Mark 4 — Who Then Is This?

Today’s Passage: Mark 4

From a boat pushed out onto the water, Jesus teaches the crowd in parables: the sower and his seed, the lamp on its stand, the seed that grows while the farmer sleeps, the mustard seed that starts smaller than the rest. To those who stay behind and ask, He explains the mystery of the kingdom. Then, when evening comes, He crosses the lake into a storm that He will silence with a single word. Seed and storm belong together, for the same voice that sows the word is the voice the sea obeys. And so the chapter ends on the very question the parables had been asking all along.

As you read, hold this: Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?

Mark 4:1–20 (BSB)

¹ Once again Jesus began to teach beside the sea, and such a large crowd gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people crowded along the shore. ² And He taught them many things in parables, and in His teaching He said, ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵ Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings, and they yielded no crop. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, grew up, and produced a crop—one bearing thirtyfold, another sixtyfold, and another a hundredfold.” ⁹ Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” ¹⁰ As soon as Jesus was alone with the Twelve and those around Him, they asked Him about the parable. ¹¹ He replied, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to those on the outside everything is expressed in parables, ¹² so that,

‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’”

¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? ¹⁴ The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵ Some are like the seeds along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶ Some are like the seeds sown on rocky ground. They hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But they themselves have no root, and they remain for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸ Others are like the seeds sown among the thorns. They hear the word, ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²⁰ Still others are like the seeds sown on good soil. They hear the word, receive it, and produce a crop—thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold.”

A boat, a crowded shore, and a story about seed: this is where Jesus begins, and the first word out of His mouth, “Listen!”, is the doorway into everything that follows. There are four soils in the tale but only one sower, and he is generous with all of them. The parable (παραβολή) parabolē, pronounced pa-ra-bo-LAY. Strong's G3850, parable; something thrown alongside for comparison. The word means something thrown alongside, an everyday picture set down next to an unseen truth so that the one lights up the other. A parable is not a riddle told to confuse, but it does more than decorate a lesson. It sorts the people who hear it. To those who lean in and ask, Jesus opens the mystery of the kingdom; to those content to watch from the outside, the very same story stays a tale about dirt and seed and nothing more. The picture you are handed turns out to be exactly the picture your heart was willing to follow. does not end with a tidy chart to fill in; it ends with a charge. If you have ears, then use them.

The mystery of the kingdom is given to those who draw near, while to those content to stay outside the same story remains only a riddle, one that confirms the hardness already in them, just as Isaiah’s word said it would. Then Jesus Himself unfolds the meaning. The seed is the word of God. Along the path, Satan comes and snatches it away. On the rocky ground it springs up fast and then withers under the heat, having no root. Among the thorns it is choked by the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the craving for other things. But in the good soil the word is heard and received, and it bears a harvest many times over. Mark will not let us lay the blame on the seed, for the seed is always good. The real question is quietly forming as we read: will you hear the One who is speaking?

Mark 4:21–34 (BSB)

²¹ Jesus also said to them, “Does anyone bring in a lamp to put it under a basket or under a bed? Doesn’t he set it on a stand? ²² For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be brought to light. ²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴ He went on to say, “Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and even more will be added to you. ²⁵ For whoever has will be given more. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.” ²⁶ Jesus also said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Night and day he sleeps and wakes, and the seed sprouts and grows, though he knows not how. ²⁸ All by itself the earth produces a crop—first the stalk, then the head, then grain that ripens within. ²⁹ And as soon as the grain is ripe, he swings the sickle, because the harvest has come.” ³⁰ Then He asked, “To what can we compare the kingdom of God? With what parable shall we present it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds sown upon the earth. ³² But after it is planted, it grows to be the largest of all garden plants and puts forth great branches, so that the birds of the air nest in its shade.” ³³ With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them, to the extent that they could understand. ³⁴ He did not tell them anything without using a parable. But privately He explained everything to His own disciples.

Four more pictures follow one after another: the lamp, the measure, the seed that grows on its own, and the mustard seed. The kingdom, like a lamp, is meant to be set out where it will shine. Like a measure, it gives back more to those who receive what they are given. Like the growing seed, it comes up by a power beyond anything the farmer understands or controls. And like the mustard seed, it begins as the smallest of things before it grows large enough to shelter many. That Jesus explained all of this privately to His disciples was a kindness to men still learning how to hear. The Sower Himself was in the boat with them, and they did not yet know who He was.

Mark 4:35–41 (BSB)

³⁵ When that evening came, He said to His disciples, “Let us cross to the other side.” ³⁶ After they had dismissed the crowd, they took Jesus with them, since He was already in the boat. And there were other boats with Him. ³⁷ Soon a violent windstorm came up, and the waves were breaking over the boat, so that it was being swamped. ³⁸ But Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on the cushion. So they woke Him and said, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?” ³⁹ Then Jesus got up and rebuked the wind and the sea. “Silence!” He commanded. “Be still!” And the wind died down, and it was perfectly calm. ⁴⁰ “Why are you so afraid?” He asked. “Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹ Overwhelmed with fear, they asked one another, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Now the Teacher of parables shows Himself to be the Lord of the deep. He is asleep in the stern, worn with real human weariness and resting in real trust, while all around Him the disciples are seized with panic. Their cry is a strange mixture of faith and accusation at once, “Teacher, don’t You care that we are perishing?” He rises and rebukes the wind and the sea just as He had rebuked the unclean spirits back in chapter one, and creation knows the voice of its Master and obeys.

Then a greater fear comes over them, and with it the question the whole chapter has been driving toward: Who then is this? Mark 4 does not close with a calmed sea and nothing more. It closes at the very place where true hearing begins, for the word they have been listening to all day now has a face. The Sower is seated in the stern. The sea itself obeys Him. The LORD of the old psalm is in the boat with them.