KENNETH W. YATES
Editor
I. INTRODUCTION
In Mark 4, Jesus begins to speak in parables to the Jews who come to hear Him. When the disciples ask Him why He has begun this practice, the Lord says that those on the “outside” will hear everything in parables, but that He will explain the meaning of this new form of teaching to His disciples (vv 10-11).
The immediate question that arises here is the identity of those on the “outside.” At first glance, the answer appears simple. However, a closer look at the immediate context, as well as at the Gospel of Mark as a whole, indicates that the group is larger than one might initially expect.
II. THE IMMEDIATE CONTEXT
As indicated by Christ’s new method of teaching, Mark 4 is a turning point in the Gospel. At the end of Mark 3, religious leaders from Jerusalem have come to Galilee because they have heard about the Lord’s miracles and His authoritative teaching (1:22). Up to this point, Mark has not mentioned Jesus ministering in the capital city. However, we know from the Gospel of John that He had been there. A major event in Jerusalem at the beginning of the Lord’s ministry was His cleansing the temple (John 2:13).1 This would help explain the scribes’ hostile attitude towards Him.2 Without a doubt, news of Jesus’ ministry, power, and teaching in Galilee has also reached the capital city. In light of their view of Jesus, the scribes want to quell any enthusiasm the people in Galilee have towards Jesus’ words and actions. These leaders are well-aware that Jesus has followers. At least some of these people believe that He is the Messiah, which poses a threat to the religious leaders’ positions of power and influence within the nation.
These leaders conclude that Jesus is able to perform supernatural feats because He is empowered by Satan (3:22). If that is the case, He can’t be the Messiah. That would mean, of course, that His teachings are not to be believed.
This is not the first time in the Gospel that such leaders have opposed Christ. Others have accused Him of blasphemy (2:7). Another group of leaders points out that Jesus does not live by the religious laws handed down by the experts (2:24). How could the Messiah not adhere to these regulations? Still another group of these powerful men decides He must be killed (3:6).
The accusation that Jesus has been sent by Satan is an ominous sign. Eventually, these leaders will be the driving force in putting Jesus to death. Jesus came to offer the kingdom of God to that generation of Jews, with Himself as the long-awaited Christ. These men, acting as the official religious representatives of the nation, show that this offer, as well as Christ Himself, will be rejected.
Up to this point, Jesus has been speaking plainly in the synagogues of Galilee. Now, because of their willful blindness to the plain truths He has spoken, He will speak in parables. It is a form of judgment. But it is more. It is an act of grace. God holds people accountable for what they understand. When Jesus begins to speak in parables, those who do not believe will not understand what is being taught and will not be held responsible for the truths contained in the parables.
III. THOSE ON THE “OUTSIDE” IN MARK 3
It is noteworthy that in Mark 3 Jesus mentions that there are those who are on the “outside” immediately after the religious leaders accuse Him of doing Satan’s work. The Lord is in a home (3:20), with a large group of disciples around Him. He is notified that His natural family, consisting of His mother, brothers, and sisters, is “outside,” wanting to speak with Him (3:31-32). It is the same word used a few verses later (4:11) when He refers to speaking in parables to those who are “outside.” In Mark 3:31-32, those who are “outside” are contrasted with those who are inside the house with the Lord. He refers to those who are inside as His true «brother, sister, and mother” (3:35).
It seems that Mark is making a connection between those who are inside the house with the Lord and those to whom He will explain the meaning of His parables. All others are on the “outside.»
There can be no doubt that the religious leaders who reject the Lord in Mark 3 are a part of the group that is “outside.” In very basic terms, they represent unbelievers. Those who do not believe that Jesus is the Christ are not inside with Him. The scribes who blaspheme the Spirit in 3:21 are not in the house, sitting as disciples at the feet of the Lord. Jesus will certainly not explain the meanings of the parables to them, either.
But in 4:11, Mark makes the connection between these unbelievers and those on the “outside” in another way. When the scribes say that Jesus is empowered by Satan, Mark says that He spoke to them in parables (3:23).3 This is the first time that word is used in the Gospel of Mark. Jesus asks them, in a parable, how it would be possible that Satan would cast out Satan. The next time the word appears is in 4:2, when Jesus begins to teach the people in parables.
But those on the “outside” now include more than the religious scribes.
A. Jesus’ Natural Family Is on the “Outside”
While it is certainly correct to conclude that, because of their unbelief, the scribes are those who are “outside” in Mark 3, the reader is specifically told that Jesus’ family is, as well. In fact, Mark wants to make a connection between the scribes and Christ’s family. To do so, he uses a literary device.
