Mark 4:10-12

Mark 4 ¹⁰When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹²so that,
   ” ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
      and ever hearing but never understanding;
   otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ “

Other translations of the last line are “lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them,” and “so they will not turn from their sins and be forgiven.” Lest their sins be forgiven? Doesn’t God want to forgive us? Why does it seem like Jesus is trying to prevent people from being forgiven?

Well, we know that Jesus does want us to be forgiven from passages like

Mark 3 ²⁸I tell you the truth, all the sins and blasphemies of men will be forgiven them.

Mark 5 ²²For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. ²³If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.

Matthew 26 ²⁸This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.

Luke 7 ⁴⁷Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little.

So how do we reconcile this passage? First of all, who is the “they” in the passage? Let’s take the “they” to mean just the Pharisees and the teachers of the religious law, rather than an all-encompassing “they.” This would actually be right in line with Jesus actions in these passages

Matthew 12 ¹³Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other. ¹⁴But the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might kill Jesus. ¹⁵Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. Many followed him, and he healed all their sick, ¹⁶warning them not to tell who he was.

Matthew 16 ¹⁶Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. ¹⁹I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

Mark 3  ¹¹Whenever the evil spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” ¹²But he gave them strict orders not to tell who he was.

Why was he hiding his identity? Didn’t Jesus want all people to come to know him?

John 7  ⁶Therefore Jesus told them, “The right time for me has not yet come; for you any time is right. ⁷The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that what it does is evil. ⁸You go to the Feast. I am not yet going up to this Feast, because for me the right time has not yet come.” ⁹Having said this, he stayed in Galilee.

Jesus knew the hearts of the Pharisees.

Matthew 23  ²⁵“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.

He did not come for earthly glory, he came to humbly submit himself as a sacrifice for his creation.

Philippians 2  ⁸And being found in appearance as a man,
      he humbled himself
      and became obedient to death—
         even death on a cross!

And so, until his resurrection, he kept his identity very secretive – both to avoid encouraging his followers to look at him as an earthly king

John 18  ³⁶Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

and to avoid a run-in with the Pharisees until he had done everything he needed to do. When they finally came for him, he went willingly, but until then he refused to make scenes unnecessarily. As God, he knows the Pharisee’s hearts. He often talks of them as self-righteous and hypocritical – although he wants the Pharisees to come to know him he perhaps knows that they will not no matter what he says. Therefore, he is content to hide truths from them that would cause an uproar and hinder his plan for his life here on earth. And the Pharisees that do seek him out are able to come to know him – as shown by the brief mention of the Pharisee Nicodemus bringing burial spices to Jesus’ tomb.

Another way to read the last line of Mark 4:12 is that if they did perceive and understand, they would be forgiven. We often think of perceiving and understanding as involuntary things – you either get it or you don’t, and you can’t blame someone for not getting it. But perhaps it is a choice. You know those people who, when they listen to something, are not thinking about the other person’s train of thought, but rather thinking of how to refute each thing the person says. There is usually some sort of refutation to made for anything – even true things. We know that the Pharisees have been playing their game of trying to trick Jesus into saying something false. Perhaps they are seeing but not perceiving and hearing but not understanding of their own accord – they aren’t trying to perceive and understand, they are just trying to refute him. And this would work for anyone who was listening, not just the Pharisees. The “they” could be the Pharisees or it could be a more general “they.”

The last way I want to look at this passage is in Isaiah, where it is quoted from. These few lines are the beginning of a prophesy in Isaiah which talks about a purifying destruction from the Lord, that the cities lie ruined and less than a tenth of the population remains

Isaiah 6 ^13b  But as the terebinth and oak
       leave stumps when they are cut down,
       so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.

 So here again, Jesus is showing that in order to truly know him you have to actively seek him out – otherwise you will be among those scattered and destroyed. Jesus’ parables require the listener to question and ask and submit and discover. And only because of God’s grace and mercy and love, not because of anything any person does, those that accept faith are made “holy seed” (this can happen to ANYONE).

–> for the next post, the passage I will be looking at is:

Mark 7 ²⁴Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. ²⁵In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. ²⁶The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.  ²⁷“First let the children eat all they want,” he told her, “for it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”  ²⁸“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”  ²⁹Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

Read it and start thinking about what YOU think it means! (I have no idea yet 🙂 )