The Parable of the Seed Growing, Part 2
The Literary Context behind Mark's Gospel
Continuing from the previous post, I will be sharing portions of my work submitted as an overview of Mark 4:26-29. The goal of this body at the time of publication was to demonstrate the ecological nature of what Jesus shared with his followers, as documented in Mark’s Gospel.
I hope you, as the reader, take away that your place in the Kingdom matters. You have a role to fill that is yours and yours alone. You also have roles that are not yours to own and fulfill, and that’s okay. Ultimately, trusting in the Lord’s movement is what we are called to do.
In this portion, I move from the surrounding external factors to the internal structure and features of Mark’s Gospel, which precludes the exegetical inquiry of the passage itself.
Literary Context
With a better view of the historical and cultural contexts, one can then understand where the account stands as a work of literature. Beyond simply seeking to preserve an account of the life of Christ, what Mark consequently does in his Gospel is employ critical literary devices that offer a better understanding of the culture and historical setting for his context. By structuring both the entire account and the specific section of the parable in question with concise detail and parallelism, Mark emphasizes his simple yet effective approach within his writing.
The Genre of Mark
The Gospel of Mark has divided scholars concerning how commentators, interpreters, and exegetes should classify the book as a whole. While not a biography or history, as stated by James A. Brooks5, it lives at an intersection between these works, consisting of features found in memoirs, classical tragedies, and even some works akin to accounts found in Kings and Chronicles. Brooks argues that as a result, “Mark created a new type of literature,” even despite its common elements and use of language.
The Parable’s Placement
This parable of the seed growing finds itself in a larger discourse that Jesus directed toward His disciples and the gathered crowd while He taught beside the sea of Galilee. Occurring earlier in His ministry, Jesus had recently called His twelve disciples as recorded in Mark 3, still remaining close to His earthly home in Galilee, according to the text; thus, it is reasonable to assume that this set of parables to which the parable of the seed growing belongs was an early event in Jesus’s mission.6
Literary Features of the Passage
While the text is brief and contains little repetition, the greater passage of discourse, as mentioned earlier, lends a better view of Jesus’ emphasis on seeds and their importance to the listening community and the coming Kingdom. Three of the four parables in Mark 4 center around seeds: the Parable of the Sower, which highlights the growing environments of the seed of the Gospel; the Parable of the Seed Growing, which highlights the seed of the Kingdom; and the Parable of the Mustard Seed, which highlights the seed of faith.7 This repetition of the seed within the whole chapter creates an analogy between the seed and the vital elements of how God’s earthly gifts to His creation grow and spread.
Within the passage, Jesus repeats a vital location in the mentioned parables: the ground. In the ground, the seed takes root (4:1-9), grows in ways unknown to the farmer (4:26-29), and transforms from minute to towering over the rest of the garden (4:30-32). The ground seemingly acts as a metaphor for the fertile ground that is the human heart, where the Kingdom of God spreads from person to person through spoken evangelism and discipleship.
5 James A. Brooks, Mark, vol. 23, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1991), 25.
6 Hans F. Bayer, “Mark,” in Matthew–Luke, ed. Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar, vol. VIII, ESV Expository Commentary (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2021), 481. This position is also affirmed in the section outline provided by Hans F. Bayer in his commentary on Mark as part of the ESV Expository Commentary.
7 Stephen D. Lowe and Mary E. Lowe, Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age: Spiritual Growth through Online Education (Downer’s Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2018), 42.