The Teaching About the Kingdom of God in the Parables of Mark’s Gospel
Jesus’ message from the beginning of Mark’s Gospel is:
“The right time has come and the Kingdom of God is near! Turn away
from your sin and believe the Good News”
The announcement of the Kingdom of God is the most important topic of
the whole Gospel. For entrance into the Kingdom of God, you must
repent. Doing this means a person has to completely change his or her
life. The religious leaders of the time did not believe this. While
the tax-collectors and sinners saw him to give them another chance and
his teaching also gave them hope for another better world.
There are four main parables that talk about the Kingdom of God in
Mark’s Gospel.
They are:
* The Parable of the Sower (4:1-9, 13-20)
* The Parable of the Lamp (4:21-25)
* The Parable of the Seed Growing Secretly (4:26-29
* The Parable of the Mustard Seed (4:30-32)
The Parable of the Sower
The parable of the sower is one of the most well known of all
parables. The seed in this parable is falling on all different types
of soil: the footpath, rocky ground, among thistles, and on fertile
soil. At first sight, this can look as though it’s careless farming.
The thistles seem to be the result of bad farming. This is, however,
looking at the agricultural method used 2000 years ago from our modern
stand point. But, this is not the best way to understand the parable.
The parable will only make sense looking at it against the
agricultural system followed in Palestine at that time. In each type
of soil something different happened:
* a path- the birds came and ate it up
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...o an example. Mother
Teresa was an example of someone who tried to make this earth the best
possible by helping everybody she could.
On the other hand, there are also terrible people who murder and steal
from others. These people are not the majority but it is still true
that they do exist. Things like third world hunger; disasters
happening everywhere in the world really make me wonder if this really
is God’s Kingdom.
Sometimes I wish that it isn’t so that what comes after will be better
than this, and give me some hope. Other times, I wish I never left
this earth and all the wonderful people who populate it. But they are
just opinions.
Everything in this world must be balanced, and so all the good things
happening are balanced by all the bad things, in a way. As nobody is
perfect, this earth also isn’t.