GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 4:11
Mystery Revealed
At one time I owned a Ford Focus automobile. It was a delightful little car to drive, but I noticed that when the car was put in reverse, the backup light did not shine. I checked the bulbs, and they were good. So it must be the switch that had stopped working. I thought replacing the switch would be a simple task. I purchased the switch at the local Ford dealer and began searching the car for the faulty switch. I looked all through the engine compartment and around the transmission, but I couldn’t find the switch. I finally decided to turn to that fountain of knowledge—Google. I found a YouTube video describing how to change the switch. It was necessary to remove the battery, the battery frame, and a couple of other components. When the dismantling was complete, there was the switch—an easy replacement. Easy, that is, once the mystery of its location was revealed.
After Jesus’ lesson about the farmer planting seed, the disciples asked him to explain the parable. “And he said to them, ‘To you, the mystery of the Kingdom of God has been given; but to those outside, all things come in parables.’” (Mark 4:11) In the parallel accounts in the Gospel of Matthew (13:11) and Luke (8:10), the kingdom is also referred to as a “mystery,” which has a different meaning for the New Testament writers than that of modern parlance—something that is complicated and mysterious. In the New Testament era, the word referred to something that is quite unintelligible to the person who has not been initiated into its meaning.
Mark and his compatriots knew about “mystery” religions in which the seeker had to undergo a process of initiation until he entered into the “mystery.” Jesus was not saying that the kingdom was remote, abstruse, and hard to understand; but he did mean that knowledge of the kingdom is quite unintelligible to the person who hasn’t given his heart to Jesus. Only the person who has taken Jesus as Master and Lord can understand what the Kingdom of God means.
Once I understood the “mystery” of the faulty Focus switch, the change was easy. Once the believer submits his heart to Jesus, he is surrounded by the Kingdom of God—the mystery revealed.
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