What is the meaning of the Parable of the Growing Seed (Mark 4:26-29)?
The first thing we notice about this parable is its similarity to the Parable of the Sower in Mark 4:2-9. In some ways, this parable expands on Jesus’ teaching of how the “good soil” (a receptive heart) receives the “seed” (the Word of God).
In the Parable of the Growing Seed, Jesus tells of a man who scatters seed on the ground and then allows nature to take its course. As the man who sowed the seed goes about his business day by day, the seed begins to have an effect. First, the seed sprouts; then it produces a stalk and leaves, then a head of grain, and, finally, fully developed kernels in the head. Jesus emphasizes that all of this happens without the man’s help. The man who scattered the seed cannot even fully understand how it happens—it is simply the work of nature. “All by itself the soil produces” (verse 28).
The parable ends with a harvest. As soon as the grain is ripe, the sickle is employed, and the seed is harvested. This happens at just the right time.
Jesus did not explain this parable, as He did some others. Instead, He left it to us to understand its meaning. Taking the seed to be the Word of God, as in Mark 4:14, we can interpret the growth of the plants as the working of God’s Word in individual hearts. The fact that the crop grows without the farmer’s intervention means that God can accomplish His purposes even when we are absent or unaware of what He’s doing. The goal is the ripened grain. At the proper time, the Word will bring forth its fruit, and the Lord of the harvest (Luke 10:2) will be glorified.
The truth of this parable is well illustrated in the growth of the early church: “I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow” (1 Corinthians 3:6). Just like a farmer cannot force a crop to grow, an evangelist cannot force spiritual life or growth on others.
To summarize the point of the Parable of the Growing Seed: “The way God uses His Word in the heart of an individual is mysterious and completely independent of human effort.” May we be faithful in “sowing the seed,” praying for a harvest, and leaving the results to the Lord!
What did Jesus mean when He said, “Peace, be still”?
Jesus utters the words “Peace, be still” in Mark 4:39 in the King James and New King James Versions as well as the English Standard Version. The wording is slightly different in other versions: “Quiet! Be still” (New International Version) and “Hush, be still” (New American Standard Bible).
Jesus’ command occurs near the end of Mark 4:35–41: “When evening had come, he said to them, ‘Let us go across to the other side.’ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?’ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, ‘Peace! Be still!’ And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. He said to them, ‘Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?’ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, ‘Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?’” (ESV).
“Peace, be still” is the command that Jesus used to calm a nighttime storm on the Sea of Galilee. The passage says that Jesus rebuked the storm—in other words, He told it to calm down in much the same way that a teacher might tell a classroom full of unruly students to calm down. The disciples were awestruck as the wind and waves actually obeyed! The authority Jesus showed gave them a clue as to who He really was.
On a closer reading, we find that it was not only the storm that was raging, but the disciples also. Jesus was asleep in the boat, and the disquieted disciples were filled with consternation: “The disciples woke him and said to him, ‘Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?’” (Mark 4:38). The disciples’ “raging” in the midst of the raging storm showed their lack of faith. Their question “Don’t you care?” was also an indignant affront to Jesus’ character. Of course Jesus cared for them. Jesus had said, “Let us go over to the other side,” so they should have known that they would make it. And He was with them, a fact that should have allayed fear.
Before we come down too hard on the disciples, we need to remember that they were just growing into their faith. While they may have questioned Jesus’ care for them, at least they had the idea that He could do something about the problem. This shows that they knew He had some extraordinary power and authority. If thirteen people are in a small boat in the middle of a raging storm, and twelve of them go to the thirteenth and say, “Please, do something about this storm,” that would indicate they felt the thirteenth man has some extraordinary abilities. Novelist Charles Dudley Warner quipped that “everybody talks about the weather, but nobody ever does anything about it.” Well, Jesus can actually do something about it, and He is the only one who can.
After rebuking the storm, Jesus issues a rebuke to the disciples as well: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” (Mark 4:40). In essence, He was also saying “Peace, be still” to the disciples. “Calm down. I was always in complete control.”
When we read the account of Jesus’ saying “Peace, be still” today, we need to remember that Jesus is always in control of our circumstances, and, when we trust Him, He will calm the raging inside our souls. When we find ourselves raging and tossing and turning on the inside, Philippians 4:6–7 tells us what to do: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” While it is great to see the storm around us calm down, it is even more important that our souls are calm in the midst of the storm. God has not promised to bring peace to every storm, but He has promised to give us peace through any storm if we will trust Him to take care of us.
The song “Sometimes He Calms the Storm” by Benton Kevin Stokes and Tony W. Wood beautifully communicate this truth:
Sometimes He calms the storm With a whispered “Peace, be still.” He can settle any sea, But it doesn’t mean He will.
Sometimes He holds us close And lets the wind and waves go wild; Sometimes He calms the storm, And other times He calms His child.
What is the meaning of the story of the woman with the issue of blood?
The story of the woman with the issue of blood can be found in Mark 5:24–34 and Luke 8:42–48. Though neither account is very long, Mark’s account provides a few more details than Luke’s.
The story of this woman takes place within a larger story. Jesus is on his way to a synagogue leader’s house to heal his dying daughter (see Mark 5:21–24) when an unnamed woman causes an interruption to His progress.
