Mark 4b Commentary
The LORD interacts with His creation in different ways. Humans hear the word of the LORD and must accept it in order to produce a crop. The storm (a furious squall) hears the word of the LORD and obeys immediately. ‘No’ isn’t an option.
The waves are caused by the wind. First: The wind is rebuked. Second: The waves are ordered to quieten down. Both obey without question. It is all quiet and calm but the disciples are terrified! The storm is no more but in their midst is someone or maybe even something above the dreaded storm! They stare in the face of divinity, in the face of the Creator God.
Regardless of the cause, the waves are ordered to quieten down. The saint can pray without worrying too much about the cause and know that the LORD can speak to the symptoms as much as He can to the actual cause.
We can look back and try to unpack more from this chapter. Unlike the storm (wind and waves), humans can decide to listen or not to listen. But let the humans know this: there are consequences. The measure they use will be measured to them. Verse 24.
The LORD who speaks to the storms can as well speak to the seed and it can grow even on the rock! But the LORD treats His creation differently. The message to humans is this: Accept my teaching and you can become fruitful – thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what is sown.
Without this critical component – accepting the rule of the Master, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding.” Flip the coin and everything is different. “They might turn and be forgiven.”
Don’t overthink about the parable. What we know is that there isn’t any good soil out there. And actually, in His own words, “I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners,” Mark 2 verse 17. There is nothing like naturally good or naturally bad soil; all are bad soils. You become good soil once you accept the teaching of the Master.
Is the LORD Jesus living out His sermon? The farmer (maybe the Farmer in this case) scatters seed, whether he sleeps or not, the seed grows. He has given His word about crossing to the other side. So He sleeps. In between the word of Jesus and the arrival on the other side are storm problems but the farmer (Farmer or Master) is asleep! And to answer the question of the disciples, probably Jesus doesn’t care; His Father does. So all is well, regardless. Sleeping in the midst of a storm! What faith! The audacity of faith!
How the saint needs this kind of faith – this intense peace of mind resulting from the assuring word of the Master!
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