Outline the teaching about the kingdom of god in the parables of Marks gospel.

GCSE Religious Studies (Philosophy & Ethics)

Mathew Atkinson 10B Pg of

4/6/04 Parables of the Kingdom- RE Coursework

To answer this question I will study four parables from marks gospel. The four parables are;

The sower,
The seed (growing secretly),
The lamp,
The mustard seed

The Sower

In this parable the parable of the sower is a parable of which Jesus relates to the Kingdom of God as if it were a seed. He says that some people are like seeds that all fall along the path to which they wont grow but be taken away by satin. These are the people that chose not to listen to God. Other seeds are scattered fall on rocky ground, these are the people who receive the message of God gladly however it does not sink in deep enough and does not last long. Other seeds fall in thorn bushes, these are the people who hear the message, but worry about life, and become suffocated by desire. The other seeds fall in good soil and these are the people who hear the message and accept it. Jesus relates us to the soil in which the seed grows however this parable explains how it might be difficult for different people as it is a challenge to become good enough soil for the kingdom of god to grow up and flourish in.

For this to happen you need to be committed and put in 100% effort in letting go of the worlds values, however Jesus knows that unlike the soil we as people can grow and mature to one day become good enough soil to enter the ultimate Kingdom. When reading the parable you automatically relate yourself to one of the surfaces in which the seed lands and try to understand how to become good soil.

The seed (growing secretly)

In this parable the growing seed to which Jesus relates the kingdom of God to. Jesus says that a man scatters his seeds in his field and as he sleeps at night and is up during the day the seeds are growing however the man does not know how this happens. When the corn is ripe the man starts cutting it down as harvest has come. This parable is to tell the disciples that they do not need to know how the kingdom of God grows and that they can leave that to God. He also says that the kingdoms development will be Gods work and will be ready in Gods own time.

The lamp

This parable tells us basically whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought into the open. It also says, “Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”

In this parable, Jesus teaches us that we should not under any account hide or denies our beliefs about the Kingdom of God. We should always be open about our beliefs and that we have nothing to be ashamed of.

The second part of the parable where Jesus tells us that the way we judge people will be used in the same way to judge ourselves by God is meant to teach us not to put other peoples believes down. He tells us to respect other peoples beliefs the way we would like our believes to be respected.

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The mustard seed

The parable of the mustard seed tells us of how the smallest seed in the world creates after a while the largest plant/tree known to man where all birds can come and shelter in the shade.

This parable tells us that the kingdom of God started of small with only two people and now it has grown and grown and now everyone can shelter in the kingdom of god.

Explain with examples from marks gospel, the differences between a parable and an allegory by comparing the sower (4v1-9) with the wicked tenants (12v1-12)

An allegory is a Story/poem/picture, which has a hidden message in it that needs to be decoded in order to understand it. An allegory may depart from everyday life into a make believe world.

A parable is a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson. It has one central point of teaching and details of the story make the point both clear and vivid. A parable usually relates to real life and is left for the reader/listener to work out. This is the most common way of teaching Jesus used.

The mustard seed

The mustard seed is a parable because it is a simple story, which tries to get a moral lesson across to us. The story tells us of how the smallest seed grows into the biggest plant known to man. This is when all the birds come and rest on the large branches in the shade and make nests.

The story of the mustard seed is a parable because it is trying to get across a moral point that just because something is small or inadequate should not under-estimate it. This parable also relates to real life because often we under estimate people because of their size, shape, and more often than not ability.

The wicked tenant

The wicked tenant is an allegory because it is story, which is complicated with a hidden message, which requires a lot of thought in order to work out its meaning. This story tells us of how a man who owned a vineyard of which he rented out to farmers and the man went away for a while. When harvest time came the man sent a servant to collect some fruit from the vineyard, the farmers killed this man, and this carried on and on until the man only had one servant left, his son. He sent his son and the farmers as before killed him. The man went back, killed the farmers, and gave his land to others.

The message that is hidden in this code is that, the vineyard is meant to symbolise the kingdom of God and the tenants are the Jewish leaders, which attack the landlord and his son God and Jesus. We can also interpret from this that the prophets are the servants of which were killed by the tenants. This is a very complex and confusing allegory, which teaches us about the kingdom of god and how God and his people are attacked on their own land.

To conclude the parable of the mustard seed is a simple story related to life compared to the wicked tenant, which is a complicated coded allegory. There is a strong difference between the two and they really both portray the same that evil people try to attack God on his on Land.

