Listen to the audio of today’s Reflection:
https://soundcloud.com/hapearce/reflection-for-march-5-2026-1
Mark 4:21-34
A Lamp on a Stand
21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand? 22 For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
24 “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. 25 Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”
The Parable of the Growing Seed
26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
The Parable of the Mustard Seed
30 Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. 32 Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade.”
33 With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
Today’s reading is made up of three short parables, each of which would probably be worthy of a day’s Reflection in its own right. But I’m going to suggest that today we consider them together.
I suppose that in a sense, we could say that today’s Reflection is a sort of continuation of what we said yesterday on the subject of parables. The New Testament scholars say those who compiled the gospels didn’t always worry about putting the teachings of Jesus in the order in which he spoke them. So it’s possible that while Peter was dictating to John Mark what he remembered about the parables of Jesus, he thought it would make sense to put several of them together.
In yesterday’s Reflection, you might remember that we were thinking about the Parable of the Sower, and in the reading for that day, we were told that Jesus sometimes used parables in his public preaching, and then explained them privately to his disciples. Now in today’s passage, Jesus says that “whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.”
It seems to me that in saying that, Jesus might have been talking to his disciples about the way he communicated spiritual truth in parables and metaphors. Every parable has an important truth ‘hidden’ within it. So when the followers of Jesus repeat and explain those parables, we help to reveal that truth. But if we fail to make use of those parables as tools for sharing our faith, then we are ‘hiding that truth under a bowl or a bed,’ as Jesus puts it. It seems clear that what Jesus intends us to do is hold those parables up so they cast their light into a dark and confusing world.
Having shared these thoughts on how his followers should use parables and metaphors, Jesus then goes on to give us two little metaphors about the kingdom of God. And each of those metaphors makes an important point about that kingdom. In the first one, a man plants some seed, which then sprouts and grows, although the farmer doesn’t really understand how the process works. Eventually, the grain gets ripe and it’s time for the harvest. In the second metaphor, the tiniest imaginable seed grows into a plant that’s like a tree – big enough to provide shelter for creatures that perch in it.
So what is Jesus telling us in these little parables about the kingdom of God, and about the way it comes into the world?
It seems to me that Jesus is saying that the kingdom of God comes into the world in a way that’s slow and steady and mysterious. Some Christians seem to maintain the hope that Jesus will come crashing into the world like an action-movie hero, wiping out everyone they consider “bad guys.” But my suspicion is that those fantasies have more to do with our human nature than with God’s nature. We crave vengeance being handed out with violent power. But Jesus seems to be saying God’s kingdom sort of sprouts gently and grows slowly but steadily into the world.
In the 2,000 years since Jesus walked among us, the kingdom of God has expanded from somewhere around 75 people to something like 30% of the human population – billions of people. Some Christians ask, ‘Why hasn’t the kingdom come?’ But that question assumes that God’s kingdom will come like an earthly kingdom – with ‘sound and fury’ and force of arms. But these parables seem to say that God isn’t establishing his kingdom the way the world’s rulers do.
We need to remember that the apostle Paul says the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, goodness, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Don’t those fruits seem more like aspects of the kingdom Jesus points to in these two parables than the brute force that’s characteristic of the world’s powers?
Maybe our human nature misleads us into looking for the wrong kind of kingdom. The wrong kind of Messiah. That’s what the first-century Jews were looking for, so they missed him when he came.
And maybe that’s the light these parables are meant to shed – the light that we’re supposed to put up on a stand. Maybe the kingdom of God has been coming all along, and we just need to be reminded that his kingdom isn’t one with tanks and planes and ‘smart bombs,’ but rather one that quietly and steadily grows into a shelter for all the creatures God has made.
Let’s pray. Lord, let your Spirit move us to think ever-more-deeply into the parables and metaphors Jesus told, so that we can hold up their light before the world. And we thank you for the way you have been patiently bringing your kingdom to pass. Give us the patience to play our part until that kingdom is brought to fulfillment. Amen.
Blessings,
Henry
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