The Gospel of Mark 4:26-41 - Parables and Jesus calms a storm

Continuing on with the parables, Jesus teaches two more parables; the parable of the growing seed and the parable of the small seed. After this Jesus fell asleep in a boat as it was crossing the sea and a great storm arose. Jesus is woken up and rebukes the storm and it obeys Him. Of course the disciples are shocked by this and He asks them why they didn’t have faith. They respond with a question of their own, “who is this”. This story highlights the divinity of Jesus but also helps us to understand the kingdom of God.

Discussion:

“And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.”

Mark 4:26-27 (ESV)

- “he does not know how” [it sprouts and grows]

In the last post we spoke about how the purpose of parables was to obscure information from those who didn’t have ears to hear, and eyes to see. The knowledge of the kingdom of God was only to come to those who had faith. Part of the purpose of a parable was that the hearer would think and dwell on it. It was designed to draw you into deep waters, so to speak, and cause you to dwell with an idea until it sprouts and bears fruit. This parable is interesting, because it can have several different meanings. Robert A. Guelich explains the different ways this can be approached; the subject of the parable could be the “Patient Farmer”, “Unbelieving Farmer”, or the “Reaper”, or if the focus is on the seed then it would be “of the Seed Growing Secretly” or a parable “of the Harvest” (Guelich 1989, 240). The point is that there are a lot of possible meanings here. To me the focus is on both the seed, the process, and the farmer. The point of the parable is that the farmer doesn’t have to work once the seed is planted, the seed is going to do what the seed is going to do. We know that this is not a literal statement of farming, but this is a story conveying a deeper truth of the Kingdom. The deeper truth then is that the Kingdom of God is going to do what the Kingdom of God will do once the seed is planted. Even with this understanding we are left with questions like “who is the farmer, God or Jesus?” “Do we become like the farmer when we do certain things like witness?” Or “is the seed the Kingdom itself, or some part or aspect of the kingdom?” The reality is, that we find ourselves in a place where we still need to focus on the story and thing and dwell on it and try to discover what it means.

Joel Marcus points out that the parable seems to focus on the fact that the Kingdom of God does not need human action in order to accomplish its end. This was a possible comparison to the Zealots, who were in active rebellion against Rome (Marcus 2008, 326). Either way, the point is clear. Yes, we are called to act, yes, we cannot just sit around and do nothing. However, the will of God, the fruit of the Kingdom, will be accomplished no matter what. I believe this is because it is the Holy Spirit, not the works of man, that bears true fruit. The Holy Spirit works in our hearts where the Kingdom resides. Yet all too often man is focused only on the external. It is easy to see the external, and it is where we live. Because of this, we sometimes forget that the kingdom itself is in our heart.

Indeed, just as the plant grows at first underground where it cannot be seen, so too often times the fruit of the kingdom isn’t seen. All too often churches focus on external fruits, how many salvations, how many members, how many this or that, but ignore the matters of the heart. Perhaps the fruit of a church should be how many disciples are made, how many are saved, how many marriages are strong, how many are out of debt, how many hours in prayer, etc. I think if we judged churches by this then we would have a much different view. Indeed, not just the church, but also us! It is easy for me to focus on the external, my job, studying, or even writing this blog. But the fruit is in my family, in my prayer time, in the time that is devoted to Him. This parable is explaining that the kingdom is growing even when it appears not to, that everything will happen in God’s timing (France 2002, 215). This is further reenforced by the next verse.

“The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.”

Mark 4:28 (ESV)

- “The earth produces by itself”

There is another way to look at this. Although we have been emphasizing the work of the Kingdom not depending on mankind, yet the parable does have both the seed bearing fruit but also the farmer working to harvest. So we can see that there are two aspects of this parable, the kingdom does bear fruit no matter what, because God is sovereign and His will must be done, but the farmer must also harvest (Lane 1974, 169–170).

“But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Mark 4:29 (ESV)

- “But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

After waiting with patience for the fruit, when the farmer sees the harvest is ready he immediately takes action. In other words, the kingdom starts with no human action and completes the work with human action (Edwards 2002, 143). This teaches us that we must have a kind of waiting patience, followed by immediate action. These seem to be contradictory, but in the Kingdom they are not. We wait on the Holy Spirit to do the true work, and then we the time is ready, we do what He calls us to in order to partner with Him and serve Him. Yet Jesus continues to teach and explains another parable.

“And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth, yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.” With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.”

Mark 4:30-34 (ESV)

- “It is like a grain of mustard seed”

Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven a very small seed that grows into a great plant similar to a tree. Adela Yarbro Collins and Harold W. Attridge explains the meaning behind this very well (Collins and Attridge 2007, 255-256).