Explain the use of parables in Marks gospel

Mark uses parables to get a simple point across and to teach and guide people with a simple story and parables are also used so that people do not always understand the true meaning of something.

A parable that will help me to answer this question is a parable that Jesus used to teach his disciples about the meaning of parables. Jesus said in this parable ‘ To you the secret of the kingdom of god has been given; but to those outside everything comes by way of parables, so that they may look and look, but see nothing; they may hear and hear but understand nothing; otherwise they might turn to God and be forgiven.’ (4:11-12)

From reading this we get the impression that the secret about the kingdom of god has been given only to the disciples so therefore they are the only ones able to understand it. Also from reading this we discover that the people that are not disciples will be taught about the kingdom of god in parables so that they will be confused and not let into the kingdom.

There are several other angles that we could look at this from, one way is that they can be used to explain the way the disciples responded to Jesus and the ones that do not understand Jesus were the ones that stood on the outside as these were the ones that did not recognise who Jesus was and therefore did not understand him. The second interpretation is that the passage/parable does not mean the same now as it did then, as the word otherwise translated into modern day language means unless which changes the meaning of the parable and makes it easier to interoperate.

There is also a third interpretation of the parable, which could be that the purpose of parables is to hide the meaning or the truth about the kingdom of God from those people who do not truly believe. The parables were not designed for a clear understanding or for an easy way into the kingdom of God they were created as a way of teaching about the world around us or about real life. The parables were meant to be interpreted in different ways so that true believers in the kingdom of God could truly understand their meaning. However the parables were meant to explain and teach true believers about the kingdom of god and how to get into it.

An example of a parable teaching about the kingdom of God is the lamp as it says ‘ The same rules you use to judge others will be used to judge you, those who have something will be given more, and those who have nothing will have taken away from them even the little they have.’ I think third interpretation is the most likely.

To conclude this extract from the lamp demonstrates clearly that if you want to get into the kingdom you have to prove yourself to god. The parables were a method of teaching about the kingdom of God to those who accepted what Jesus said.

‘This Earth will never be gods kingdom.’

Evaluation:

The kingdom of god is very relevant to Christians today, the church teaches us to more strongly believe in the kingdom as they say it is something present in our lives.

To disagree with this statement is very easy for most people. As there is so much crime, diseases, poverty and sin in this world people believe that the kingdom cannot be on Earth when all this is happening. This completely contradicts all that God stands for if the Earth is truly Gods kingdom. Another reason for not believing in the kingdom is that when Jesus was here he performed miracles. This is shown in marks gospel when Jesus heals a paralysed man, Jesus said ‘ I tell you, get up, pick up your mat, and go home!’ The man then picked up his mat and walked away.’ Also Jesus heals a man from skin disease and when the woman that touched Jesus coat and in this Jesus was able to cure the woman who had severe bleeding and he then goes onto bringing back to life a small girl by saying ‘Talitha, koum’ which means ‘little girl, I tell you to get up! Jesus did all these miracles so this suggests to some people that the kingdom of god was only ever present on Earth when Jesus was here.

Also to agree with this statement Jesus talked as if the kingdom of god had already arrived on Earth. This is shown when Jesus says to the children ‘let the children come to me, and do not stop them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these’. Jesus talks like this again when he talks to the rich man he says ‘ My children it is much harder for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God than a camel to enter through the eye of a needle’. Jesus also suggests that it would appear on Earth in the future on judgement day as he says ‘when the stars fall from heaven, and the powers in space will be driven from their courses. Then the son of man will appear coming in the clouds with great power and glory.’ He also goes onto say, ‘I tell you, there are some here who will not die until they have the kingdom of god come to power’.

Another Christian belief is that the church is god’s kingdom on earth as we live by Gods Ten Commandments. But there are also those that argue that as God created the world and is active in it is the kingdom. However there is also evidence to prove that this statement is correct as Jesus did get rid of suffering whilst on Earth, there are still many that suffer today. Or maybe this can be interpreted that Jesus did what he could and that as humans had the free will they chose to sin rather than listen to him so maybe that’s why the kingdom of god is not here and maybe when we sort our selves out the kingdom of God will truly be on Earth.

To conclude I agree with the statement because some of Jesus teachings suggest that the kingdom of god is eternal life. My theory is supported in marks gospel when Jesus says ‘ I tell you I will never again drink this wine until the day I drink the new wine in the kingdom of god’. I think that many people like to think that when they die they receive eternal life in the kingdom of god and that is why I agree with the statement.

Mathew Atkinson 10B Pg of