This section of Mark (3:20-35) is an example of a literary device called a “sandwich.”4 With this device, Mark begins a section with a story, but then interrupts the account. He then relates another story that is connected in some way to the first. Afterwards, he concludes the first story. Examples of this technique are seen in 5:21-43; 6:7-31; 11:12-26; 14:1-11, and 14:53-72.5
Here, the first story begins in 3:20-21, where Jesus’ family thinks He is crazy and comes to get Him. In 3:22-30, the religious leaders strongly oppose Him and claim He is possessed by Satan. Then, in 3:31-35, Mark concludes the story concerning Jesus’ family. It is clear that Mark wants to connect the two accounts. In verse 21 he reports what the family said about Jesus, and then, in verses 22 and 30, what the religious leaders said about Him.
What ties these two groups together is their opposition to the Lord. Both His family and the religious leaders oppose Him, although the degree of opposition is very different. They express their opposition by what they say about Him. Both groups are in agreement that He is not in His right mind. In the case of His family, Mark states that the family thought the Lord had lost His senses. In the case of the scribes, a man possessed by Satan would not have his proper mental faculties either.
The Lord’s family arrives in Capernaum from Nazareth. We are told that His brothers and His mother come to the home in which Jesus is teaching. There is a large crowd around the Lord. Evidently, since they stand outside and call for Him, His family wants to speak to Him privately. The picture is that they want Christ to come outside so that a conversation can take place between Him and His relatives. This could be due to the difficulty of getting into the house, the large number of people, or their simply wanting to spare Him any public embarrassment. They do not want others to hear them tell Him that they think He needs help with His mental acuity. It is their desire to meet with Him in private and keep it within the family.
If they do not want to embarrass Him, then there is a marked difference between the attitudes of the religious leaders and the family. While both the religious leaders and the family think Jesus is crazy, the leaders want to discredit Him in the eyes of the people. They want to embarrass Him. They keep telling people what they think about Him.6 The family does not do that.
Still, there is an element of sadness in this account. The Lord’s family is on the “outside” of the house, while the disciples are inside. The disciples are close to Him. His family is not. The scribes are also not on the inside with the Lord. Christ’s family is associated with the scribes in this detail, as the “sandwich” indicates. France states that this account is the strongest negative reaction that Jesus’ family has about Him in any of the Gospels.7
Kuruvilla suggests that Mark is emphasizing just how much “outside” the Lord’s family is. This would include Mary. The account says that the family came “out” of their hometown to seize Him (3:21). The reason they did so is because He was “out” of His mind. In both cases, the preposition in Greek is the same as the adverb used to say they were standing “outside” (3:31). It is also the same word used in 4:11. The family is not with Him.8
The reader of Mark may see a contrast here between the family of Christ and the paralyzed man in Mark 2:1-12. That man, and his friends who carried him, were also confronted by a situation in which Jesus was in a crowded house and it was not possible to be close to Him. They, however, went to extraordinary lengths to be near Him.9 The Lord’s relatives did not, since they thought He had lost His senses. Whatever He was teaching was not deemed important enough for them to make that effort.
B. The Disciples Are Inside
In contrast to the scribes and the Lord’s family, the disciples are inside with Him. This group would have included not only the Twelve, but also others who were following Christ and wanted to hear more of His teaching. Mark describes them as a multitude.
The picture here is one of intimacy with the Lord. These disciples are not only in the house with the Lord, they are sitting around Him (3:34). They are at His feet. Once again, Mark may want the reader to think of the paralyzed man in the crowded home in Mark 2. This man was placed at the feet of the Lord as well, and the Lord looked with favor upon his efforts to be there.10
It is also clear that these disciples are there to spend time with the Lord and to be taught by Him. That was only possible by being inside the house. In Mark 2:2, Mark directly states that those inside the crowded house were there for that purpose. They had heard the Lord teach and wanted to hear more.
The Lord makes a distinction between His natural family on the “outside” and these disciples on the inside. Word reaches the people inside that Jesus’ family is wanting to speak to Him and wants Him to come outside. In first-century Jewish life the family was important, so it was natural that the disciples would tell the Lord that His family wanted to speak with Him. Surely, it was expected that He would go out to meet them. The Majority Text adds that His sisters, as well, were outside with His brothers and mother (v 32).11 Little is known about Jesus’ sisters.
The Lord’s response would have certainly shocked His disciples. He redefines what it means to be His mother or His brothers. Those who were closest to a person consisted of his or her biological family. But the Lord changes this way of thinking.
Mark states that Jesus looked around at the disciples who were sitting about Him. The Greek phrase “who (were) about Him” (v 34) is practically identical to the way His natural family is described in verse 21.12 Jesus proclaims that the disciples at His feet—those inside and close to Him, listening to His teaching—are those who are closest to Him. They are His mother and brothers.