“The older passage is Ezekiel 17. As noted above, it is presented as a “parable” in the LXX; it is actually a political allegory. In it, an eagle represents the king of Babylon, the top of the cedar stands for the house of David, and a vine by many waters is Jehoiakin, the exiled king of Judah who rebelled against the king of Babylon. This rebellion is condemned, and God promises to plant a twig from the cedar that will become a noble cedar under which all kinds of beasts will dwell and in whose branches birds of every sort will nest (vv. 22–24*). This last part of the parable or allegory expresses hope for the restoration of the house of David. From the point of view of eschatologically oriented groups in the late Second Temple period, one could call it a messianic parable.74

In the concluding parable of the collection in 4:1–34*, the starting point is a mustard seed rather than a twig from a cedar. The end point is a shrub, rather than a noble cedar. The author of Mark has chosen to place this simile in a climactic position in order to parody overblown messianic expectations. As argued above, the most difficult aspect of the mystery of the kingdom of God in Mark is the revelation that the messiah, Jesus, must suffer and die. Mark has arranged the parable discourse so that it transports the audience from an initial emphasis on the proclamation of Jesus to a foreshadowing of his passion and its results. Jesus, who was handed over, scourged, and executed, was not the military leader and king that some groups were expecting. Instead of a cedar they got a shrub. Nevertheless, the kingdom of God will become manifest through him. The shrub will be capacious enough for the birds of the air to make nests in its branches.”

We can see then that the focus of this parable is most likely Jesus Himself. Jesus is the source of the kingdom, so it makes sense that some parables would be directly about Him. Jesus did not come as they expected. They expect Him to come as a conquering ruler who would overthrow the Roman empire and subjugate the world under the nation of Israel. Yet He came as a servant and died, completely subverting their expectations! The parable helps to open this up, and beings to explain that their expectations were not going to dictate what God would do. The reality is that the work of God is often this way. He does not do what we want or expect, but what fits His will. He has a plan, and that is what He will do. We must fall in line with His will, for He is the King.

After speaking these parables, Jesus needed to get away. He asked His disciples to depart in the boat to get away. Yet while they were still making their way a great storm broke out.

“On that day, 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.”

Mark 4:35-37 (ESV)

- “a great windstorm arose”

Because of the way this sea is located in the geography of Israel, sudden and violent storms occur often in unpredictable ways and times (Lane 1974, 175). These storms were very dangerous and represented a real threat and possible dire circumstances. Death for the disciples was a real possibility. The disciples find themselves in the boat during such a storm, where the waves are so powerful they are crashing over the boat and starting to fill it. The word here for great windstorm uses the same language used to describe Jonah in Jonah 1:4 (Guelich 1989, 266). Remember that the gospels often compare Jesus to Jonah, pointing out that He will eventually die and resurrect. Just as Jesus here calms the storm though, even in His death He is victorious by eventually rising from the dead. Yet we are getting ahead of ourselves here, for in the meantime, Jesus is not speaking to the storm. Instead, He is asleep.

“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?”

Mark 4:38 (ESV)

- “asleep on the cushion”

An archeological discovery in 1986 showed an example of what the boat probably looked like. These boats were often four and a half feet deep, about twenty six and half feet long and seven and half feet wide (Stein 2008, 242). At the back of the boat (the stern) there was a raised part where they may have had something that we translate as “cushion”, or perhaps someone had brought a cushion for comfort. Either way, Jesus had fallen asleep on this object.

This part of the story is more shocking to me than the idea of Jesus calming a storm (although this would be the opposite for the disciples). We can see the frustration and terror the disciples are feeling, when they ask Jesus, “do you even care?” All too often we can find ourselves in the same place. Life rages around us and we find ourselves overwhelmed by the storms, and we cry out to God, asking if He even cares. Yet the reality is that God already sees the end of everything, He doesn’t see the storm as a threat because He already knows He is going to calm it. He doesn’t see the storms in our life as a threat, because He already knows what comes afterwards. God sees our life in its entirety. He is the beginning and the end, not the moment of time. God does not freak out as we do and lose all hope, instead, He calls to us to be calm and remember Him. When we are tempted to cry out in fear, let us instead look to Him in faith.

