Palm Sunday
Today is often called “Palm Sunday.” The Sunday before Easter begins what we call “holy week,” or our remembrance of the last week of Jesus’ life on earth. As we just heard, he entered Jerusalem with great fanfare and acclaim. People spread their jackets on the ground. Others laid down “leafy branches” (Mk. 11:8). John’s account tells us that many of the people laid down palm branches, hence the name “Palm Sunday.”
They said, “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!” (v. 10) because they recognized Jesus as the one who’d come from the line of King David to save Israel. They were declaring that Jesus was sent by God to save them from their enemies, as “Hosanna” literally means, “God, save us.”
Matthew’s account says that “the whole city was stirred up” because of Jesus’ arrival (21:10). Those who lived in Jerusalem were less familiar with Jesus, so they asked, “Who is this?” (v. 11) Jesus was an unknown country preacher to them.
Jesus’ followers are hailing him as king. Jerusalem’s residents were wondering who this guy was. Even his followers who hailed him as king assumed he would be a king like David who’d fight Israel’s enemies and be their political and military leader. What they failed to realize is that King Jesus came to defeat the more powerful enemies of sin, Satan, and death, not just the Romans. They’d not understood that Jesus was a King who would suffer.
The Mystery of Jesus
There was great mystery surrounding Jesus from the beginning to the end of his public ministry. It always has been mystery around Jesus and there always will be. Those who aren’t comfortable with mystery won’t be comfortable following Jesus.
We have to be careful here. The presence of mystery doesn’t mean that we can’t know anything about what God was doing through Jesus. God conceals some things from us and reveals some things to us. This has always been his way. Even in heaven we won’t know everything because then we would be God. In fact, because we’ve all rebelled against God, he’d be perfectly fair in not revealing anything to us. We deserve to be cut off from the knowledge of God forever. But in grace, God chose to reveal himself to us. He chose to show us himself through his Son Jesus and his Word the Bible.
Even here though, there’s mystery. Not everyone sees Jesus or receives his word in the same way. There have always been various responses to Jesus and his words. This is what we’ve seen over the last few weeks in the Gospel of Mark. We’ve seen some follow him and trust his word (3:13-19). We’ve seen his family members call him crazy (3:21). And we’ve seen the religious leaders accuse him of being possessed by Satan (3:22).
How can people respond so differently to Jesus? Mark told us that Jesus was preaching the “good news” (1:14), so why is it not being accepted by everyone? If the demons recognize Jesus as the Son of God, why don’t the Bible teachers of Jesus’ day? Why does his own family think he’s crazy?
It’s these questions that Mark answers in the next section of his Gospel. In 4:1-34, Mark records one long parable of Jesus and then a few shorter ones. All of them are meant to help us understand the mysterious nature of Jesus’ life and teaching. The parable of the sower (vv. 1-20) help us understand why some people accept him and others don’t. Several short parables in verses 21-34 help us understand the mysterious nature of the kingdom of God.
The Sower
In verses 1-9, Jesus tells the parable of the sower. In verse 3, Jesus begins this parable with a command to “Listen!” He wants the crowd, and us, to listen carefully to what he has to say. As Preston Byrd reminded us on Wednesday night, “It’s easy to hear things without listening.” “Listening” is a major theme in this passage, with the language of “hearing” or “listening” used nine times. If we want to understand the mystery of Jesus and his kingdom, we have to listen carefully, with our ears and our hearts.
Then Jesus tells the story of the sower. The sower sows seed along the path but birds come and eat it. He sows other seed on rocky ground so that it grows up quickly but is scorched by the sun and dies because it has no depth. He sows other seed among thorns that choke it out. And he sows other seed on good soil that grows and produces fruit.
He closes by saying in verse 9, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” It’s likely that everyone there that day had ears and could hear Jesus’s words. He even made it easier for them to hear by getting into a boat and preaching from the water, creating a natural amphitheater. What does he mean? He means that not everyone who has ears has really heard what he’s said. Many are hearing but few are listening.
The Purpose of the Parables
In verses 10-12, Mark tells us why Jesus spoke in parables. It’s an appropriate question because verse 9 leaves the audience hanging. It’s almost as if Jesus intentionally left the meaning of the parable ambiguous. Why would he do that?
