Words'nTone

This is part 2 of the June 25, 2007’s Rough Cut, The parable of the Sower who sows.  Tomorrow, part 3 will conclude this Rough Cut.

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…

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Jesus’ ministry-activities & preaching vs. reactions
The next section of the narrative helps us see how Jesus and His message (i.e., the sowing) faired in its first, beginning stage.  Quickly Jesus moves into his Galilean ministry, portrayed as a teacher-healer.  Between 2:16-3:12, Mark’s storyline focuses on Jesus’ activities and audience reaction and responses.  At this point it is good to visualize the reactions of his audiences:

1:16-20: A good start
His call, “come follow me,” is good enough:  “Immediately they left their nets and followed him…Immediately He called them; and they left their father…and went away to follow Him” (vv 18-20).

1:21-28: A good response; spreading everywhere
Jesus teaches and the crowds “were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (v 22).  He casts out demons and “They were all amazed, so they debated among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? A new teaching with authority!’” (v 27).  And, Mark tells us that “Immediately the news about Him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee” (v 28).

1:29-45: Very popular
Jesus heals and continues to cast out demons.  “Whole” cities gather to hear and see this new rabbi-teacher-healer (v 33).  In a short while “Everyone” is looking for Him (v 37).  Jesus’ popularity has risen so much that he “could no longer publicly enter a city, but stayed out in unpopulated areas” (v 45b).  Nonetheless, the crowds keep coming to Him “from everywhere” (v 45c).

2:1-13: The good beginning takes a turn for the worse
After returning home and hearing He has arrived, “many were gathered together, so that there was no longer room, not even near the door” (v 2).  Note Jesus is “speaking the Word” (v 2c) to them, that is the Sower is sowing His seed.  Jesus forgives a paralytic.  Some of the scribes in the crowd ask in their hearts, “Why does this man speak this way?”, accusing Him of blasphemy (“only God can forgive sins,” v 7).  Although the crowds still seek to see and listen to Jesus, the seeds of doubt are beginning to sprout.

2:14-27: The religious leaders question everything Jesus does
The crowds continue to find Jesus appealing, but the fact that He heals lepers and eats with tax-collectors (i.e., “sows His seed”) begin to trouble the scribes of the Pharisees (the one’s originally charged with knowing the word, i.e., the seed of the Old Testament).  They see Jesus sowing His seed with “the sinners and tax collectors” (i.e., bad soil?) and ask His disciples, “Why is He eating and drinking with tax collectors and sinners?” (v 16).  Apparently they didn’t like the soil on which Jesus was sowing His seed.  Afterward, the Pharisees are disturbed that Jesus’ disciples didn’t fast (v 18).  And then to make matters worse, Jesus and His disciples eat grain on the Sabbath.  The Pharisees point out, “why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?” (v 24).

3:1-12: Those who should be sowing the Word have hardened hearts
Jesus’ popularity has ebbed away, especially among the religious leaders, to the point He knows they are just waiting to accuse Him of everything from blasphemy to law-breaking.  The warm reception that began in chapter 1 has melted, finally leaving Jesus “grieved at their hardness of heart” (v 5).  Soon the “Pharisees went out and immediately began conspiring with the Herodians [who were normally their opposition and religious enemies] against Him, as to how they might destroy Him” (v 6).  Yet despite the antagonism, the multitude from Galilee, Judea and Jerusalem continue to follow Jesus, and even those from “outside” Jerusalem, that is “Idumea, beyond the Jordon, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon” [places of historic-anti-YHWH sentiments, and “outsiders”].

One long section that gives us a clue for understanding
The divisions of verses and chapters, sometime forced on the text, can make us fragment the Gospel narrative into small parts, where the vignettes and individual teachings (and parables) can take on a life of their own, often lifted from the context and unrelated to the flow of the narrative.  The tendency to see and read the Gospels in this fragmented way makes the individual stories and teachings disjointed and unconnected to their larger context.  “Hearing” the Gospels this way can cause us to miss hearing God’s Word through the Gospel narrative.

It is important to note, Mark probably wanted his listening and reading audience to hear 1:1-3:12 as one long and related section.

