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It was a common practice in days of old in Europe for people to take “walking tours,” where they would travel through the countrysides on foot as far as their feet would carry them, and then they would stop and rest at homes and inns which were open to travelers and resume their tour the next day. Once, a man was walking through the countryside and he grew weary, so he stopped at a monastery and asked the friar if he might stay there over night. The monks welcomed him in and prepared a room for him to get some rest. As he prepared to go to sleep, he heard the most amazing sound he had ever heard. He had never heard anything quite like it. It was so beautiful that he could not sleep. The next day, the monks asked, “How did you rest?” He said, “Not very well. I couldn’t sleep for I heard this amazing and beautiful sound all night long. Tell me please, what was that sound.” They said, “Oh, we can’t tell you sir, for you are not a monk.” The man was disappointed, but said, “Then please allow me to stay one more night, that I might get some rest. Perhaps tonight I will sleep better.” They agreed, and that night, once more, he was kept awake by this amazing and beautiful sound. This went on for a week or so, every night the same thing. Finally, he said, “I must know what this sound is!” They said, “We can’t tell you, because you are not a monk.” The man said, “Alas, I must know, therefore I will become a monk.” They said, “But sir, that involves a year of preparation and study.” He said, “I don’t care. I must know the source of this beautiful and amazing sound.” And so he began the process of becoming a monk. Every night he heard this beautiful and amazing sound, and every morning he inquired about it. But every morning, he heard the same answer. “We can’t tell you; you aren’t a monk.” Finally the year of preparation and study came to an end, and the man became a monk. And then he finally learned what this amazing and beautiful sound was.
“Well, what was it?” you might ask. Well, I can’t tell you, because you are not a monk. And I don’t know myself, because I am not a monk.
In the last few sections of the Gospel of Mark, we have seen the reality of “insiders” and “outsiders.” The insiders are those who have seen Christ’s miraculous power and heard His authoritative word, and responded by faith to Him and committed themselves to follow Him and do the work of His Father. The outsiders are those who have seen and heard, but whose hearts were hard, and they did not respond in faith, but in unbelief. This was the point of Jesus interaction with the Scribes and with His family in Chapter 3. It was the point of the parable of the soils and His explanation of that parable in the earlier part of Chapter 4. It is the same point here in our text today.
In these verses, we find two miniature parables – one of a lamp and one of a measure. And between the two parables are two sentences which serve as a key to understanding the point of both. In verses 23 and 24, we read the words of Jesus, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. … Take care what you listen to.” “If anyone has ears,” Jesus says. Well, do you? Go ahead and check, I think most of us do. But are they ears to hear? Well, that is what they are for, but apparently not everyone uses them for that purpose. Do you have ears to hear? Jesus says, if so, then hear what it is He is saying to you in His word! In v24, our English translations offer the words Take care, take care, pay attention, consider carefully, to render the single Greek word blepete. That word literally means “to see.” “See what you listen to.” So, ears are not just for hearing, but also for “seeing.” “See what you hear.” You have ears, but can you hear? You hear, but are you listening? Do you “see” the truth of what He is saying to you? That is the point of the two parables Jesus speaks in these verses.
In the first parable we find a picture illustrating the idea that …
I. Light is for Seeing (vv21-22)
Jesus says, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed?” The obvious answer is “No!” The lamps found in homes in Jesus’ day were small clay lamps filled with oil, which would give off light sufficient to light an entire room, if it were placed in the proper location. That would be on a stand designed for just such a task. What would happen if you put it under a basket? Not only would the light be hidden, but the flame would be extinguished, because a flame needs air in order to burn. And what if you put it under the bed? The bed of which Jesus is speaking is not a bed like we sleep on, but probably the reclining couches used at the dinner table in those days. If you put the lamp under that, you can’t see what’s going on, and you might just catch the thing on fire. Don’t put the lamp there. Put it on the lampstand where it belongs and it will give light to the whole room.
Now there are two things going on here grammatically here that you don’t pick up on in the English translations. First is that Jesus is using the definite article here: it’s not just any lamp, it is the lamp. And secondly, the wording He uses does not indicate that the lamp is brought, but rather that the lamp comes. Well we clean it up a little for English, because only in Disney movies do lamps walk around by themselves. But this is no ordinary lamp Jesus is speaking of. It is the lamp that comes into the world to enlighten every man, as stated in John 1:9.
In the OT, a lamp is frequently used as a metaphor for God, the Messiah, or the Word of God. In 2 Samuel 22:29, David sings, “For You are my lamp, O Lord; And the Lord illumines my darkness.” In 2 Kings 8:19, after lamenting of the wicked unfaithfulness of the house of Ahab, we read, “However, the Lord was not willing to destroy Judah, for the sake of David His servant, since He had promised him to give a lamp to him through his sons always.” That lamp was the Messiah. And David says in those well-known words of Psalm 119:105, “Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” You remember that from VBS, don’t you? Well, in keeping with these Old Testament images, Jesus says that a true lamp has come into the world.
