "Fruitfulness" was initially focused upon "the good earth".
- 2. This final parable focuses upon the "seed" that is sown.
- 3. Thus, when the utterances of God are declared in the hearing of men (or written before the eyes of men), "fruitfulness" will result when those men are "of good earth".