These verses are the main point of what Mark is trying to say in this section. Notice that he’s using the sandwich technique again that we learned about last week. He gives the parable in verses 1-9, explains in in verses 13-20, and squeezed in between those two pieces of bread are verses 10-12. This means that this is Mark’s main point.
What is he saying here? He’s telling us that Jesus revealed the mystery of the kingdom to his followers while concealing it from the crowds. Mark is highlighting the insider/outsider nature of the kingdom. Last week we saw that Jesus’ own family was outside the house, not doing the will of God, while his follower were inside the house listening and obeying. In verse 11, Jesus separates all of humanity into two groups, “To you (v. 10, “those around him with the twelve”) and “to those outside.”
What does he give to each group? To the insiders he gives “the secret of the kingdom of God.” “Secret” here is the word for “mystery.” “Mysteries” in Scripture aren’t like modern detective stories. A mystery is a truth from God that’s only available through the revelation of God. It’s a knowledge of God that cannot be attained by natural means. It can only be given by God.
When the prophet Daniel was asked to interpret Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, he says to the king, “No wise men, enchanters, magicians, or astrologers can show to the king the mystery that the king has asked, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and he has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will be in the latter days” (2:27-228).
Just as God revealed the mystery of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dream to Daniel, so Jesus reveals the mystery of the kingdom of God to his followers. “To you has been given the mystery” is in the passive form, meaning that the disciples didn’t earn or achieve this revelation. God gave it to them out of grace. They didn’t deserve it any more than anyone else in the crowd that day. No follower of Jesus deserves to see and understand the message about the kingdom. None of us are smart enough or religious enough or good enough to attain it. It must be given.
Jesus gave the parables to help his followers understand him and his work, to reveal truth. But the text goes on to say that the parables are also given to conceal truth (vv. 11b-12). Jesus says that he spoke in parables to the crowd “so that” they may remain blind and deaf to the true meaning of his teaching. We must not try to blunt the force of what Jesus is saying here. Jesus is saying that he spoke in parables so that people wouldn’t understand him. One of the purposes of Jesus’ teaching in parables was to prevent the crowds from perceiving, understanding, and turning to God.
Jesus is quoting Isaiah 6:9-10 in verse 12. This is when God calls Isaiah to go preach to his people who will not listen to him. God tells Isaiah that his preaching will serve to confirm the hardness of his people’s hearts and their unbelief. They won’t receive Isaiah because their hearts are already hard and unbelieving toward God.
Jesus’ quotation of Isaiah 6 tells us that the situation of Jesus’ hearers isn’t any different from the people of Israel in Isaiah’s day. Throughout Scripture, people have refused to see and hear and accept the truth that is right in front of them. The reason they refuse the truth is because their hearts are hard toward God and full of unbelief.
In Mark 4:11-12, Jesus tells his disciples that his parables are meant to confirm the state of people’s hearts. The “insiders” who’re with Jesus will be given more understanding of the mystery. The “outsiders” who aren’t with Jesus will be left in their unbelief.
Our closeness to Jesus reveals the state of our heart. Insiders have seen Jesus’ glory, accepted his truth, want to be close to him, and will get more and more of him. Outsiders see him as less than what he is, aren’t interested in leaving everything to follow him, are skeptical of his message, and will be left right where they are, with hard hearts and no faith. Where are you?
Parable of the Sower Explained
The next section helps us understand where we are with Jesus. In verses 13-20, Mark gives Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the sower. The main point of this parable is that Jesus’ message will not be accepted by everyone. It tells us why Jesus has received such divergent responses from those who heard him teach.
Jesus says that there are four ways that people respond to his word, or gospel. First, in verse 15, there’s the person who hears the word and Satan comes and snatches it away. Nothing happens because Satan doesn’t let anything happen. Satan is actively trying to remove God’s word from the hearts and minds of those who hear it. This should lead us to pray against him fervently when the word goes out.
Second, there’s the “rocky ground” (vv. 16-17). This is the person who hears the word and seems to accept it. They seem like Christians, but it doesn’t last. The word never takes root in their lives. When pressure and persecution come, the person falls away. It says that they “receive (the word) with joy.” They’re excited about Jesus and enjoy hanging out with their new Christian friends. Maybe they get baptized and join a church.
But then persecution sets in. Maybe it’s from family members or old friends who make fun of them and stop wanting to hang out with them. In other countries, it could be more violent. The government might threaten to throw you in jail or worse. Whatever it is, they begin to pay a price for following Jesus. There comes a point when following Jesus is more trouble than it’s worth. Slowly they distance themselves from their Christian friends and stop going to church.