But why is Jesus asleep? Was He exhausted from the day’s teachings and perhaps miracles, as a way to show an opposite to the disciples panic, or perhaps as another parallel to Jonah (France 2002, 223-224)? I would imagine it was because of tiredness but that they are also pointing out the connection to Jonah. This story seems to be filled with Jonah themes for a good reason, the sign of Jonah, dying and rising again, is the primary and greatest sign of Jesus. Not only this, but it was the purpose that He came; to show the Father, to restore relationship, to redeem us and save us with His death and then to justify us with His resurrection. There is another element to His sleep. In the area surrounding them, often called the Ancient Near East, gods were often seen as sleeping which was a picture of their great power; they were so strong that no one was a threat to them (Marcus 2008, 338). Indeed, we can see some of this when we consider that the storm truly wasn’t a threat to Jesus, He could calm the storm with ease, and that’s exactly what He was going to do!

“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?”

Mark 4:39-41 (ESV)

- “Who then is this”

The event here would be utterly shocking to a Jew. The way the Rabbi’s spoke, the way the Pharisees and even Priests acted and did things, they would always call out to God as their source of authority when performing a ritual, sacrifice, or exorcism. Yet here Jesus did no such thing, He didn’t call out to God, He commanded. He spoke with authority because He had authority, He didn’t call out to God because He is God! The disciples didn’t understand this yet though, we know this because they were shocked and afraid. Jesus responds with the question, why don’t you have faith! But this question of faith wasn’t about God, it was about Him. The disciples were with Jesus yet didn’t trust Him, they didn’t believe that He would keep them safe. Seeing the winds and the waves they were overwhelmed and afraid! And you know what, I would be too! The disciples then asked, in my words, “who is this guy?!”

The calming of the storm does use interesting language. Almost every commentary I looked at pointed out that Jesus used exorcism like terms when He rebuked the wind and waves (Edwards 2002, 149-150).

The calming of the storm is a direct divinity claim of Jesus, because only God can do such an action with His own power and command.

“Yet he saved them for his name’s sake, that he might make known his mighty power. He rebuked the Red Sea, and it became dry, and he led them through the deep as through a desert.” (Psalm 106:8–9, ESV)

Indeed, Robert A. Guelich points out that Jesus action of calming the storm answers the disciples question of “who is this”, because His action is stating who He is, He is God (Guelich 1989, 267; Stein 2008, 245). And this is the final point that we must accept, that we must believe, and that we must hold to. Jesus is God! Jesus is Yahweh in the flesh, come to earth to save us. Our life is in His hands. When we face the storms of life we must look to Him and know that He is, and that whether we live or die, whether we suffer or have a good life, we are in Him and with Him.

Summary

So we have seen that Jesus taught two more parables; the parable of the growing seed, and the parable of the small seed. Jesus then got into a boat and promptly feel asleep. Wakened by the disciples during an intense and dangerous storm, He calmed it and rebuked it and the storm was stopped instantly. Jesus then asks the disciples, why don’t you have faith. The story then ends with the disciples asking who Jesus is.

Life Application

I want to let David E. Garland express the life application here (Garland 1996, 199):

“This account in Mark touches on the plight of the human situation in a world still under Satan’s sway. There will be many times when it looks like the foes are winning and the church is losing. As E. E. Cummings expressed this anxiety: “King Christ, this world is all aleak, and life preservers there are none.” But Jesus has already saved us, not from the perils of this mortal life, but from ultimate destruction. Confidence in this fact allows us to face all threats with courage and trust. How will we react when our ship feels tossed about and swamped by waves of opposition? Will we need to be rebuked like the disciples for losing our nerve and our faith? What will it take for us to know that Jesus is God and will protect us even through death?

The calming of the storm has to do with Jesus’ announcement that God reigns, “that the hostile forces of Satan, wherever they might be; inside man, outside man; are being overthrown by Jesus, the Holy One of God.”17 He restores God’s dominion over a chaotic world invaded by forces that wreak havoc. Most people, however, are worried about their own little worlds and the storms that roar in to destroy them. In these personal situations many feel swamped by waves of a quite different sort. Like the disciples, they may feel that their cries for help meet with only a stony silence from heaven. Life is filled with hazards—and not just from the sea.”

Questions to Consider

• Do we try to make things happen or do we let God move?

• When the storms of life rage around us, do we trust God or our circumstances?

Connections

• Matthew 8:23–27, 13:31–33

• Luke 8:22–25, 13:18–21

Outline

• Jesus proclaims a parable of the Kingdom; the kingdom is like a man who doesn’t understand how crops grow but who knows when to harvest.

• Jesus proclaims a parable of the Kingdom; the kingdom of heaven is like a small seed that grows into a very large tree that serves many.

• Jesus sleeps during a storm then calms it with a command.Jesus asks the disciples why they don’t have faith.

• The disciples fear Jesus and ask “who is this”.

References-

• Robert A. Guelich, Mark 1–8:26, vol. 34A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1989), 240.

• Joel Marcus, Mark 1–8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, vol. 27, Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 326.

• R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 2002), 215.

