Lent 2026 Day 5: Mon 23 Feb
Mark 4:10-12, 33-34
10 As soon as Jesus was alone with the Twelve and those around Him, they asked Him about the parable. 11 He replied, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside everything is expressed in parables, 12 so that, ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’”
… 33 With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them, to the extent that they could understand. 34 He did not tell them anything without using a parable. But privately He explained everything to His own disciples.
It's clear that if the disciples had problems understanding what Jesus was saying in his parables, then the ordinary folk might also find them difficult, too. So why would Jesus want to leave people confused? He has an audience, many of whom have come from miles away to listen to him and witness the healings, castings out and miracles he performed, ready and willing to hear what he has to say, and he confuses them!
I am a little confused as to why Jesus did that. Various theologians and armchair pundits have expressed their viewpoints on this. If I imagined myself as one of the crowd that day I might just go home and tell the family I’d heard and seen some amazing things but there was this story the teacher told about a sower carelessly throwing seed all over the place, amongst rocks and thorns and on shallow ground. Only some of it landed where it should. What a waste of good seed – what was the sower doing? Surely, he’d prepare the soil first or at least throw it where it could grow…
…hold on, is there something deeper going on here? Have I missed something? What did my travelling companions make of it? It’s clearly not about a second-rate workman scattering seed wildly, but something deeper. But what?
Where do you stand with Jesus – on the inside or with the crowd?
If it’s the crowd, what are you doing there?!
Father God, you sow good seed and I am the ground into which you sow. Break the hard ground, remove the rocks, clear the thorns and enable me to grow to abundance, I pray. Amen.
Paul