Nothing Sacred About Parables

Author: Pastor Mike Gutzler

Jesus just stepped away from a confrontational conversation with the religious leadership and now He is turning His attention back to the people. His objective here in chapter four is to help the common folk realize that in him the non-geographical kingdom of God has come near to them. Jesus is fundamentally changing how people understand the nature of God, what is holy, and God’s intimate interest in each of them.

In order for Jesus to make His point, He uses images and examples the common folk would know really well from their daily lives. Two thousand years ago, those images were predominantly agricultural in nature. Today, most of that imagery is lost on us “modern” folk.

In an attempt to modernize the parables for our current content, the following is a rewriting of the parables from Mark 4. One important note, like Jesus’ parables the images and examples are not sacred in any way. There is nothing particularly special about a sower or a mustard seed. Jesus simply uses what people know to emphasize his point. The same goes here, there is nothing sacred about the following examples.

Listen! A presidential candidate goes to Iowa. He/She hosts a ridiculous amount of campaign rallies. Some rallies are at large fairgrounds, but there are lots of other things to see and do. Some rallies are in town halls, and there is excitement that the candidate is in a hometown, but the excitement ended once the presidential candidate left. Some rallies are with large donors in extravagant settings, but there was little enthusiasm after the party. Other rallies were held in homes of just the right demographics of supporters, and when they heard the presidential candidate they were energized and fired up and volunteered for their campaign 30, 60 and 100X.

Do you not understand this parable? The Presidential candidate rallies are the Word. The rallies at the fairgrounds is where they hear but immediately are distracted by the other offers and different perspectives of similar candidates, and they then dismiss the rally all together. The rallies at the town hall are received with joy and excitement, but the town has no real connection to the candidate and therefore no long-term interest after the rally is over. The rallies held with the big donors are hopeful at first, but then the cares of the world and the lure of wealth and the desire for more earthly things comes and distracts, and then no support is given. The rallies held in the homes of supporters is where they feel as if the presidential candidate speaks exactly to who they are, and they feel called to respond 30, 60 or 100 times.

He said to them, when you go to a rock concert you don’t turn down the music, and the band does not turn off the speakers and amplifiers. The music at the concert is to be heard and is to be loud enough for everyone to hear. Listen to the music! Music is abundant. The more you have, the more you have to share and pass around. Even the little you have is great music and should be shared and played loud, too.

He also said, the kingdom of God is like a blogger who writes of her love for God. Day and Night she would write, but she does not know how people read her blog, whether by phone, or iPad, or other device. The blog magnifies itself. The first post, then the next, then the next, until the blog has an abundance of content. Then when the blog gets so popular, it goes viral.

He also said, What can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? It is like the Nano-processor in your phone. It is the smallest of processors, but yet it can run apps, make phone calls, send text messages, do FaceTime and so much more to the point that you can run your entire life on it.

Watch the performance of the Gospel of Mark Chapter 3 performed by Max McClean.