The Lord’s natural family was on the “outside.” To determine the identity of people on the “outside,” His family’s spiritual condition needs to be determined.
C. Were Jesus’ Family Members Spiritually Saved?
The Gospel of John tells us that the Lord’s brothers did not believe in Him during His lifetime.13 It is not surprising that they are standing on the outside and are associated with the unbelieving scribes.
We know nothing about the spiritual condition of Jesus’ sisters. It would be tempting to conclude that they were like their brothers in this regard since they are on the outside, as well, and think that Jesus has lost His senses. However, that is not a necessary conclusion, as their mother’s presence indicates.
Mary, the mother of the Lord, shows that a believer can be on the “outside” and think the Lord is acting irrationally. She certainly believed that He was the Christ (Luke 1:32-55). However, in Mark 3 she was concerned about the way He was conducting Himself. He was not eating properly; she would have worried about His health and concluded that the crowds of people were taking advantage of Him (3:20-21). She probably thought He was being too fanatical in His actions and that He should, instead, be more reasonable. Maternal instincts would have compelled her to take Him away for a period of rest, at the very least.
It must also be remembered that Jesus was the eldest son of the family. Since Joseph is not mentioned in this account (v 32), most assume that he has died. In that case, Jesus was responsible for caring for His widowed mother and younger siblings.14 Perhaps the family, including Mary, saw Him as shunning His responsibilities by His actions. It is probable that the family did not think Jesus was One who would voluntarily act in this manner. His busy schedule, lack of food, and lack of sleep had negatively changed His personality. For His own good, they needed to rescue Him.
Mary is a believer who thinks she knows better than her Son how He should be conducting Himself. She is more worried about His physical welfare than about hearing Him teach. In fact, she thinks He should stop teaching and come home for a while.
Whether the Lord’s sisters are believers or not, the truth remains. In the context of Mark 3, a believer can be on the “outside.”15 Since it is not possible for a believer to lose eternal life, being on the “outside” here is not the same as being an unbeliever.
This raises the question as to what Jesus means by the phrase, “whoever does the will of God” (v 35). Those on the inside, sitting at His feet, are those doing the will of God.
D. The Will of God
In John 6:40, Jesus says that everyone who believes in Him for eternal life has done the will of the Father. John, the only book in the NT written to unbelievers, tells the unbelieving reader that this is the will of God for him. No works are involved, simply faith.
If we take the phrase to have the same meaning in Mark 3:35, Jesus is saying that those who believe in Him for eternal life are His real family. All believers are on the inside.
The examples of Mary and possibly the Lord’s sisters would cause us to question that interpretation. The Gospel of Mark was not written to unbelievers. It was written to those who already have eternal life.16 It is at least a possibility that the mention here of those who do the will of God is to be understood as a statement directed towards believers.
Luke’s parallel account of Mark 3:35 bears this out. There, Jesus defines what the will of God is. It is hearing the word of God and doing it (Luke 8:21). There is a way in which doing the will of God involves doing works. This is entirely appropriate if one is addressing believers.17
For believers, then, doing the will of God requires obeying Him. The disciples at Jesus’ feet were doing just that. They were listening to Him and paying attention to what He was teaching. That is what He was telling those who had believed in Him to do. Through this teaching, He was also telling them what would be required of them in order to be His disciples. Unlike Mary, these believers did not think He was out of His mind.
Here, being a brother, sister, or mother of the Lord is not the same as being a believer. When we believe in Jesus for eternal life, we become a child of God (John 1:12; 1 John 3:1). The relationships spoken of in Mark 3 are different. A child is one who is born into a family. Being a sister, brother, or mother of the Lord speaks of close familial intimacy. Those who are closest to the Lord are those believers who walk in obedience to what He teaches. Those believers at Jesus’ feet—those who were inside—were doing that. Mary was not.
Not all believers, then, do the will of God in the sense that Jesus means here. Not all believers listen to and obey the teachings of Christ. In the case of Mary, and perhaps some of His sisters, the Lord is not saying that they are not believers. He is saying that the believers sitting at His feet, learning from Him in order to do what He teaches, are closer to Him than any member of His natural family. This is true even if some of those family members believe He is the Christ.
Obviously, the Lord is not teaching that one’s physical family is not important. Jesus loved and cared for His mother until the end of His life (John 19:27). Instead, He is teaching about the radical nature of discipleship. There is a difference between being a disciple and being a believer. A disciple is a believer who obeys what the Lord teaches. Receiving eternal life is free. Being a disciple is costly. For the disciple, Jesus is more important than his family relationships. Not all believers have this point of view. Not all believers are disciples.18
At this point in the Gospel of Mark, there is a shift. Jesus has gone to the nation of Israel to offer it the kingdom of God. The religious leaders from Jerusalem, who are representatives of the nation, have made their decision concerning Him and have rejected Him. The handwriting is on the wall. Things are going to change, and the Lord begins to teach about that change. People are going to respond in different ways. This is true even among believers. Like Mary and the disciples in the house, different believers are going to respond differently to what the Lord has to say. As has already been seen, this impacts who is inside with the Lord.
