টীকা বর্তমানে শুধুমাত্র ইংরেজিতে উপলব্ধ। বাংলা অনুবাদ চলছে।
Mark 4 — Why Are Ye So Fearful? How Is It That Ye Have No Faith?
From a boat Jesus tells the crowd the parable of the sower — four soils, one seed, one explanation later given to His disciples. Other short parables follow: the lamp, the measure, the growing seed, the mustard seed. That evening He bids them cross the lake. A great storm arises; He is asleep on a pillow. They wake Him in panic; He rebukes the wind, says to the sea Peace, be still, and turns to them — Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?
“And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”
— Mark 4:40
- v.1-20 The parable of the sower
- v.21-25 The lamp and the measure
- v.26-29 The seed growing secretly
- v.30-34 The mustard seed
- v.35-41 The storm stilled
The thorny ground — the modern danger. The Word is heard, but the cares, riches, and lusts grow up alongside and choke it. The seed is not removed; it is suffocated. Many a profession of faith dies not from outright apostasy but from steady crowding-out.
Three chokers named — cares (anxiety), deceitfulness of riches (the lie that money satisfies), and lusts (cravings for other things). Each one is enough; together they are nearly invincible without pruning.
A picture of the secret kingdom. The farmer sows and sleeps; the seed grows by itself. The work is the seed's, not the farmer's. So the gospel takes root and grows in hearts in ways no preacher engineers.
He knoweth not how. The kingdom of God advances by means hidden to its servants. Faithful sowing is required; the mechanism of growth belongs to God. The labourer goes to bed and the seed keeps working.
A word, and the chaos obeys. Only the Creator of the sea can speak to it as to a servant. The disciples will ask the question in the next verse — what manner of man is this? — but Mark's reader already knows.
A great calm. Not a slowly subsiding storm but an instant peace. The peace He gives in trouble is of the same character — not the slow grinding-down of the trouble, but a calm beyond the trouble's power.
The rebuke after the rescue. Christ does not console their panic; He examines it. Faith and fear are presented as alternatives — to have no faith is to be governed by fear; to have faith is to be steady in His presence even on a sinking boat.
He is with them in the boat. Their fear was not because they were alone but because they had forgotten who was with them. The cure for fear is not certainty about outcomes but consciousness of the One present.
Examine which soil you are. The hardened hearer is rare; the rocky and thorny are everywhere. If the cares, riches, and lusts of this world are growing up around the Word in you, the seed is being choked even while you are still calling yourself a believer. Pull the thorns. Cut back the choking growth. Make room for the Word to bear thirty, sixty, a hundredfold — and not be suffocated by what feels harmless until it is too late.
The chapter ends with the disciples asking what manner of man is this? — and that is Mark's question for the reader too. The One who explains the parables of the kingdom is the One who governs the wind and sea. The sower of the Word is the Lord of the storm. The same Christ who is steady when His followers panic is the Christ who, in His own Gethsemane storm, will rise and not fail them.
The seed is the word — definite and identifiable. Not opinion, not technique. The sower's job is to scatter what God has given, not to invent something more appealing.
The four soils show that the same seed produces drastically different results — and the difference lies in the soil, not the seed. The hearer's heart is the variable. The Word does not change to fit the soil; the soil must be broken to receive the Word.