John put it this way in the first chapter of the Gospel that bears his name: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. … In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. … There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The Old Testament says that the Lamp is God, God’s Messiah, and God’s Word. The New Testament agrees, and all are found in the Person of Jesus Christ. He is God. He is God’s Messiah. He is God’s Word. And He has not come to be hidden, but to enlighten with spiritual truth. But hasn’t He just said in vv 11-12 that some of His truth is hidden? Indeed, He has. He has veiled the truth of the
But, why are things hidden? Are they hidden so as to never be seen again? No, you don’t call that “hidden.” You call that “lost.” When children play hide and seek, they go and hide, but they don’t hide forever. They are either found, or else the cry goes forth, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” But first they are hidden, so that later, they might be revealed. You hide things that are precious so that they will not be abused or misappropriated by those who do not recognize their true nature or function. But you hide them so you can bring them out again when the time and conditions are right.
Jesus explains the parable in v22, saying that there are some things that are hidden, but those things are intended to be revealed. For now there are secrets, but later they will come to light. This is a theme that runs all the way through the Gospel of Mark. When will they come to light? A clue is given to us in Mark 9:9. After taking Peter, James, and John up to the Mount of Transfiguration where they could see the glory of Christ unveiled before them, He ordered them to not tell anyone what they had seen UNTIL the Son of Man rose from the dead. And after the resurrection, what does He tell His followers? GO AND TELL IT TO EVERYONE! So for now, there are secrets, mysteries, hidden things, only accessible to the insiders of the Kingdom, but later, those things will be made known through the resurrection of Christ and the proclamation of His followers.
This Light is not for hiding, but for seeing. Some will not see, because their eyes are shut. They will not hear because their ears are shut. They will not understand, because their hearts are hard. And for them, these truths of Christ remain veiled and hidden until they are willing to hear, to listen, and to believe. So, “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” The light is for seeing.
But secondly, Jesus moves on to tell us that …
II. Truth is for Understanding (vv24-25)
See what you listen to! Since the light is for seeing, we will see the truth of what He is saying, if we have ears to hear. Here Jesus tells a parable of measures. “By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides.” Similar statements occur in various contexts in the other Gospel accounts, and this passage has often been abused by some to indicate financial or material blessing to those who give generously. But what is the context here? It is hearing and understanding God’s truth and rightly responding to it. And we must leave it in that context in order to understand it rightly.
There will be different degrees of response to what is heard. You have heard it all your lives – you get out of it what you put into it. That was true of your education, it is true of work, it is true of your relationships, and it is true of your participation in worship and the receiving of God’s Word. It is a principle of reciprocity. The diligence you expend in understanding and responding to Jesus will be proportionately rewarded. If you bring a small shovel of interest, you will get a small shovel full of understanding. But if you bring a large shovel of interest, then you get a large shovel full of understanding. And God’s grace exceeds the limits of mere reciprocity. Even more will be given in return for what you put in.
Jesus explains this further in the next verse: “For whoever has, to him more shall be given.” Truth received and carefully absorbed into one’s life will enlarge one’s capacity to receive more truth. Proper understanding will lead to accepting Jesus and entering the
And so it is, as R. T. France has said, that the optimism of vv21-22, that all that is now secret will in due time be revealed, is balanced by the realism of vv24-25, that there will still be those who fail to benefit from divine revelation.[1] That is why it is of such great importance that you see what you hear! If you have ears, God gave them to you so you could hear. And if you can hear, then will you listen? And if you will listen, will you understand? God has given light so you can see, He has spoken truth for you to hear and understand. And it is the most important matter in this life or the next that you do so.
When the Bible was translated into the Conob language of
That is the kind of listening Christ is calling for: the kind that begins with a willingness to hear, and moves on to a determination to understand, which then finds belief and obedience arising within the heart and sets out to follow Christ by faith. If you listen that way, you will not listen in vain to His word, for you will receive from God deeper and deeper understanding of His truth as you allow it to take root in your life. Neglect this word, and what little understanding you bring to the task will soon slip away leaving you to grope in darkness when inestimable light was offered to you.
It is like looking at a tapestry. Is there anything more beautiful than an image that has been hand woven with its individual threads coming together to present a unified depiction of some real object? Well, it depends on which side of the tapestry you are standing on. If you are looking at the back, then its all strings and knots, and nothing looks right; it just looks like a big mess. Oh but if you are looking at the front, you become lost in the breathtaking detail of the image. And so it is with the truth of God. To some it is meaningless, just a fragmented hodgepodge of meaningless sayings. But to those who stand on the right side of it, it is a thing of great beauty, and becomes all the more beautiful as He graciously guides us in our understanding of it. It is as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1:18: “The word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.”
Yes, it has become quite clear in these last several passages we have examined that when it comes to the
[1] R. T. France, The New International Greek Testament Commentary: The Gospel of Mark (
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