IV. FOUR RESPONSES TO THE LORD’S TEACHINGS
When the Lord begins teaching in parables, He uses a well-known farming practice in everyday Israel to illustrate how people will respond to His teachings now that the nation will reject Him. He does this through the Parable of the Four Soils in Mark 4:1-9. The interpretation is given in vv 13-20.
In this parable, a farmer sows his field with seed for a crop. The seed falls upon four kinds of soil. The seed that the Sower sows is the word of God concerning the coming kingdom. But, as this parable makes clear, the message involves much more than how a person is able to enter into the kingdom. The word about the kingdom also involves how to be great in that kingdom—how to be fruitful and have a great harvest in the reign of Christ.
Jesus is certainly the One who sows this word. But those who sow would also include any disciple who proclaims the same message that the Lord preached.
The first soil, the hardened path, is the only type of soil in which there is no life. This represents people who will hear the word about the coming kingdom but will not believe it. In the parable, the birds who eat up the seed are seen as agents of Satan. The message was heard by the preaching of the word, but Satan took the seed away.
While Mark’s account is clear enough, the parallel passage in Luke explicitly states the meaning: Satan snatches the word from the hearts of these people with the result that they do not believe and thus are not saved (Luke 8:12). Entrance into the kingdom of God requires that one believe in Jesus for eternal life. These people do not.
It is clear that the four soils represent the hearts of the people who hear the word about the coming kingdom of God. The word is proclaimed, and the issue is: What kind of heart will each person who hears the message have? Regarding the first soil, the religious leaders are the clear example. Their hearts are hardened to what Jesus was doing and saying. They do not believe in Jesus as the Christ and even conclude that He is possessed by Satan (3:22). There is irony here, of course. They had accused Jesus of doing the work of Satan. But in their unbelief towards Christ, Satan had accomplished a work in them. The mention of Satan here (v 15) connects the first soil in the parable with the scribes in chapter three.
A major mistake that is made in interpreting this parable is failing to recognize that the first soil, the hardened path, is the only soil that does not bring forth life. It is the only soil that represents an unbeliever.19 The issue with the rest of the soils is not whether the seed produces life, because seed always produces life when it germinates, regardless of the soil. The issue is the kind of fruit that will be produced by that life.
The word of the kingdom includes a call to fruitfulness. The Sower does not just desire people to believe in Him and gain everlasting life; He also wants those who believe to produce much fruit and have a great harvest in the kingdom of God. To produce this fruit, the disciple must continue to follow Jesus and take heed to His words. That is why Jesus tells the disciples to “listen” (vv 3, 9). That is the only way to bear fruit. They need to be on the inside, listening to Him teach.
The last three soils represent believers, and thus indicate that there are different kinds of believers.
The second soil, the rocky soil, pictures believers who fall away from the Lord (“they stumble,” v 17, and “it withered away,” v 6) because of persecution or difficult times (v 18).
The third soil, the thorny soil, is an illustration of those believers who do not fall away, but who “are unfruitful” (v19) because of various allurements of the world. In Luke 8:14, the Lord says this soil does not bear fruit to “maturity.” There is probably a difference between the second and third soils. The second soil is a believer who gives up. The third soil is one who continues in the faith but is a poor example of a disciple. If that is the case, once again the reader sees there is a difference between believers. They “listen” to what the Lord says in different degrees.
The fourth soil, the good ground, represents those believers who obey the things the Lord has taught. While all those represented by the last three soils will be in the kingdom, only the believers described by the fourth soil will be greatly rewarded in it.20
V. DISCIPLES LISTEN AND ARE TAUGHT
The Lord speaks to a large group of people when He teaches in parables. Mark calls it a “great multitude” (4:1). This group would have consisted of all kinds of listeners. As in the Parable of the Four Soils, the people would have responded in different ways. There would have been both believers and unbelievers. Among believers, there would have been different kinds of responses.
Among this large crowd, there was a distinct, smaller, group. This smaller group included those around Christ (v 10). This phrase is practically identical in Greek with the phrase in 3:32, 34, which refers to those who were sitting with Jesus in the house. It is also noteworthy that in 4:10 He was “alone” with them. This reminds the reader of when, in chapter three, the Lord was with this intimate group in the house. At that earlier event, those sitting at Jesus’ feet were also part of a much larger group (3:20).
