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Would anyone like to comment on these verses?
10 When he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 He said to them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those outside, everything is in parables,
12 so that although they look they may look but not see,
and although they hear they may hear but not understand,
so they may not repent and be forgiven.”
Yes! These verses are so puzzling to me! Why would he not want people to repent and be forgiven?
I like all the parables of explaining the Kingdom of God. I often tell my kids that whatever is done in secret will be revealed.
After reading this chapter my prayer is verses 24-25, to listen, understand, and receive more.
If we look at the overall message of the Bible, God loves everyone and wants everyone to be saved. “God so loved the world.” “…to whoever believes in Him”. Jesus weeping over Jerusalem, etc. Perhaps these verses (Mark 4:10-12) are saying, “The Scriptures have already given people plenty of reason to believe. Some people are just so hard hearted and closed minded that no matter what they see or hear, they aren’t going to make a true effort with an open heart to understand it.” Kind of like in one gospel where some people wanted Jesus to perform some miracles for them (We’ll believe in you if you perform some good miracles!) . But he refused, saying they already had enough evidence. Also reminds me of Romans 1:20 where it says that if you look around at what has been made, that is plenty of evidence of a Creator. I think of the different attitudes with which people attend church. Some people expectantly ask, “Lord, what to do you have to tell me and teach me today…I’m open!” Other people come with a critical attitude, “I wonder if the pastor will be respectful enough to wear a suit today. Heaven forbid if the pastor quote from the Message Bible.” etc.
Here’s my take on these verses. First of all, Jesus is quoting Isaiah, so from his perspective, he’s simply saying Isaiah’s words which applied in Isaiah’s time are also being prophetically fulfilled in this day. That means we should look to the passage in Isaiah to draw out the meaning.
Here’s what I see:
1. God is telling Isaiah exactly what will happen: the people he speaks to WILL listen but not understand, see and not perceive.
2. The consequence of Isaiah’s speaking will increase the callousness of their hearts and deafen and blind them.
That’s what will happen, and it did.
Looking at verse nine, I see irony in these statements from God. Imagine Isaiah starting every sermon or oracle with “Listen to me, but don’t pay attention to me, or understand me. Just go ahead and be spiritually insensitive.” God is saying to Isaiah, you actually might as well say that, because I know the hearts of “these people” (no longer his people).
Likewise, the end of verse ten seems to be laced with sarcasm that also reflects God’s understanding of the hearts of the people as stated above. Let me add a phrase to the end of verse ten that gets at what I think is happening. “… their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed, and they certainly wouldn’t want that would they?”
I remember the one of the first times Pastor Joel Dombrow preached at BCC. (When Willamette Christian Church was merging with BCC.) He preached on the 4 soils (Mark 4:3-8). He said that ONLY the seeds planted in the good soil have salvation. The others do not have salvation. I was sitting next to Pam. After the service, I asked her about that. She said that different people have different ways of interpreting that passage. (We did not continue our conversation. We had an agreement not to talk at length with each other at church since we felt it was our calling to minister to new, lonely, troubled, etc. people at church.) One question would be: is Jesus preaching to non-beliievers, or is he preaching to believers? Or both? Depending on which audience he is addressing, would his message be interpreted differently, especially regarding salvation?
I think Pam’s answer was very well said. There is a group of preachers/commentators who do look at this parable as being about salvation. Those who are “reformed” tend to treat the parable as Joel did. Let’s assume for a minute that the parable is, in fact, only about describing those who are saved. This leads to the question, what does it mean to be saved? I think the reason Joel and others who teach from the reformed point of view say that it is only the final seeds and soil that are saved is because they see salvation as granted to those God chooses, and this would always result in a fruitful outcome.
However, there are plenty of people who look at Romans 10:9, where Paul says, “… because 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.” And that’s their understanding of salvation. If they think this parable is strictly about salvation, then they would say that only those described by the first soil are not saved. Even though the others have not necessarily produced good fruit, they have still made that first confession which means they are saved, even if just barely.
I think that there is a certain amount of sense in looking at the fruitful soil as both the desired effect of sowing the word and the best picture of what a true conversion looks like. But I don’t personally think this parable is about defining who is saved and who isn’t.
This parable is in a section of Mark where a number of parables about the Kingdom of God are gathered together, and I think that’s what this parable is about. Specifically, Jesus is describing how the kingdom that he is introducing to the world is being received. There is not 100% acceptance. There are reasons why that is so, as he tells his disciples in his explanation. Certainly, when they are out preaching the word, this will be useful for them to remember. Same goes for us.
Two other points I would make about this parable: 1) many (most?) commentators never even talk about salvation pictures when discussing the parable; 2) if you limit the discussion to who is saved, you miss out on the lesson that is there for all of us, regarding what we do with all the teachings of the word — we may well be fruitful in the kingdom, but resisting or lacking fruit when it comes to a particular teaching. I may be loving my neighbor, for example, but in a wrong relationship with authorities.
Thank you for hosting this discussion, Jim. I may not comment much but I appreciate everyone’s input and encouragement to be consistent in this reading plan!
Thanks for letting us know you’re paying attention. Chime in as little or as often as you would like to.
I’m so glad to know you are on-board with us, Sandy!
I have some responses to the two issues being discussed, the interpretation of the parable of the soils and the quote from Isaiah in verse 12 but haven’t had time to write them. I will do so this evening.