30 He also said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
The Use of Parables
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition, copyright © 1989, 1993 the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
What to do with this educator’s commentary
This commentary invites you as a teacher to engage with and interpret the passage. Allow the text to speak first. The commentary suggests that you ask yourself various questions that will aid your interpretation. They will help you answer for yourself the question in the last words of the text: ‘what does this mean?’
This educator’s commentary is not a ‘finished package’. It is for your engagement with the text. You then go on to plan how you enable your students to work with the text.
Both you and your students are the agents of interpretation. The ‘Worlds of the Text’ offer a structure, a conversation between the worlds of the author and the setting of the text; the world of the text; and the world of reader. In your personal reflection and in your teaching all three worlds should be integrated as they rely on each other.
In your teaching you are encouraged to ask your students to engage with the text in a dialogical way, to explore and interpret it, to share their own interpretation and to listen to that of others before they engage with the way the text might relate to a topic or unit of work being studied.
Structure of the commentary:
See the general introduction to Mark.
Text & textual features
Characters & setting
Ideas / phrases / concepts
Questions for the teacher
The world in front of the text
Questions for the teacher
Meaning for today / challenges
Church interpretations & usage
The World Behind the Text
See general introduction to Mark.
The world of the text
Text & textual features
A feature of Mark’s Gospel is that the author continually portrays Jesus as a teacher and this is true for the whole of Chapter 4.
This chapter is the central teaching section of Mark’s Gospel.
This chapter demonstrated Jesus teaching through the use of parables. This way of teaching was not unique to Jesus and it was used by many other rabbis/teachers at this time. However, what was unique about Jesus’ use of parables was that they were about the Kingdom/Reign of God. Jesus never said what the Kingdom of God was but rather only what it was like through the use of these imaginative stories. Altogether, the parables represent about one third of Jesus’ recorded teachings.
The word ‘parable’ has its origins in the Hebrew word ‘mashal’ which refers to an illustrative story with a puzzle or riddle. Parables were descriptive stories taken from everyday life of the audience. Therefore, one would expect them to be easily accessible, however, the riddle or link to an unfamiliar idea would confront or bewilder the listener and invite them into a new way of thinking and being in the world.
Parables of the kingdom such as this one, hold in tension the listeners view of the kingdom and the literal event, experience or thing it is being compared to.
Parables include such features as
a) repetition
b) contrast
c) reversal of expectations
d) folkloric threesome and,
e) emphasis or climax around the last character in the series.
A folkloric threesome refers to the use of three characters or incidents or events. This is often found in children’s literature eg Three Blind Mice, Goldilocks and the Three Bears etc. Along with the numbers seven, ten and twelve, the number three is considered to be one of the ‘perfect numbers’ in Scripture. The number three signifies completeness and is used to ‘point’ to what is believed to be real and true.
In the parables, Jesus used fiction to encode what was wrong in society, introduced a new way of thinking and then proposed another way of acting in the world. He invited the listeners to see things in a way not seen before. The twist in the story shocked and disarmed the listener in order to open new meanings about the Kingdom of God.
The Parable of the Mustard seed is one of three parable about seeds in this chapter. The three parables are:
Listeners are invited to consider how the kingdom of God is like the growth of a common, weed-like seed.
For more information see parables (key biblical understandings).
Characters & Setting
The setting for this story takes place in Galilee. A considerable crowd has gathered on the shore so Jesus sets out on a boat to enable him to address the large crowd. Three times in the first two verses of Chapter 4, the author informs the reader that Jesus is ‘beside the sea.’
Also present are Jesus’ closest friends, the disciples as well as scribes. The scribes, who had travelled up from Jerusalem to Galilee, were theological specialists, who had heard about Jesus and his teachings. The scribes are described as being hostile (3:22-30) towards Jesus and they accuse him of being evil and possessed by Beelzebul.
Ideas/phrases/concepts
Mustard Seed
The mustard seed is not the smallest of seeds nor does it grow to become the biggest of trees. In Palestine, the mustard bush grows to about 2-3 metres. It grows vigorously and is known for being invasive. The original audience on hearing this parable would have been bewildered to hear of someone deliberately sowing seeds for a plant that was already growing wild and freely available.
Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of God, as proclaimed by Jesus in the Gospel of Mark, is one that gives hope and assurance as all living creatures can find refuge in the Kingdom of God.
Trees
In the Hebrew Scriptures, great trees were sometimes used as symbols of power and powerful empires (eg Daniel 4:20-23 & Ezekiel 17:22-23).
Birds of the Air
In the Hebrew Scriptures, the ‘birds of the air’ represented gentiles (eg Daniel 4:20-23 & Ezekiel 17:22-23). In Mark’s Gospel, the Kingdom will embrace members of every nation as there is room for all to find a home.
Questions for the teacher:
The world in front of the text
Questions for the teacher:
Please reflect on these questions before reading this section and then use the material below to enrich your responsiveness to the text.
Meaning for today/challenges
Mark’s Gospel emphasises the struggle of disciples to look beyond themselves to really ‘see’ and ‘hear’ what is happening in the world. This is true of people today. The parables contrast different ways of living in this world. They invite the listener to reflect upon their own attitudes and behaviours and then challenges the listener to change their way of thinking and being in the world. It invites the listener to make a decision to live out the Gospel teachings in order to bring about God’s dream for the world in their times.
In a world of wars, suffering, violence and pain, some people ask the question ‘where is God?” This parable reminds disciples (then as well as now) that the absence of visible and dramatic signs does not mean that God is not working in our world. Just as God was at work (beyond our eyes) in the mustard seed, the Kingdom of God is active and at work in the present time.
One feature of Mark’s Gospel is that the past, present and future all flow together and this is evident in this teaching. This parable is contrasting the small beginnings of the Reign of God with the great conclusions at the end of time. However, in between the past and the future is the present and it is in the present the Reign of God is active and growing.
Church interpretation and usage
In one of his weekly addresses to the crowd in St Peter’s Square, Pope Francis, drawing upon the Parable of the Mustard Seed, said that people should look beyond initial appearances of the apparent insignificant mustard seed. He said that by looking deeper one will see the presence of God at work. Pope Francis told the gathered crowd that God “is always at work in the soil of our life.” He added that this is our confidence to go forward into every day.
Liturgical usage
In the liturgical calendar, the Parable of the Mustard Seed is used in both the Sunday Cycle and the Weekday Cycles of readings.
Year B – Sunday Gospel
Mark 4: 26-34 is the Gospel of the 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time. The Gospel includes both the Parable of the Growing Seed and the Parable of the Mustard Seed.
Weekday Cycle
Mark 4: 26-34 is the Gospel for Friday of the 3rd Week of Ordinary Time.