This person received the word with joy, but their joy was short-lived and shallow. Persevering through persecution reveals the depth and genuineness of our joy in Jesus.
The third response to the word is the seed that’s choked out by thorns (v. 18-19). This person hears the word, but ultimately the cares of the world are too consuming. The distractions of the world suffocate the word in their lives. It might mean that they’re poor and overwhelmed with anxiety about paying the rent, or they’re rich and consumed with getting more and more stuff. Poverty or wealth can strangle our faith. Poverty can lead us to think that Jesus isn’t truly good. Wealth can lead us to think that Jesus isn’t truly enough.
Many of us would say we’re somewhere in the middle between poverty and wealth. But we must realize that the middle class of America is wealthier than almost everyone in the world. The “deceitfulness of riches” makes us think that we can’t be happy unless we have more. It makes us find our identity in what we consume – what we wear, what we drive, where we live, what phone is in our pocket, instead of in who we follow. Riches can quickly turn our attention away from Jesus and his kingdom and onto ourselves and our stuff.
The imagery of a thorn is instructive. A thorn doesn’t choke suddenly, but gradually, almost unknowingly. Our desires for wealth and comfort and prosperity and the toys of this world will slowly, imperceptibly, choke God’s word out of our life.
Don’t miss the starkness of Jesus’ point here. Loving the world, money, or anything else more than Christ will send us to hell. Our “desires” reveal what’s in our hearts. A heart full of the word is full of desires for Christ. A heart full of the world is full of desires for the world. Any desire that surpasses our desire for Jesus can become a deadly desire. Anytime a good thing becomes an ultimate thing, we’re in danger of choking out the word.
These middle two soils compel us to pause and “examine ourselves to see if we’re in the faith” (2 Cor. 13:5). They show us that not everyone who starts out well finishes well. They reveal to us that not everyone who professes Christ is a Christian. What’s called “easy-believism” is rampant in our churches. This is illustrated by the statement, “Just say this prayer, and you’ll be saved.” But then a year or two or twenty go by and it becomes clear that that person was never truly converted to Christ.
When George Whitefield, the great evangelist from the First Great Awakening in the 18th century, was asked how many people were saved after one of his meetings, he said, “We’ll see in a few years.” His point wasn’t that people have to earn their salvation, but that it takes time for true salvation to be demonstrated.
These middle two soils serve as an encouragement to persevere in the faith. They don’t teach that someone can truly believe but then lose their salvation. They simply teach that those who fall away never accepted the word to begin with. This is why churches should be careful in who they affirm as genuine believers by not practicing spontaneous baptism, by practicing meaningful membership, and by disciplining members who live in unrepentant sin. New Testament scholar Craig Blomberg says that the number of people who leave the faith tells us that “we should be very cautious about assuming those around us who claim Christ necessarily are true followers. Only with hindsight will we be able to determine that for sure.”
How Do We Know If We’re “Good Soil”?
The fourth response to the kingdom is the “good soil” (v. 20). This person hears the word, receives it, and then their life begins to bear the fruit of the kingdom of God. The fruit will look different in each person, but there will be fruit. There are several things we should look for if we want to be assured that we’re “good soil.”
First, we must believe the right things about Jesus. “Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God” (1 Jn. 4:15). “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved” (Rom. 10:9).
Second, we must be close to Jesus. We must have a growing love and affection for him. We must have intimacy with him. We must see him as more valuable than anything else in the world. We must want to be around him, serve him, worship him, and spread his word. Psalm 73:25-26, “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.”
Third, we must obey Jesus. “Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (3:35). “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15). “By this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 Jn. 2:3). Growing levels of obedience to Jesus reveal that his word has found good soil in our lives.
And fourth, we must love one another. “All people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (Jn. 13:35). “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar, for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1 Jn. 4:20-21).
Which kind of soil are you? How have you received the word of the gospel? Is there discernible fruit in your life? Ask someone else this question because we’re not the best mirrors of ourselves – we need others to help us truly see ourselves.
The Mystery of the Kingdom
The parable of the sower helps us understand why some people accept Jesus’ word and others don’t. The next set of verses contain several shorter parables meant to help us understand the mysterious nature of the kingdom of God (vv. 21-34).
