Mark Chapter 4

He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

-verse 34

I wonder how this must have felt to the disciples. At times they must have felt stupid when Jesus said things like, "don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?" (verse 13). But on balance they must have felt privileged to be among the select few who received a more detailed explanation. How did they process this privileged status? Surely Jesus wanted the whole world to understand his message. Why, then, wouldn't he do whatever it took to make sure everyone understood?

Jesus explains this to the disciples in verses 11-12. While doing so, he quotes Isaiah 6, the prophet Isaiah's famous vision of heaven in which God sends him out with a prophetic message. Take a look at Isaiah 6:9-13, and note the points of God's message to Isaiah:

• Most people will be hardened to God's message and unable to understand or accept it, even though they hear it and have opportunity (verses 9-10);
• Such people will not avoid the catastrophe that comes from being alienated from God (verses 11-12)'
• A small percentage, however, of faithful people will remain, hear, understand, and respond to God. Not only will they be preserved, but God's people and His movement will be rebuilt from this group.

Jesus seems to be likening his disciples to the last group, and implying that although everyone has an opportunity to hear, most are too calloused to his message to receive it. He may even imply that when confronted with his message, listeners are often hardened by being forced to respond to it. The Parable of the Sower in Mark 4 has a similar message. If Jesus is the farmer, he is spreading the seed everywhere, but he recognizes some soils are going to be especially productive, and he cultivates there.

In these parables Jesus stresses the point that he doesn't force his way on anyone. If you or I choose not to allow the seed of his message to take root, we have that prerogative. But where his message is germinating and growing, he's going to work the soil and make it flourish.

Just like the first disciples, we can take this idea too far and think of ourselves more highly than we should, as if we have somehow merited extra attention by God. Nothing could be further from the truth. If anything we, like the disciples, have been given extra responsibility as carriers of his message. Nor does the story imply that some people are too far gone to respond to Christ. In Romans 11:7-12, the apostle Paul references the same passage in Isaiah 6 and emphatically states that no one is "beyond recovery" (v. 11), not even those who have previously rejected Christ.

Jesus loves everyone, but he's also strategic. He cultivates where it's going to be productive. He doesn't just throw everything on the wall to see what sticks. We should be the same: loving everyone but investing strategically. Who benefits from your strategic investments? Who is ready to be cultivated in your life?