Mark 4:21-25
He said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”
Chapter 4 is where Mark collects Jesus’ parables. Mark gives very little sense of what else is going on – no indicators of whether Jesus is traveling, no information about whether it is the same or different crowd, no sense of what season or time of year it may be. The focus is entirely on Jesus’ teaching and, in particular, his teaching in parables.
Why parable? We’ve already wondered a bit about that when we considered the parable of the farmer sowing seeds. We noticed that parables are simultaneously straightforward but not easy to pin down. Parables, I suggested, are more like riddles – they make you think. On one level, the imagery is simple and concrete – farmers, seed, lamps, and what not – these aren’t complex metaphors but the imagery of everyday life. At another level, though, the parable resists a simple one-size-fits-all kind of explanation. The parable is meant to stay with you, to tease you, cajole you, even provoke you to deeper contemplation, engagement, and reflection.
But why? I think the answer is that the only way to get to the truth Jesus proclaims is “sideways.” That is, indirectly. The ideas, convictions, and assertions about God and God’s kingdom that Jesus share are so ridiculously grand as to also be grandly ridiculous. I think the simple, straightforward imagery of parables serves both to make these ideas – these truths – concrete and accessible, on the one hand, while also making them disarming, something we’re more willing to entertain and chew on. Jesus uses parables, I think, to force us out of our usual analytic, adult posture of critical assessment toward more childlike wonder and curiosity.
What Jesus suggests about God, that is, is just different enough, just unexpected enough, just radical enough that we’re tempted to dismiss it outright if it comes at us head-on. “The God of commandment and judgment, the God we name king of the Universe, is at heart unrelentingly merciful and loving? Oh, come on…” we’re tempted to say. So Jesus tells a story about a farmer who throws seed everywhere and slips in his conviction about God sideways. And we keep thinking about it: “Why, why would this farmer throw seed – something we typically horde and use sparingly – on the road, and on shallow soil, and where weeds and thorns grow? Could God really be like that? It sounds a little crazy, but I wonder….”
And so in these few verses we’re look at today, Jesus’ parables are as much about his message itself as they are about God. This particular portion of parables really describe, in a sense, Jesus and his strategy for sharing truth. And what does Jesus say here about his message? It’s something that needs to be heard, seen, felt, and experienced. You don’t bring put a lamp under a basket but on a lamp stand so everyone can see it. Why, then, does he talk in riddles? Because sometimes you hide things in order that people might look for it, and sometimes you keep a secret so that people will really listen when you’re ready to disclose it. “So listen up!” Jesus seems to say, “if you can hang with me, you’ll get even more. If you give up, then even the little you think you understand will vanish.”
Parables aren’t a puzzle to be solved but rather a mystery to be entertained and, ultimately, entered into. In this sense, parables are always an invitation, an invitation to think, and be challenged, and wonder, and imagine…and, quite frankly, to have you ideas and views and assumptions and even your world rocked by the God Jesus comes preaching. So what do you think? Game?
Prayer: Dear God, draw us – mind, body, and spirit – closer to you and each other by capturing our hearts and imaginations with these descriptions of your surprising, unexpected, and unending love. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Recent Comments