Following The Way of Christ: The Gospel of Mark: The Harrow and the Harvest
Mark 4:1–20; Jeremiah 29:4–14
Dr Jeff Keuss, Professor of Christian Ministry, Theology, and Culture, SPU
Jesus chooses to teach in parables in order to enlarge our hearts and minds through wonder to show us how large the Kingdom of God is becoming. The Gospel of Mark gives us a guide to the importance of parables through grounding us to the “good soil” needed for the harvest of God’s love for the world.
“Again” – Parables: Flesh Becomes Words (Mark 4:1)
Parables as moving from Fear to Wonder
5 reasons that Israel used Story to talk about God (Brueggemann, The Creative World):
Concrete (“about particular places in particular times”) – Jesus will always use materials and events around him and the community
Open-Ended (“the community was not concerned to communicate static meanings or flat memories to Israel’s new generation. Rather, it was concerned about creating a context, evoking a perception, forming a frame of reference which went beyond convention…”)
Practice of Imagination (“the listener is expected to work as resiliently as the teller…”) In telling parables Jesus wants us to participate and not be passive – we need to work at what the story means and how it is to be lived out.
Experiential (“stories are told by participants… they tell what happened to us…what we have seen and heard”)
Bottom-Line (“the story is told and left… Israel understands them not as instruments of something else but as castings of reality”)
Harrowing – Parable of the Soils (Mark 4:1-9; 10-20)
Four Soils:
Path soil -> Never germinates and birds gather it up
Rocky soil - > Rootless -> Fast growing but withers in sunlight
Thorny soil -> seeds grew up but offers no grain - > grows into the weeds but not the harvest
“Good” soil - > Tilled and ready for deep planting - > ready to bear fruit for others
What it means to be “good soil”:
Understand your rocks and thorns
Be aware of when and where the seeds fall
Deeper soil -> Deeper faith
The Harvest is not just for you!
Harvest – “Build houses and live in them, plant gardens and eat what they produce” (Jer. 29:5)