1:1: “Jesus Christ, the Son of God” |----| 3:11:  “You are the Son of God”

It begins with the announcement that Jesus Christ is the “Son of God” (1:1) and ends with unclean spirits (i.e., demons) acknowledging, “You are the Son of God” (3:11).  We’re let in on the secret.  The demons knew it.  The disciples apparently did not.  The crowds enjoy the spectacle of a new teaching-healing Rabbi, with new authority, sowing His seed (i.e., preaching the gospel of the Kingdom), especially among “outsiders.” And as a result, those who are supposed to be on the “inside” begin to be threatened.

Mark 4, after the parables, ends with a question that brings us back to Mark’s introductory statement (in 1:1) and the demon’s acknowledgement (in 3:11).  After watching Jesus “hush” the storm and calm the waves on the sea, the disciples ask:

“Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” (v 41).

Mark continues his theme that he began in 1:1.  Remember, as readers of the story we know what the disciples and religious leaders did not know.  We know that the natural answer to the disciple’s question is

“This is Jesus Christ, the Son of God…the teacher-healer Rabbi, the Sower of the parables…”

Appointing the twelve future “sowers” and a little wasted seed
Mark 3:13-35, the section before Mark 4, introduces the chosen twelve who will make up the apostles, the sent ones, who are charged with carrying on and repeating the mission and message of Jesus (i.e., the future “sowers”).  This is significant because Jesus appoints the twelve to be with Him (i.e., indicating a discipleship relationship) in order to send them out to preach (i.e., the sowing; cf. 1:14-15).  Judas Iscariot, the one who betrays Jesus, is also among the chosen twelve (3:19).  We know the story too well, and as a result we gloss over this as we read the names of the twelve apostles (for we know them by heart).  The reference to Judas as the one “who betrays Him” is a harbinger of the parable where the sower appears to waste his seed on ground that will not produce fruit.  Some of the seed Jesus sows will indeed be wasted!

“Outsiders” and “insiders”
Finally, we read that in Jesus’ own hometown and among His own family, there is disappointment, accusations, and charges of satanic possession.  The groups who oppose Jesus and who are making the accusations are made up of “His own people” (3:21) and “scribes” (v 22).  The “scribes” ought to have been “insiders” who were responsible for sowing (the OT Word of promise), but instead have hardened hearts, opposing the Sower and are now cast as “outsiders.” And there is no doubt, Mark has placed even Jesus’ own family (i.e., “His people”) among those who are “outsiders” who do not get—that is, understand—His mission.  Mark is setting us up for the forthcoming warning that follows the parable of the Sower who sows:  First he let’s us know Jesus’ own family came to “take custody of” Jesus because they thought “He had lost His senses” (v 21) and, then, in vv 31-35, he defines family:

Then His mother and His brothers arrived, and standing outside they sent word to Him and called Him.  A crowd was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, “Behold, Your mother and Your brothers are outside looking for You.” Answering them, He said, “Who are My mother and My brothers?” Looking about at those who were sitting around Him, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

We are being prepared to hear the parable of the Sower who sows, and, as well, Jesus’ caveat, the warning and explanation to those who are supposed to be His “insiders”:

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…” (vv 10-11).

Further tension and conflict is set in motion as Jesus, the Master-Sower defines who is “inside” and who is “outside.” The preliminary qualification and dividing line is “Whoever does the will of God,” these are in “inside.” And in the parable, one’s standing is further defined: the who understands the parable of the Sower and His sowing, which is the mystery of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.

And to make matters more tense, Mark actually indicates there is the potential that even the “disciples” can be “outside.” Even among His own “insiders” there is the potential for “wasted seed,” poor, unproductive soil.  This is a warning to the listeners and readers of Mark’s gospel story: we need to evaluate whether we are “outsiders” or “insiders.” Insiders do the will of God; outsiders do not.  Insiders, like the Master-Sower, understand and sow the Word of the Gospel of Kingdom of God; outsiders do not.

© Chip M. Anderson, March 2005, Words’nTone Rough Cuts
    Bible quotes are from the NASB, unless otherwise noted

    Part 3 tomorrow… full Mark 4 Rough Cut...

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