Jesus had earlier called this smaller group His mother, sister, and brother. They were disciples of the Lord who wanted to be close to and learn from Him, and who wanted to do the will of God. These who were seeking to listen to the Lord’s teaching were rewarded with His explanations. This is one of the benefits of discipleship.
In both of these smaller groups, in chapter three and chapter four, the Lord invests His time and teaching. It is to this smaller group that the Lord explains the meaning of His parables. Those in this group are His disciples.
While Jesus will explain these things to the disciples, He will speak in parables to those who are “outside.” They will not have things explained to them. Certainly, those on the “outside” include the religious leaders who have rejected the Lord. In light of the use of the same word in 3:31, 32, those “outside” would also include the Lord’s unbelieving brothers. The emphasis here is that unbelievers are on the “outside.”
However, it also seems that we could, in one sense, even apply the term “outside” to some believers. Mary, the mother of the Lord, was a believer, but is also “outside” in 3:31, 32. In the large crowd of people that came to hear the Lord teach in 4:1, there were certainly others who believed in Him but did not devote the time needed to be near Him when He was alone with His disciples. They were believers but not disciples. They were not willing to pay the price to follow the Lord and learn from Him. They missed out on the Lord’s explanation of the parables He taught. We see an example of such believers in John 2:23-25. They did not want to put forth the effort to be near the Lord.21
A believer grows in his knowledge of the Lord if he is willing to spend time to learn from Him. Jesus does that with the group of disciples here. This is one of the benefits of becoming a disciple of the Lord after believing in Him for eternal life. Receiving eternal life happens through faith, in an instant. Discipleship takes time and involves a learning process (vv 24, 34). During this process, the disciple learns what the will of God is so that he can do it (3:35). It is a process of spiritual maturity. This process takes time and diligence.
This is why the Lord repeats the word listen in these parables (4:3, 9). As the Lord explains His teaching, the disciple is to meditate on His words. As he does, the Lord will give Him more revelation through His word. The disciple will understand more and more spiritual truth.
The reason Jesus speaks to the unbelieving Jews—most clearly demonstrated by the religious leaders of Mark 3:22-30—in parables is so that, “Seeing they may see and not perceive.” Even though they hear, they don’t understand. In 3:22-30, these leaders had seen the Lord’s miracles. They had heard His clear teaching. However, they rejected what was right before their eyes and claimed that Satan was at work in Jesus’ words and actions.
Because they have refused to believe what was clearly stated, the Lord will now speak to them in parables, and they will not receive the interpretation of these parables that the disciples will receive.
In verse 12, the Lord quotes from Isa 6:9-10. In that passage, Isaiah tells the nation of Israel that judgment is coming upon them because of their unwillingness to listen to what God has said to them through the prophets. The Lord tells Isaiah to go to them and proclaim the truth even though they will not listen. The nation would not repent of its sin.
The Lord is applying these verses to the nation of His day. They also will not respond. Because of their unwillingness to listen, they also will not turn, that is, repent of their sin (1:15). Repentance would have prepared them to believe in Jesus as the Christ and thus receive eternal life. This repentance would have resulted in their sins as a nation being forgiven as well. The blessing of the kingdom of God would then have come to that generation of Jews.
The context of the Isaiah passage is also instructive. In the following verse (Isa 6:11), Isaiah speaks of judgment coming upon the nation as a result of its unwillingness to accept the truth plainly spoken by the prophet. The same is true for the nation in Jesus’ day. The leaders, representing the nation, have also rejected the truth plainly spoken. Judgment is coming to them. The kingdom will not come to them. The parables that the Lord presents in Mark 4 speak of this development. As the Gospel of Mark unfolds, this subject of judgment upon Israel will become more pronounced in the Lord’s teachings (Mark 11–13). This lends support to the idea that the kingdom of God is something that pertains to the nation of Israel.
The forgiveness of sins, then, is not the same thing as being saved from the lake of fire. Forgiveness results in fellowship with God. The nation is being offered the forgiveness of sins. An individual listener could believe in Jesus for eternal life but not turn from his or her sins. The context of Isaiah 6 bears this out. Not all the Jews who fell under the judgment of God in Isaiah’s day were unbelievers. Some were believers. This supports the idea that in Mark 4, some on the “outside” were believers as well. They were believers, but not disciples. They were not doing what the Lord wanted them to do. They were not doing the will of God (3:35). Like Mary in the previous section, they are associated with the unbelieving scribes in this regard.
The Parable of the Four Soils bears this out as well. The second and third soils are illustrations of such believers. They do not listen to what the Lord has taught and act upon it, at least not to the degree that should. Jesus emphasizes the need for all to “listen” to what He is teaching (4:3, 9). The Lord is clearly telling them that they need to do more than hear. They need to act upon what they hear. But they would obviously have to hear first. This was a message for the disciples.
