24 January 2024 Mark 4:1-20
Jesus could be a pretty demanding teacher. Gentle Jesus? Not hardly.
Reflecting on the crowds who had thronged the seaside to hear the Parable of the Sower, he quoted Isaiah 6:9: “But for those outside, everything comes in parables, in order that ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven’” (Mark 4:12). There is only one way you can see and listen to Jesus and not be converted and forgiven, and that is if you do not want to be. Jesus did not think that the crowds who came to hear him teach had an intellectual problem with his teaching. They could see and hear just fine. Their problem was that they did not want his teaching to be true. “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear,” Jesus told them. “Your ears work and I didn’t stutter. You should all get this” (4:9). Their problem wasn’t that they didn’t get it. They got it alright, but they also knew that if they really wanted it there would be things they thought they couldn’t think anymore. There would be things they did they couldn’t do anymore. There would be friends they had they couldn’t have anymore.
They got it alright, but they didn’t want it. Any of it. That’s why they were not converted and forgiven. That’s why Jesus quoted Isaiah 6:9 – “’They may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven’.”
But the people closest to Jesus struggled with the Parable also. Jesus was even less patient with them: “You too? You didn’t understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables?” (4:13). Jesus expects us to be paying attention. He expects us to have learned the basic vocabulary and grammar of salvation. He expects us to understand sentences of more than one clause. He was a little exasperated when his own people still struggled with the basics.
“Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of them?” Jesus could be a pretty demanding teacher.
Neuroscientists know how information becomes memory. Repeated exposure to new information actually changes the physical chemistry of the brain. Physical structures are created, new neural cells that connect parts of the brain to other parts of the brain. That’s how we learn. Those structures, of course, have to be maintained by ongoing exposure to the information, new uses of the information. If not, they cease to function as conduits of understanding. That’s how we forget. Maintenance is a function of will, of discipline, not understanding.
We have to want it.
Jesus went over the parable again with his slow disciples, explaining it line by line (4:14-20). He was showing them how to do maintenance. He was showing them how to want it. We want it by going over it again. And again.
Athletes and musicians already know this. Behind every skillful performance is often years of going over things again and again – taking lessons, doing drills, playing scales, running laps, lifting weights. Being forgiven and converted is an event. Staying forgiven and converted is a process, often involving a fair amount of grunt work.
We stay forgiven and converted by doing the grunt work. Reading scripture, talking to people who understand scripture, prayer, worship, service. That is wanting it.
Every demanding teacher has always said so. Jesus said so, and not gently.
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