This section of Mark's account records Jesus' words to His disciples that the multitudes did not hear.
4:10 Mark alone noted that those who asked Jesus to explain the parables included the Twelve plus other disciples (v. 10). Evidently their question concerned why Jesus was using parables to teach as well as what they meant. He could have been clearer.
4:11-12 Jesus drew a distinction between those who accepted His teaching, such as the Twelve, and those who rejected it, such as the scribes and Pharisees. Those "outside"were those outside the circle of discipleship. God was giving those who welcomed Jesus' teaching new revelation about the coming messianic kingdom. He was withholding that revelation from those who rejected Him. The parables were the vehicle of that revelation. The Holy Spirit enabled the receptive to understand this enigmatic revelation, but He made it incomprehensible to the unbelieving. The parabolic method acted as a filter to separate those two types of people.
God was doing through Jesus what He had done through Isaiah centuries earlier. Jesus' quotation of Isaiah 6:9-10 drew this comparison. We might add that this is always the double effect of revelation (cf. 1 Cor. 2:6-16). God uses it to enlighten the receptive, but He also uses it to befuddle the unreceptive. Their inability to comprehend is a divine judgment for their unbelief (cf. Rom. 11:25-32). Further enlightenment requires positive reception of present revelation. This knowledge is very helpful for Jesus' disciples. It would have been an encouragement to Mark's original readers as they shared the gospel with others and noted the two responses.
"The judgment is a merciful one. The parable which the cold-hearted multitudes hear without understanding they remember, because of its penetrating and impressive form; and when their hearts become able to receive its meaning, the meaning will become clear to them. Meanwhile they are saved from the guilt of rejecting plain truth."107
4:13 Jesus believed that the disciples should have understood the parable of the soils. It is, after all, one of the easier ones to understand.
"The blindness of men is so universal that even the disciples are not exempt from it."108
4:14-20 Jesus did not give His disciples several hermeneutical principles by which they could understand the parables. He gave them a sample interpretation as a pattern that they could apply in understanding other parables.
The seed represents the word or message of God that the sower proclaims. People make a negative or a positive response when they hear this message. They may make a negative response for any one of three reasons. Regardless of the reason, a negative response proves unproductive in their lives. A positive response, however, will produce spiritual fruit, but the fruit will be in varying amounts depending on various factors.
Some interpreters want to know which soils represent believers and which unbelievers. This was not Jesus' point in the parable. Both believers and unbelievers need to welcome the word gladly rather than allowing its enemies to make it unfruitful. The enemy in the first instance is Satan (v. 15). In the second it is the flesh (vv. 16-17), and in the third it is the world (vv. 18-19).
The word that Jesus was sowing was the good news concerning the coming messianic kingdom. The people He addressed gave these characteristic responses. However these are typical responses that have marked the proclamation of God's Word throughout history. Mark's original readers would have found encouragement in this parable to receive the Word of God as good soil and to beware of the enemies that limit Christians' fruitfulness.
"Words may be sound and lively enough, but it is up to each hearer to let them sink in and become fruitful. If he only hears without responding--without doing something about it and committing himself to their meaning--then the words are in danger of being lost, or of never coming to anything. The whole story thus becomes a parable about the learner's responsibility, and about the importance of learning with one's whole will and obedience, and not merely with one's head."109
Jesus' statements in this pericope appear throughout the other Gospels. Verse 21 occurs in Matthew 5:15 and in Luke 11:33. Verse 22 is in Matthew 10:26 and in Luke 12:2. Verse 24 appears in Matthew 7:2 and in Luke 6:38. Verse 25 is also in Matthew 13:12 and 25:29 as well as in Luke 19:26. This phenomenon does not mean that this pericope lacks authenticity. It means that Jesus frequently used these expressions at other times during His teaching ministry as well as here. He was an itinerant preacher, and itinerant preachers often use the same messages with the same or similar words with different audiences.
4:21 Jesus continued his address to the inquiring disciples (cf. vv. 10-20). The lamp would have been a small clay dish with the edges pinched up to form a spout. A small piece of fabric typically hung over the spout from the body of the lamp serving as a wick. These household lamps usually held only a teaspoon or two of oil and rested on pieces of wood or plaster protruding from a wall. The basket was a common container that held about a peck (one-quarter bushel).
The lamp seems to represent the illumination that Jesus had just given about the purpose of the parables and the meaning of the parable of the soils. He did not want His disciples to conceal what He had just told them but to broadcast it. In His day this involved revelation about the impending kingdom particularly. In the wider sphere of application it would include all that God has revealed (cf. Ps. 119:105).
Another interpretation sees Jesus as the light that His disciples were not to conceal.110Jesus elsewhere spoke of Himself as the light of the world (John 8:12). Nevertheless in this context the light seems to represent revelation. Light has both metaphorical meanings in Scripture.
4:22 The former verse expressed a parable. This one explained a literal reality. As a principle, people do not hide precious things forever. They only conceal them temporarily, and then they bring them out into view. If they remain hidden forever, they are virtually lost. People conceal them to protect them from others who would abuse and misappropriate them. For example, people who own expensive jewelry or art treasures may keep them locked up for safe keeping part of the time, butthey display them publicly at other times. Keeping them locked up privately all the time is a misuse of their purpose.
The disciples should not conclude that because God had previously hidden the characteristics about the kingdom that Jesus was revealing He wanted them to remain unknown. The time had come to proclaim them publicly.
"The kingdom of God, as embodied in Jesus' Person and ministry, was now a veiled revelation to those without, but He intended that later it should receive a glorious manifestation through the ministry of His followers."111
4:23 What Jesus had told the multitudes (v. 9) He now repeated specifically for His disciples. They could hear. They needed to use that ability by paying attention to what Jesus had just said.
4:24 The disciples needed to consider carefully what Jesus was telling them. The degree to which they gave heed to what He said would be the degree to which they would profit from it. God would graciously bless attentive disciples with even greater benefit than the effort they expended in heeding His words. Their blessing would be disproportionately large.
4:25 If a person works hard to obtain something good, he or she normally receives other good things in addition. If a disciple pays attention to and assimilates the revelation God has given, God will increase his or her capacity to understand and appropriate more revelation. However this principle works the other way too. The person who does not use his or her ability to understand and respond to God's revelation appropriately loses that ability. The disciples needed to use their understanding of Jesus and the kingdom by proclaiming the gospel or they would lose their ability and their understanding. This is a call for disciples to continue growing (cf. 2 Pet. 3:18, the key verse of that epistle).
