Review

In the verses we’re about to read Jesus continues to teach the people by way of parables and analogies; and, as in the previous passage, we’re given some explanatory information about His reasons for speaking in this way and what He hopes to accomplish by casting His message into this enigmatic form. 

As I mentioned last time, I have a feeling that most of us have heard these stories so many times before that we’ve become numb to their impact.  To compound the problem, far too much preaching, teaching, and Bible commentary seems to consist in repeating platitudes and pointing out the obvious.  I’d like to avoid that if possible.  So on this occasion I won’t attempt to say everything that could be said about this section.  Instead, I’ll limit myself to a few key observations that may not lie quite so close to the surface.

The theme here, as I understand it, is the irrepressible nature of the kingdom of God:  in other words, the idea that the kingdom is coming and will come of its own accord, no matter what people do to promote or oppose it.  I believe this to be an extremely important idea.

Hidden to Be Revealed:  Verses 21-25

21 He also said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed?  Isn’t it to be put on a lampstand? 22 For nothing is concealed except to be revealed, and nothing hidden except to come to light. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, he should listen!” 24 Then He said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear.  By the measure you use, it will be measured and added to you. 25 For to the one who has, it will be given, and from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”[i]

Let’s start with light.  It’s the nature and purpose of light to shine.  Like truth, the light will eventually out.  You don’t put a light under a basket because that would be absurd; but if you were to try, you’d probably have a hard time keeping it concealed.  Inevitably, some of the light-beams would seep through the seams of the basket.  That’s because light is one of the most irrepressible of all physical phenomena.

That’s how it is with Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom.  When He speaks to the crowds, He veils some of the disturbing brilliance of His message by expressing it in parables, similes, and metaphors.  But the light of the kingdom will eventually out.  That’s the nature of the thing.

This leads us to the most important point.  Why does Jesus put the light under the bushel?  Why does He use enigmatic language?  The answer comes in the form of another paradox.  The Greek particle hina, which is used twice in verse 22, functions grammatically to express purpose.  According to this sentence, the truth is concealed precisely so that it may be revealed.  “The present hiddenness serves the purpose of revelation.”[ii] 

What’s intriguing about this is that it appears to contradict what Jesus told His disciples back in 4:12.  At that point in the narrative He claimed to be using parables “in order that (hina)” His listeners might not see, hear, understand, and repent.  In other words, His purpose in that instance was to keep the message hidden.  How do these two ideas fit together?

There are probably lots of ways to interpret this.  I’m going to suggest one possible approach.  Perhaps Jesus is talking here about the two phases of a single painful process.  First, the light is hidden so that people become confused.  Once confused, they begin to grope for answers.  They lose their bearings.  A cold shadow of doubt falls across long-held assumptions and presumptions; as, for example, the idea that the kingdom of God is essentially a nationalistic-political proposition, or that Jesus has come to advance my agenda.  As a result, a sense of disillusion and disorientation sets in.  Faced with my own cluelessness, I become desperate.  I realize my need for a Savior, Teacher, and Guide.      

In the second part of the process, when the mind has been stripped of all its pre-conceived notions, the way becomes clear for the advent of the light.  Having been thrown for a loop by Jesus’ odd word-pictures, the humbled listener is now prepared to see and hear the truth for what it really is.  It’s a bit like Marine boot-camp training:  the sergeant dismantles and “deconstructs” his recruits in order that he might build them back up again in the image of the Corps.  In the same way, Jesus pulls the rug out from under us in order that He may set us on our feet.

This, I believe, is what He has in mind when He says “To the one who has, it will be given, and from the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away.”  Those who know what it means to cling to Christ in utter dependency are granted the keys to the kingdom (Matthew 16:19).  But if we persist in leaning on our own understanding and promoting our own agenda (Proverbs 3:5), our darkness will only increase.  

Automatic Growth:  Verses 26-29

26 ”The kingdom of God is like this,” He said.  “A man scatters seed on the ground; 27 he sleeps and rises – night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows – he doesn’t know how. 28 The soil produces a crop by itself – first the blade, then the head, and then the ripe grain on the head. 29 But as soon as the crop is ready, he sends for the sickle, because harvest has come.”