What we know about the woman is, first, she had a bleeding condition, and the issue had continued for twelve years. That’s a very long time. Second, she had spent all her money on treatments from many doctors, and nothing had helped; in fact, the blood issue had only grown worse (see Mark 5:25–26). We also know that Jewish Law declared her to be ceremonially unclean due to her bleeding issue (Leviticus 15:25-27). This meant that she would not have been permitted to enter the temple for Jewish religious ceremonies. According to the Law, anything or anyone she touched became unclean as well. The fact that she was in the crowd pressing around Jesus means that each person who bumped into her would have become unclean, too—including Jesus. But, after twelve years of suffering, she was obviously desperate for a miracle. “When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, ‘If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed’” (Mark 5:27–28).
As soon as the woman touches Jesus, her bleeding stops and she knows she’s been healed. In an instant, Jesus does what no doctor in twelve years had been able to. This proves the power of Christ, of course, but it also illustrates an important point about Jesus and the Law. In Leviticus 15:31 God says, “You must keep the Israelites separate from things that make them unclean, so they will not die in their uncleanness for defiling my dwelling place, which is among them.” In the Old Testament, the temple was where God dwelt among the Israelites, but in the New Testament, God dwelt among men in the person of Jesus Christ (see John 1:14). Through Jesus the penalties of the Law are reversed, and the contamination of this world had no effect on Christ. The woman did not make Jesus (God’s dwelling) unclean—He made her clean!
Jesus immediately responds to the woman who touched His clothing and was healed. People were pushing and pressing into Him from all over, yet He stops, turns, and asks, “Who touched my clothes?” (Mark 5:30). The disciples were incredulous, but Jesus knew that healing power had gone out of Him. We can’t “steal” a miracle from God. After the woman comes forward and explains herself, Jesus clears up any misconceptions about her healing, saying, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering” (Mark 5:34). God is moved to action by our faith, even when He’s in the middle of doing something else!
Jesus could have healed the woman and kept on walking to His original destination. Only He and the woman would have known what had taken place. But He didn’t do that. Jesus stopped what He was doing and acknowledged the result of this woman’s faith: her complete and instantaneous healing.
In Colossians 1:13, the apostle Paul describes salvation as God’s work of rescuing believers “from the kingdom of darkness” and transferring them “into the Kingdom of his dear Son” (NLT). This imagery of rescue and deliverance as moving people out of darkness into light appears throughout the book of Isaiah, and Paul may have borrowed from it (see Isaiah 9:1–2; 42:6–7; 58:10; 60:1–3).
The “kingdom of darkness” in Colossians 1:13 is alternatively rendered “domain of darkness” (ESV) and “dominion of darkness” (NIV). Bible scholars interpret Paul’s meaning in a couple of ways. For some, the kingdom of darkness represents a spiritual realm, or domain, where Satan heads a hostile resistance force against the kingdom of God and Jesus Christ. In this dark sphere, Satan holds the position of power, authority and rule over human hearts and other spiritual beings. Such an invisible kingdom is depicted by Paul in Ephesians 6:12: “For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places” (NLT).
Others view the kingdom of darkness more as a darkened, unregenerated condition in which Satan dominates the hearts and minds of sinful humanity. Before salvation, people’s minds are “full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him” (Ephesians 4:18, NLT; see also Romans 1:21). Unbelievers live under the rule of darkness in contrast to Christians “who live in the light” (Colossians 1:12, NLT; see also Romans 13:12–13; 1 John 2:10). Paul explained, “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!” (Ephesians 5:8, NLT).
At Paul’s conversion, Jesus said that He was sending Paul out as a servant to open people’s eyes “so they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and be given a place among God’s people, who are set apart by faith in me” (Acts 26:18, NLT).
The kingdom of darkness is a realm controlled by sin and rebellion toward God (1 John 1:6; 2:11; John 3:19). But the kingdom of Christ is the new home of believers. God relocates us from our country of origin to become “citizens of heaven” (Philippians 3:20, NLT) and “members of God’s family” (Ephesians 2:19, NLT). We are rescued from the dangerous and deadly dominion of darkness and transferred into the glorious light and fellowship of God’s kingdom, where Jesus Christ rules and reigns (1 John 1:7).
The kingdom of darkness is a domain dominated by death. The author of Hebrews explains that Satan has “the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14). “But God is so rich in mercy,” writes Paul, “and he loved us so much, that even though we were dead because of our sins, he gave us life when he raised Christ from the dead” (Ephesians 2:4–5, NLT). God rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and the power of death through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross. Our Savior’s death takes away sin’s curse of death that was on us (Galatians 3:13).
Jesus is “the light of the world,” and those who follow Him “will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12). Christ gives His “light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death” (Luke 1:79, NLT). If we receive God’s gift of salvation in Jesus Christ, we pass “from death to life” (John 5:24; see also 1 John 3:14; Romans 6:3–4, 13; Ephesians 2:6). In His mercy, love, and grace, God the Father through Jesus, His Son, gathers us out of bondage to sin and death in the kingdom of darkness and moves us into the eternal light and freedom of Christ’s kingdom.
We find the names of the disciples in the Gospel books of; Matthew 10:2-4, Mark 3:14-19 and Luke 6:13-16. You didn’t choose me. I chose you. (John 14:16)
Now the names of the twelve apostles are these: The first, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; and James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew (Nathanael); Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James the son of Alphaeus (James the Less), and Thaddaeus (Judas, son of James); Simon the Zealot, and Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him. (Matthew 10:2-4, emphasis added)
