Mark 4 1:20
The astounding harvest in v. 8 is an important clue that the growth is not owing to human activity but to God’s providential power. God is at work—hidden and unobserved—in Jesus and the gospel to produce a yield wholly disproportionate to human prospects and merit
Christology and discipleship. The first telling of the parable in 4:3–9 explains the meaning of Jesus, and the second telling in 4:14–20 explains the meaning of discipleship
The farmer’s “going out” to sow seed (4:2) is the same word in Greek (exēlthen) with which Jesus declares his purpose in 1:38. Despite resistance and rejection, there is an irrepressible
Listen! Jesus’ emphatic summons to listen captures the heart of the following parable
Disciples—insiders—are those who have received the mystery of the kingdom (v. 11) and who hear what Jesus says. Mark’s vocabulary is unambiguous. The “word” (Gk. logos) appears eight times in vv. 14–20, and the command to “hear” (Gk. akouein) half that number. The first three types of hearing—those from whom Satan steals the word (v. 15), those with no root who fall away in difficulty (v. 17), and those whose wealth and worldly desires choke the word (v. 18–19)—are described by Mark in the aorist tense in Greek. The Greek aorist connotes punctiliar action, something done simply and finally. The first three types of hearing thus imply a quick, superficial hearing, in one ear and out the other, without effort or heeding. Satan, persecution, and the cares of the world spell havoc for those who give the gospel only a casual hearing. Their failure to hear confirms them as outsiders, and the word of God becomes fruitless to them (v. 19). But in v. 20 a different kind of hearing is implied. The aorist tense is suddenly replaced by the present tense of the verb, signifying a continual, ongoing hearing as opposed to a careless or inattentive hearing. People who are engaged in the fourth kind of hearing are insiders who “hear … receive … and bear fruit.” Hearing, receiving, and bearing fruit are the marks of a disciple of Jesus. A responsive hearing produces a miraculous harvest—“thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown”!