In fact, Mark 4:21-25 has special relevance to the disciples. The words to them in verses 21 and 24 refer to the disciples; they were those who were alone with Him and being taught by Him. He tells them of the need to hear (v 23). In the MT, the verb hear occurs four times in verses 23-24.22
In speaking to the disciples, He gives a warning. He tells them to “Look out!” The verb is literally to see and is often translated take heed (v 24). They are to be careful about how they “hear” the words of the Lord. No doubt, there is a connection with the Parable of the Four Soils. The good soil is the one that “hears” the Lord’s words, obeys them, and bears a large crop (v 20). The disciple who listens and obeys the word of the Lord will be given more.
This concept is directed to the believing disciples. The disciple who pays attention and acts upon the words of the Lord will be given more. This would include more revelation. It would result in spiritual maturity.23
The author of Hebrews speaks of this principle. He says that a new believer takes in the Word of God and that the Word is like milk. But as he puts it to use in his life, he is able to take in more substantive teaching. This more-advanced teaching is compared to eating meat. Through this process, he matures and is trained to understand doctrinal issues (Heb 5:14).24
But there is another possibility for the believer. He can choose not to listen to what the Lord is saying. Jesus says that the believer who does that will not be given more, but “even what he has will be taken away.” This means that he will not be given more revelation from the Lord.
Such a believer would be one who is not alone with the Lord, sitting at His feet and learning from Him. The unbelieving Jews were certainly on the outside and not benefiting from what the Lord was saying (4:11-12). But believers can act in a similar way. Like Mary, they can be on the outside looking in.25 Kuruvilla agrees and says that those on the outside include unbelievers. However, it is also a warning to the disciples. They are encouraged to keep their eyes and ears opened, so as not to become like the unbelieving scribes and the unbelievers in the crowd.26 The parables spoken by the Lord here, as well as the interpretations He gives, will be of benefit to them. But the disciple must continue to listen.
Mark wants to make a connection between those believers who are close to the Lord and listening to Him and believers who are not. Those who are not on the outside are given the meaning of the parables as they pay attention to the Lord (v 11). The verb given appears twice in verses 24 and 25. Disciples on the inside are given the meaning of the parables. Those who continue doing so are given more.
Figuratively speaking, a believer can choose to go outside. He can choose not to listen to and obey the Lord. Only believers who are with the Lord will have the meaning of the parables explained to them. Those believers on the outside will not.
VI. THE EXAMPLE OF THE TWELVE
Later, the Lord’s twelve disciples provide the reader of Mark with an example of the Lord’s warning to believers in 4:10-12. The example is found in Mark 8:17-21.
In Mark 6:30-44, Jesus feeds the 5000. In Mark 8:1-9, He does the same for a group of 4000.27 In both instances the Lord is teaching the disciples who He is. His miracles show that He is able to meet all their needs.28
Immediately after the second miraculous feeding, the Lord rebukes the religious leaders. This, of course, has parallels with His rebuke of the leaders in 3:23-30. Christ then tells the disciples to beware of the leaven of these men (8:15).
The disciples interpret that to mean that they have forgotten to bring bread with them (8:16). This causes he Lord to rebuke them. He asks them how they can still have hardened hearts. How is it that they cannot see, hear, or remember?
The Lord spells out what they should remember. If they remembered how He had miraculously fed two large groups with just a little bread, how could they worry about not having enough bread? They had seen the miracles with their own eyes.
In this sense, they were like the scribes in Mark 3:22. Those scribes did not learn the clear lesson of what they had seen. The scribes should have seen that Jesus was not empowered by Satan. The evidence was overwhelming. The disciples should have seen that the Lord could provide all their needs. That evidence was overwhelming, too.
But there are other connections between the scribes in chapter three and the disciples in chapter 8. Those scribes were on the outside and were not able to understand what they had seen and heard. Now the disciples are not paying attention to what the Lord is showing and teaching them, so they do not understand, either (4:12; 8:17).29
When the Lord describes those who are on the “outside,” He says that they are able to see physically, but cannot see. They are able to hear physically, but are not able to hear (4:12). He says the disciples are in the same situation. They have eyes, but cannot see, and ears, but cannot hear (8:18).30
The reference to the hardened hearts of the disciples also reminds the reader of Mark of the unbelieving religious leaders. Prior to one group’s accusing the Lord of being possessed by Satan, He is grieved by the hardened hearts of another group of these unbelieving men (3:5). Even though the term hardened heart is not used, the Parable of the Four Soils teaches that the unbeliever has a hardened heart. The seed that does not produce life falls on ground that is hard (4:15).
