Mark 4:14-20
The Mystery of the Kingdom (2) – The Kingdom Allegorised
The detail in the parable of the sower was probably part of the artistic design of the storyteller, a way to build up a sense of anticipation in preparation for the barb in the conclusion. It probably served no other purpose than that.
Mark’s text, however, provides an allegoric interpretation. Each of the details was given specific meaning. Most scholars think that this allegorical interpretation was the fruit of the reflection of the early Christian communities, an illustration of their constant search to find meaning in their own experience, against the background of the teaching of Jesus. Their interpretation gives insight into their own questions.
Mark 4:14-20 – The Parable as Allegory
14 The sower sows the word. 15 The ones beside the track where he sowed the word are those who, as soon as they hear, Satan comes along immediately and takes away from them the word that was sown. 16 The ones like the seed sown on the rocky area are those who when they hear the word, immediately receive it joyfully, 17 but they do not persevere. When trouble or persecution happens, they immediately fall away. 18Then there are those others sown with the thistles. These hear the word, 19 but the preoccupations of the world, the delusions of wealth and other attractions come along and smother the word, and they yield no harvest. 20 Those sown on fertile soil are those who hear the word, take it to themselves and bear fruit, one thirty, one sixty and another a hundredfold.The text did not indicate the content of the word sown by the sower. Obviously, it was the word of Jesus. But it is important not to spiritualise the word beyond recognition. Jesus’ message as relayed so far by Mark was clear: Jesus responded to the human dignity of the dispossessed and marginalised. In the process he encountered the opposition of those with vested interests in the status quo, some priests, some scribes and some Pharisees.
The interpretation identified four categories of response, familiar not just to Jesus but equally to the early Markan community.
The first category, by far probably the largest, was comprised of people who saw no significant attraction in what Jesus was doing, people whom the message failed to touch. Among these were many of the general population, but also significantly the priests, scribes and Pharisees encountered in the narrative so far.
Isaiah attributed their hardness of heart, or their inability to hear the word, to the predisposition of God. The allegorical explanation attributed it to the activity of Satan. Both were ways of trying to come to terms with what to them was otherwise unexplainable
The second category seemed to refer more to disciples who fell away under pressure. The word translated as fall away means literally “to be scandalised”. It would occur again in the narrative where it would specifically refer to “losing faith in the vision” of Jesus, and would be seen as a danger particularly for the close disciples under threat of persecution. Judas was perhaps a classic illustration of this category, first attracted and then alienated.
The third category was comprised of people whose lives were without fruit. In the explanation their lack of fruitfulness was put down to their being distracted from the vision of Jesus. The subsequent narrative would illustrate this category by the rich man unable to give away his possessions and to come and follow Jesus.
The fourth category, those who bear fruit, even the hundredfold, was obviously meant to refer to the disciples who responded to the vision, longing for it, intuiting it to lie in the direction indicated by Jesus, and prepared to risk all to achieve it. Later in the narrative Jesus would promise that disciples who would leave everything and follow him would received a hundred times more in this world, homes, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and lands – with persecution, specifically through their belonging to the community of disciples (10:28-31).
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