Life Of Christ – Part 4

By Jonathan | June 29, 2015

Stories of the Kingdom

When learning about the teaching and ministry of Jesus, One always hears about his Parables. Parable is a funny word to describe a story, isn’t it? That’s probably because it is not an English word. In fact, it is two Greek words mushed together, παραβολη´. It comes from Para which means “along side of,” and Ballo which means “to throw, or to cast.” So the word parable literally translated to English means, “to cast along side of.” Now, how can this help us understand the purpose of parables?

I was taught in Sunday School and VBS as a kid that Parables are “earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.” While that is all well and good, I’m not sure that captures the heart of what is going on in a Parable told by Jesus in first century Palestine. Make no mistake, these are not just “earthly stories with a heavenly meaning.” They are stories of the Kingdom of God/Heaven. Jesus is trying to tell “those with ears to hear” something about this Kingdom of God that he has been talking about since the beginning of his teaching ministry (Mk 1:15). Hidden within these cryptic messages is the ambience of hope.

Often, people study these narratives trying to show how the Kingdom of God is going to be like or similar to something in our world. This simile approach to these often agrarian accounts misses the hidden agenda of Jesus and the whole point of parables. He used them as a way to reveal truth about his Kingdom yet conceal it from those who were his enemies or “those on the outside.” You don’t believe me that Jesus would do this? I encourage you to reread Mark 4. For these are His own words in Mark 4:11-12. Parables were for those who posses the secret or mystery for initiation, mainly that Jesus was the promised messiah.

So if they are not to compare two alike things despite that all familiar phrase, “the Kingdom of God is like. . .” then how do we expose their meaning? Well – they are for comparing two things but to show how they are different rather than how they are the same. Let me propose to you this formula to follow when reading Parables. 1 common story + 1 odd/or shocking element = how the Kingdom of God will be different from Israel and the world today.
For example let’s use the Parable of the Sower at the beginning of Mark 4.

3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

In this Kingdom story, Jesus tells a story of a sower who goes to sow his seed. That is the common or obvious element. Did you catch what would have been shocking to a bunch of farmers and local residents in this agrarian culture? Where is he sowing his seed? The sower in this story is (almost haphazardly) throwing his seed where he knows the soil hasn’t been prepped. Any good farmer would not waste his seed by throwing it along the path or in shallow soil. Rather, he would put it where it would do its most good. This farmer has wasted 75% of his seed (only one soil was good, the other three were not).

The subsequent verses contain Jesus’ interpretation on the different soil and the seed, which is often where preachers will go since the majority of the interpretation given focuses on the soil. Certainly, this is a valid use of the parable and even indicative for Christians as they self-asses their spiritual vitality. But perhaps Jesus is really trying to point more at the sower than the soil. Perhaps he explains the soil just to show where a “Sower” in the Kingdom of God will spread the word. This person spreads it everywhere.

The seed is the word of God, the word of God is what reveals him to his creation. In fact, the word of God is what made creation, and Jesus is that word. Up till now, that revelation has been hijacked and held close to the chest by his people, the Israelites. In this parable, however, Jesus is saying that the word or revelation of God is no longer just for the Israelites. Perhaps now it is for all people everywhere and a person in the Kingdom of God is someone who will share the revelation with everyone. The ethnic identity as a Jew is no longer the marker for being a citizen of God’s Kingdom. Now, that identity is by what kind of sower you aim to be. Do you sow like the Jews, keeping the word of God to yourself? Or will you be someone who shares it non-prejudicially?

Now those of us who are already believers and followers of Christ say, okay we already know that. Most of us are gentiles anyways. But how many of us live this mentality out? How many of us try to hold the keys to the kingdom as if we are God’s bouncer? Perhaps you withhold from those of a different socio-economic class, education, gender, or even national citizenry.

But, Jesus in this parable is saying that the news the “people of God” have held about this good God have been held by them long enough, and now He is redrawing the line for who is in and who is out. So now, I ask you not what kind of soil are you, but rather what kind of sower are you?