Even though the disciples are believers, they are clearly acting like unbelievers in some ways. They are acting like those on the “outside.” They are neither listening to what the Lord is teaching nor observing what He is doing. They have ignored what Jesus has taught them (4:9, 24-25). In practical terms, they may as well be sitting on the “outside” when the Lord is teaching those who are sitting at His feet. No wonder Christ tells the disciples to beware. They could become like the Pharisees (8:15).
VII. CONCLUSION
There is a vast difference between the believer in Jesus Christ and the non-believer. The believer has eternal life and is a child of God. The unbeliever does not have life.
When the Lord speaks of those who are “outside,” He speaks of those who do not listen to and obey His word. At the same time, it refers to those who are not close to Him. By definition, this is true of all unbelievers. In Mark 3–4, the unbelieving religious leaders are described in this way.
All disciples are believers, but not all believers are disciples. A disciple is a believer who learns from the Lord. He listens to His teaching and desires to be obedient to what he hears. The disciple is the one who sits at the feet of the Lord to hear what He has to say. As pictured in Mark 3, he is inside the house with Christ. In this picture, the disciple is one who is close to the Lord.
In one sense, the believer who does not listen to and obey the Lord’s words is like the unbeliever. He is not sitting at His feet. He is on the “outside” looking in. Mary is an illustration of such a believer.
The unbeliever does not hear what the Lord is saying. He does not understand. He does not learn or obey. The believer can be like that. He can harden his heart to what the Lord is teaching and remove himself from the privilege of learning from the Teacher. The disciples were in danger of doing that very thing (Mark 8:15-18).
Of course, such a believer is still a child of God. He still has eternal life. But his intimacy with the Lord is negatively impacted. His fruitfulness is as well. If he continues being on the “outside,” he will suffer the loss of eternal rewards. He is like the stony or thorny soil in the Parable of the Four Soils.
These truths are not taught only in the Gospel of Mark. The Gospel of John teaches them as well. John uses a different word to describe believers who are inside with the Lord. That word is abide. In John 8:31-32, the Lord tells new believers to “abide in His word.” In John 15:4-7, Jesus tells the disciples to abide in His word in order to bear much fruit.
It is clear that the believer can remove himself from abiding with Christ. He can quit listening to His word. As Hodges puts it, he can lose the “disciple/Teacher relationship.”31 In the account in Mark 3, this would be the believer who does not enter the house and learn from the Master. In the crowds that followed Jesus there would have been people who had believed in Him for eternal life but did not do what was necessary to be close to and learn from Him. Like the thorny soil, such believers would include those who love the pleasures of this world and do not see the value of devoting time to learning from and obeying Him. Like the rocky soil, other believers would not have been willing to endure persecution because of their association with Him.
The NT also uses a reversal of the metaphor of being “inside” and “outside” with regard to the believer’s closeness to the Lord. In Heb 13:14, the author encourages his believing readers to suffer with Christ. He writes that Christ was crucified “outside” the city. The Lord was considered to be outside religious and polite Jewish society. It was a shameful place and a shameful death. The readers are commanded to go outside with Him.32 They were in danger of being like the rocky soil. The same idea is expressed in Mark 3–4. The disciple is found wherever the Lord is.
The same illustrative theme is used in Rev 3:20, with a strange twist. The church at Laodicea is filled with believers who are not disciples. They love the riches and pleasures of the world (Rev 3:17). As a result, they are not near the Lord. He is seen outside the church, while they are inside. While outside, He is knocking at the door, asking to join them in fellowship. Ironically, He wants to be inside with them.
It is not just Free Grace writers who maintain that believers can be on the “outside.” France says that the disciples, who cannot see or hear, are clearly associated with those unbelievers who are on the “outside” and who suffer from the same spiritual disabilities (4:12; 8:17-18).33 Bock takes the same position, adding that the hardened hearts of the disciples also point to their inability to understand (4:13).34 Lane simply states that the Twelve, in 8:17-18, appear no better than the crowds who are outside in 4:11-12.35
Bock also maintains that those who are on the outside in 4:11-12 include all who are not described by the fourth—the good—soil in the parable. This was argued above as well. If the second and third soils are believers, then there are believers who are on the outside when it comes to intimacy with the Lord. Those on the outside include everyone who is not open to what the Lord is saying.36 This would include disobedient believers.
Kuruvilla rightly states that the Lord applies Isa 6:9-10 (Mark 4:11-12) to the apostles in Mark 8:17-21. It is clear that those who are inside and outside regarding the Lord are “fluctuating” groups. Every disciple runs the risk of becoming an “uncomprehending outsider” and needs to guard against it.37
It makes perfect sense that a book like Mark, written to believers, would warn them about the importance of listening to and obeying the words of the Lord. Jesus is in the house. As believers, we can go inside and learn from Him. We can sit at His feet. He gives us the things we need in order to bear fruit in this life and in the world to come.