• William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), 169–170.

• James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 143.

• Adela Yarbro Collins and Harold W. Attridge, Mark: A Commentary on the Gospel of Mark, Hermeneia—a Critical and Historical Commentary on the Bible (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2007), 255–256.

• William L. Lane, The Gospel of Mark, The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), 175.

• “A great windstorm” (λαῖλαψ μεγάλη ἀνέμου) describes the predicament in language reminiscent of Jonah 1:4. The Hebrew word for storm (סער־גדול, sa˓ar-gādô) in Jonah 1:4 (LXX—κλύδων μέγας) is actually rendered λαῖλαψ μεγάλη in Jer 32:32 LXX (= MT 25:32) and in Jonah stands in combination with רוח־גדולה, rûah gĕdôlāh, which may account for the presence of ἀνέμου= “wind” in this context (cf. Ps 107:25—רוח סערה, rûah sĕ ārāh). A story about “Jacob’s ship,” symbolic of Israel, with language equally similar to that of the Jonah story in T. Naph. 6.3–9, may suggest the influence of the Jonah story in shaping this narrative in the tradition. The catastrophic proportions of the storm can be felt as each wave crashes over the boat threatening to swamp it at any moment.”

  Robert A. Guelich, Mark 1–8:26, vol. 34A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1989), 266.

• “During the storm Jesus is described as being in the stern of the boat. The 1986 discovery in the Sea of Galilee of a boat 26.5 feet long, 7.5 feet wide, and 4.5 feet deep with an elevated high stern dating from the time of Jesus helps us to understand the structure and makeup of such a boat (Wachsmann 1988). The boat could hold up to fifteen people. Jesus was probably asleep under the elevated stern platform.”

  Robert H. Stein, Mark, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 242.

• R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 2002), 223–224.

• “Indeed, even the sleeping of Jesus is part of his likeness with God. In ancient Near Eastern myths the supreme deity is often portrayed as sleeping as a sign of his sovereignty: there are no enemies powerful enough to disturb his slumber (see Batto, “Sleeping,” 159–64).”

  Joel Marcus, Mark 1–8: A New Translation with Introduction and Commentary, vol. 27, Anchor Yale Bible (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 338.

• “Mark’s description of the stilling of the storm exceeds the Hebrew penchant for personalizing nature (e.g., Ps 104:3–6). In particular, the language of v. 39 is, strictly speaking, proper to that of exorcism. The wind is “rebuked” (or “censured”). The Gk. epitiman has been used twice earlier in Mark of the rebuking of evil spirits (1:25; 3:12). The word is not used in Hellenistic exorcisms; it is rather a technical term in Jewish exorcisms for “the commanding word, uttered by God or by his spokesman, by which evil powers are brought into submission and the way is thereby prepared for the establishment of God’s righteous rule in the world.”7 To the waves Jesus orders, “ ‘Quiet! Be still!’ ” and they “obey him” (v. 41). The Greek word for “ ‘Be still!’ ” pephimōso, carries the sense of “muzzled.” It occurs in the second person singular, as though Jesus were addressing a personal being. Its unusual perfect passive imperative form indicates that the condition shall persist, that is, “Be still, and stay still.”

  James R. Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002), 149–150.

• “Jesus responds by stilling the storm and calming the sea. Van der Loos (Miracles, 641–44) gives numerous examples from Greek and Hebrew literature for such “weather miracles.” But the language here closely parallels the exorcism of the demon in 1:25. Jesus “rebukes” (ἐπιτίμησεν) the wind and “silences” (πεφίμωσο) the “sea” (see Comment on 1:25). By having Jesus address the elements as though they were demonic, a theme that appears in Judaism (e.g., 2 Enoch 40:9; 43:1–3; 69:22; 4 Ezra 6:41–42; Jub 2:2), the story underscores the nature of the struggle (Achtemeier, Int 16 [1962] 169–76).

  Jesus’ actions actually answer the question posed in 4:41b—“Who indeed is this that the wind and sea obey him?” The answer has two dimensions. First, the parallel with Jonah shows him to be greater than Jonah (cf. Matt 12:41; Luke 11:32). Instead of praying to God, he personally addressed the wind and the sea. Second, Jesus accomplished what in the OT only God could do in overcoming the chaotic powers of evil as numerous OT passages indicate (e.g., Gen 8:1; Pss 74:13–14; 104:4–9; 107:25–30). God was uniquely at work in Jesus. The awed response in 4:41 appropriately confirms this point.”

  Robert A. Guelich, Mark 1–8:26, vol. 34A, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 1989), 267.

• Robert H. Stein, Mark, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 245.

• David E. Garland, Mark, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1996), 199.