The first section (vv. 21-25) isn’t really a parable as much as a few short proverbial sayings. The point of verses 21-22 is simple. God’s intent is to reveal himself, not just conceal himself. He sent Jesus to reveal himself and Jesus spoke in parables to reveal how the kingdom works to those who accept his word. God wants to reveal the secrets of his kingdom to everyone who is close to Jesus.
But, as verse 23 points out again, God’s light comes to those who have ears that hear. God reveals the truth of Jesus and his kingdom to those who’re truly listening and comprehending what Jesus is saying.
This is why Jesus then commands that we listen carefully in verse 24. Luke’s version says, “Consider carefully how you listen” (8:18). It is possible to have ears and fail to hear, to “hear but not understand” (Mk. 4:12). Jesus even says that if we listen well, we’ll be given more, but if we listen poorly, even what we think we have will be taken away (vv. 24b-25). The verbs here are passive, so again Jesus is saying that understanding the kingdom of God isn’t a human capacity that some are born with and some aren’t. Hearing and understanding Jesus’ word is an ability created by God in the heart of every believer.
We should therefore pray earnestly for ourselves when we hear and read the word of God. We won’t understand unless God enables us to understand. This doesn’t mean we have no responsibility to listen well. Jesus commands us to “Pay attention to what we hear” (v. 24). There are things we must do in order to hear and understand. This is why I’ve been giving away the little booklet Listen Up! A Practical Guide to Listening to Sermons. Listening to a sermon isn’t like listening to a lecture or watching a TV show. Christopher Ash gives us seven ingredients for healthy sermon listening. He talks about going to church expecting God to speak, reading the passage being preached ahead of time, praying for the preacher, praying for yourself, and not coming to the sermon exhausted if you can avoid it.
The relationship between our listening and understanding and God helping us listen and understand is a profound mystery. We must ask God to help us hear, and we must “Pay attention to what we hear” with all our might.
The Parable of the Seed Growing
In verses 26-32, Jesus gives two short parables on the mysterious nature of the kingdom. The first one (vv. 26-29) is about the ability of the seed of God’s word to grow by itself without human help. Apart from sowing, the only human activity here is waiting in faith for the harvest to come. The seed of the kingdom has innate ability to “sprout and grow” so that the farmer “knows not how” (v. 27). The seed of the word of God contains within itself the power of generation and the ability to grow in an orderly way (v. 28). Jesus’ point is that the seed, like the gospel, has the ability to prosper by itself. Once it’s sown, a process is set in motion that leads to harvest.
The lesson here for us is that Jesus’ disciples must sleep and wake in humble confidence that God’s gospel will grow into a fruitful harvest. The growth will be imperceptible but sure. It will be slow but steady. It will be imperceptible at first but create a harvest eventually. So we must trust the inherent power of the gospel to do God’s work in the world. God doesn’t need us to come up with better methods. He calls us to sleep and wake and wait for the word to do its work.
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
Jesus then gives the parable of the mustard seed (vv. 30-32). The main point is that, though the kingdom of God is currently in the world in a tiny and insignificant way, it’ll one day be large and unmistakable.
The Jews had to be thinking, “How could the coming glorious kingdom of God have anything to do with this tiny band of disciples?” Jesus’ answer is, “First, a tiny seed, later the large tree.” The smallness of the movement at the beginning doesn’t mean it’s not of God. Small, tiny, and insignificant beginnings don’t rule out a glorious and huge ending.
Mark’s Original Audience
Why does Mark include this material in his Gospel? To remind his readers, who were being burnt alive in Emperor Nero’s garden, that Jesus’ kingdom was meant to start small and end big, that it’s supposed to grow slowly and mysteriously, and that a harvest will come (v. 29).
The persecuted church in Rome needed to be reminded that not everyone, in fact, most people will not accept Jesus’ word. Jesus’ explanation of his parables helped them understand why they’re being persecuted: the word of Jesus is concealed from those who hear and don’t believe his word.
They also needed the warning that endurance is a mark of true discipleship (vv. 16-17). Those who fall away from the faith when persecution comes never truly accepted the word, no matter how well they started.
Mark writes to encourage his readers to listen to the word and receive it and persevere in it and allow it to bear fruit in their lives. The mysterious nature of Jesus and his word must not keep us from patiently and intently listening to him and following him through every trial.