What a privilege believers have. However, they can refuse to take advantage of this privilege. They can quit listening. They still have eternal life. But they have stepped outside the house. Once outside, they find themselves standing with the scribes and Mary.
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1 This means that Jesus cleansed the temple in Jerusalem twice during His ministry, once at the beginning and once at the end (Mark 11:15-17).
2 Allan Chapple, “Jesus’ Intervention in the Temple: Once or Twice?,” JETS 58 (2015): 545-69.
3 We see here that the word parable in Greek has a wide range of meanings. It can be used to describe a riddle that points out the ridiculous conclusion at which a person has arrived. Sometimes a proverb, or a figure of speech, is described as a parable. It can also mean what we usually understand it to mean, which is a story from everyday life that teaches a deeper point. See Rick Brannan, ed., Lexham Research Lexicon of the Greek New Testament (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2020), 278.
4 R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark, NIGTC (Grand Rapids, MI; Eerdmans, 2002), 164.
5 William L. Lane, The Gospel According to Mark (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974), 189-90.
6 The tense of the verb in verse 22 indicates that the scribes “were saying” that Jesus was possessed by Satan. They were doing it repeatedly to different people. Their aim was to discredit Him in eyes of their countrymen.
7 France, Mark, 164.
8 Abraham Kuruvilla, Mark: A Theological Commentary for Preachers (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2012), 70.
9 Ibid., 125-26.
10 John D. Grassmick, “Mark,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary, eds. John F. Walvoord and Roy B. Zuck (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1983), 112.
11 The Critical Text is divided on the issue.
12 BDAG, 756.
13 After the Lord’s resurrection, at least some of them believed. These included the authors of the NT books Jude and James.
14 M. J. Wilkins, “Unique Discipleship to a Unique Master: Discipleship in the Gospel according to Mark,” The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, vol 8 (2004): 57.
15 Darrell L. Bock, Mark (Cambridge, ENG: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 167. Bock says that the “sandwich” technique puts Mary in this bad company.
16 This is supported by the idea that there is no clear presentation of the gospel of eternal life by faith alone in the book. There is also early church evidence that the book was written to believers. See, for example, Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 6.14.5-6.
17 Some great Bible teachers maintain that doing the will of God in the NT always refers to believing in Jesus for eternal life. What is being argued here is that the audience determines the meaning. Doing the will of the Father means one thing for the unbeliever and another for the believer. In this account, as well as in Luke 8, the Lord is telling believers what the will of the Father is for them.
18 Zane C. Hodges, Absolutely Free! A Biblical Reply to Lordship Salvation (Dallas, TX: Redención Viva, 1989), 83-88.
19 Robert N. Wilkin, Is Calvinism Biblical?: Let the Scriptures Decide (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2017), 99-104.
20 Barry Mershon, Jr., “The Gospel According to Mark,” in The Grace New Testament Commentary, vol 1 (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical 2010) 156.
21 Zane C. Hodges, “Problem Passages in the Gospel of John, Part 2: Untrustworthy Believers—John 2:23-25,” Bib Sac 135 (1978): 139-52.
22 The fourth occurrence is found at the end of the verse 24. The MT states that more will be given “to you who hear.” The CR simply says that more will be given. Even if one accepts the CR, the context makes it clear that only the one who hears will be given more.
23 In light of the Parable of the Four Soils, it would also include rewards in the kingdom.
24 Kenneth W. Yates, Hebrews: Partners with Christ (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2019), 80-83.
25 France says that Mark wants to make a direct connection between those who are the outside in Mark 4:11 and Mary. See, France, Mark, 197.
26 Kuruvilla, Mark, 81.
27 Actually, the number of people was much larger because the number mentioned in both cases does not include women and children.
28 Mershon, “Mark,” 173.
29 Lane, Mark, 282.
30 In Mark 4, the Lord appeals to Isaiah 6. Jeremiah 5:21 and Ezek 12:2 have the same theme, where, like Isaiah, the prophets go to the nation of Israel and the people will not listen. Here, in Mark 8, the Lord refers to the passage in Ezekiel.
31 Zane C. Hodges, The Epistles of John: Walking in the Light of God’s Love (Irving, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 1999), 81-82.
32 Yates, Hebrews, 214.
33 France, Mark, 317. He points out that the disciples have hope however, when the Lord asks if they “still” do not understand (8:17). This might imply that they will understand, see, and hear in the future. But there is no guarantee.
34 Bock, Mark, 237.
35 Lane, Mark, 282.
36 Bock, Mark, 175. Bock rightly sees that the second and third soils are on the outside. However, he seems to believe that these two soils represent unbelievers.
37 Kuruvilla, Mark, 82.
