NOTES for Mar 4:26-34

The Savior's words about the Kingdom sometimes appear contradictory. Sometimes He speaks of the Kingdom as a reality of universal, cosmic scale, and sometimes as something almost unnoticed, something that grows in silence and darkness, like a seed in the ground.

Meanwhile, in reality there is no contradiction here. The Kingdom truly is a reality on a universal scale. It even exceeds our universe: after all, we live in a fallen world, and the Kingdom is much greater than it is; the Kingdom includes it within itself, transforming it and making it part of another, new reality. At the same time, the Kingdom does not simply descend into our world from somewhere in heaven; it grows from within our fallen world. Of course, by itself, out of nowhere, it will not grow: the Kingdom is a precious flower, and as everyone knows, only weeds grow well and quickly all by themselves.

Hence the need to sow the proper seeds and care for them; otherwise there will be nothing. The point, however, is not only that the seed needs time to sprout. The point is also that the seeds of the Kingdom grow in human hearts, and this constitutes the main hope while at the same time being the main problem. When we speak of the Kingdom growing from seeds cast into the soil of our world, it is important to remember that we ourselves are the soil. It is in us that the seed of the Kingdom cast by God can either sprout or rot. Here begins the very thing that ultimately determines the timing of the final triumph of the Kingdom.

We live in the age of the approaching Kingdom, but when it finally arrives and is revealed in all its fullness depends precisely on us. The date of Christ's return in glory, His second coming, is known only to the Father not because the Father is hiding something from the Son, but because it has not yet been determined and perhaps cannot be determined exactly: it depends on the choice of each of us, and therefore it is bound to change constantly, changing with every choice that is made.

This slows the matter greatly, but only in this way can each person be given the opportunity to take part in the process of the Kingdom's entry into the world. Human participation is necessary here because otherwise that person will not be able to enter the Kingdom. At best he will then be able to share in its life, but he will not be able to change so that the life of the Kingdom also becomes his own life; and then all efforts will be useless, for in the Kingdom the main thing is the people of whom it consists.

Why does the Lord speak in parables? After all, a parable is often difficult to understand. Yet perhaps that is precisely the value of a parable. It does not have one simple meaning; it has many meanings that are not grasped at once but must be lived through. Moreover, a parable always contains some vivid image from ordinary, familiar life. Because of these two qualities—its obscurity and its vividness—a parable becomes imprinted on the listener’s heart. It is well known in biblical studies that the most difficult passages of Scripture were preserved best from manuscript to manuscript. For when a translator or scribe did not understand something, he tried to transmit the text as closely as possible to the original—a natural psychological phenomenon. In the same way, parables, precisely because of their obscurity and at times even their strangeness, are preserved in the heart like a seed; then, as a person begins to penetrate their meaning, they swell and ripen until they bear fruit.

Today's reading tells us about Jesus' parables, in which He speaks of the gradual and unnoticed coming of the Kingdom of God, which, at the same time, in the end becomes so noticeable that it is impossible not to pay attention to it. In these parables the image of a sprouting grain constantly appears, an image widely spread in antiquity throughout all the countries of the Near East, from Egypt to Babylonia. The sprouting grain became here a symbol of eternal, constantly renewed life, which stands against death and conquers it. It is not surprising that Jesus uses this image to describe the Kingdom of God, for in the Kingdom of God everyone is given the whole fullness of life that can be imagined, and there is no place for death in it. But it does not come all at once, in such a way that the beginning of its coming is noticeable to everyone. Clearly, in order for the Kingdom of God to be revealed in all its fullness, time is needed, and this is exactly what Jesus speaks about, comparing it to a seed that at first is unnoticeable and then grows into a tree visible to everyone. This same passage mentions Jesus' calming of the storm that arose on Lake Gennesaret while He and the disciples were crossing to the opposite Galilean shore. It should be noted that storms on Lake Gennesaret are not uncommon, especially in winter. Winters in Galilee are warm; even in January the temperature rarely drops below +10, but strong winds blow, and on Lake Gennesaret, with its by no means small size, real storms occur. Fishing boats, even fairly large ones, are still not as large as real seagoing ships, and such storms pose serious danger to them. Fishermen caught by a storm far from shore could be in real danger of death, although the event was not taking place on the sea. Jesus calms one of these storms, saving the lives of His companions.

Today the Lord addresses to us one of the most important questions: "How do we listen?" We regularly read the Bible, and even visit Bible sites on the Internet, but do we have ears to receive the Word, let it take root in our heart, and bear fruit?

The Lord says: "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and more will be added to you who hear." In essence this means: what a person wants to find in Scripture, and in God's revelation in general, is what he will find. The Bible can provide us with the richest material for history, literature, philology, mysticism, and so on, but only the one who seeks in it the knowledge of God, that is, living personal relations with Him built on trust and love, will be able to find God in reading Holy Scripture.

And here the words that "to the one who has, more will be given" acquire their meaning. In listening to and understanding the Word of God, we can only deepen and multiply what we already have; that is, we must approach it from within an already existing bond with God, in faith and prayer.