This coming Sunday is the 11th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Lectionary Cycle B.

26 He said, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land 27 and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. 28 Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.” 30 He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. 32 But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” 33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. 34 Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.  (Mark 4:26-34)

In the preceding chapter of Mark’s gospel, Jesus’ public ministry is well underway. He is healing, teaching, casting out demons and has come under the scrutiny of officials from Jerusalem. The stories about Jesus are spreading and “A large number of people followed from Galilee and from Judea. Hearing what he was doing, a large number of people came to him also from Jerusalem, from Idumea, from beyond the Jordan, and from the neighborhood of Tyre and Sidon.” (Mark 3:7-8) The stories have also raised concern among his family: “When his relatives heard of this they set out to seize him, for they said, ‘He is out of his mind.’” (3:21).  If that weren’t enough the scribes from Jerusalem said: “He is possessed by Beelzebul and by the prince of demons he drives out demons.” (3:22)

Jesus’ opening proclamation in the Gospel of Mark (1:15) is a pretty clear mission statement: “This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”  With all the deeds/works of power/miracles or whatever one might call them, how is there such a diverse response to Jesus and his ministry? Why are people responding so differently to the announcement of the coming of the Kingdom of God? The demons “get it” and they very well understand the implication of the Kingdom for them; the demons confess who Jesus is. And yet so many people resist, do not understand, or have reached decisions that deny Jesus and his ministry all together.

Mark’s chapter 4 is the beginning of answers to those questions. But Jesus will not make it easy. This chapter is the largest collection of parables in Mark that are focused on Jesus’ teachings about the Kingdom. Later on, Chapter 13 adds parables but those are focused on things eschatological – and there the apostles beg Jesus to “tell us plainly.” But such is not the nature of parables.

Chapter 4 of Mark contains some very memorable parables:

• Parable of the Sower (vv.1-9)
• Purpose of the Parables (vv.10-20)
• Parable of the Lamp (vv.21-25)
• Parable of the Seed that Grows Itself (vv.26-29)
• Parable of the Mustard Seed (vv.30-34)

Three of the parables are agricultural in nature: the sower, the growth of the seed and the mustard seed. Each of the three reflects upon sowing, growth and harvest-elements which address the character of the Kingdom of God signaled by Jesus’ presence among them. The parables also point to the inevitable and ultimate triumph of the Kingdom of God.

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