Like the shining of the light, the growth of the seed is a thing that happens of its own accord.  The people of Jesus’ time thought they could do something to usher in the kingdom of God.  The Pharisees, for example, prayed and fasted.  The Zealots plotted and stockpiled weapons.  The Herodians made deals and got on the good side of powerful political arkys.  In the same way, Christians today study demographics, utilize Search Engine Optimization, plan evangelistic rallies, implement advertising and marketing techniques, devise fund-raising strategies, or elect presidents who seem likely to appoint certain judges to the Supreme Court.  But it’s all for nothing. 

Why?  Because despite our power, our prestige, our smarts, our savvy, and all of our technical expertise, we really have no idea how the kingdom grows.  Like the farmer who plants the seed and waits, we have no control whatsoever over the humanly incomprehensible Phenomenon that Jesus has set in motion.  In the original language, this kingdom, like the seed, is said to grow automate – “of itself.”  And there’s nothing we can do to hinder or promote the process.  It’s an independent, self-determined, irrepressible force.  Our role is to listen, pay attention, and make sure we’re on the right side of things when the sickle comes in for the harvest.

Small Is Beautiful:  Verses 30-32

30 And He said:  “How can we illustrate the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use to describe it? 31 It’s like a mustard seed that, when sown in the soil, is smaller than all the seeds on the ground. 32 And when sown, it comes up and grows taller than all the vegetables, and produces large branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.”  

What will this growing seed become once it reaches full maturity?  This, at first glance, appears to be what the Parable of the Mustard Seed is all about.  N. T. Wright suggests that it is intended to teach us “not to look down on small beginnings.”[iii]  Jesus’ ministry among the peasants of Galilee may seem insignificant now, but just you wait:  in time it will blossom into an Empire of political as well as spiritual dimensions and implications.  It will become a plant with branches big enough for the “birds of the air” to take refuge in its shade.  Ezekiel (17:23; 31:6) and Daniel (4:12, 21) employed the same imagery to communicate this same idea of expansion and power. 

There is, of course, much to be said in favor of Wright’s idea.  After all, this same Jesus who has come to us in the guise of the Suffering Servant is destined to re-appear as the truly Benevolent Despot of a borderless universal domain.  Nevertheless, I’d like to propose that another vital truth lies “hidden” in the simple lines of this parable – a truth we ignore to our own disadvantage. 

In 1973 E. F. Schumacher, Chief Economic Advisor to the British National Coal Board from 1950 to 1970, wrote a profound little book on economics called Small Is Beautiful.  The principle expressed in Schumacher’s title is of eminent importance to this discussion.  While it’s true that Jesus’ ministry and its “small beginnings” will eventually “prove to be of ultimate, far-reaching significance,”[iv] it’s equally worth bearing in mind that smallness is to be valued for its own sake.  It is, in fact, an indispensable part of the kingdom’s inner workings.  It’s the fuel as well as the mechanism that makes the whole thing run.  It’s the answer to the question, “How does the seed grow?” 

We’re discovering this truth all over again in the age of pandemic-induced restrictions.  The church may be “essential,” as some disgruntled Christians have asserted in the face of social distancing measures, but bigness isn’t.  Perhaps the Lord is using the coronavirus to cure us of our characteristically American misconception that “kingdom success” is measured in terms of the Mega-Church.  God has a very different way of working.  Life and growth are miraculous, supernatural gifts that we receive from His hand alone.  And He grants these gifts in the small, secret places where the tiny but irrepressible seed grows of its own accord.    

Final Thoughts:  “Not Without Parables”:  Verses 33-34

33 He would speak the word to them with many parables like these, as they were able to understand. 34 And He did not speak to them without a parable.  Privately, however, He would explain everything to His own disciples.

This section concludes with a reiteration of the principle articulated back in 4:10-12:  for “outsiders”, parables; for “insiders”, plain language.  But at this point in the journey we have an even clearer conception of the clientele of these two groups.  “Outsiders”, as we can now see, are those who plunge themselves even deeper into misunderstanding and darkness by leaning on their own wisdom and promoting their own agenda; whereas “insiders” emerge from darkness into light by embracing their own inadequacy, hitching their cart to the irrepressible “automatic” power of the kingdom, and clinging to the Savior’s outstretched hand.      

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[i] This week’s Scripture quotations are take from The Holman Christian Standard Bible. 

[ii] Schnabel, The Tyndale New Testament Commentary on Mark, p. 107.

[iii] Wright, Mark for Everyone, p. 50.

[iv] Schnabel, p. 110.