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Edexcel GCSE Religious Studies A · 1RA0
Edexcel 1RA0 · 2.2 Check the specification (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
Analyze the Parable of the Tenants and how it illustrates the potential costs of discipleship for Christians.
Explain the Parable of the Sower, detailing how the different groups represent various types of Christians and responses to discipleship.
Evaluate the importance of these parables in relation to the Kingdom of God.
Assess divergent Christian understandings of the Kingdom of God as both a realized present reality and a future expectation.
Jesus used parables: stories drawn from familiar situations that communicate spiritual meanings. Farming provided images his listeners could understand, such as sowing seed or renting out a vineyard. These stories also challenged listeners to consider their own response to God.
The Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Tenants both explore discipleship, meaning following Jesus and putting his teaching into practice. They show that hearing God’s message does not automatically mean accepting it, and that remaining faithful may be costly.
Both also concern the Kingdom of God. This means God’s rule, rather than simply a country with geographical borders. Christians differ over whether to emphasise God’s rule already working in people’s lives, its future fulfilment, or both.
In Mark 4:1–20, Jesus teaches a large crowd beside a lake, sitting in a boat while the listeners remain on the shore. He describes a sower scattering seed. The seed falls in four different places, with very different results.
Jesus explains that the seed represents the word, or God’s message. The sower represents someone spreading that message: Jesus in his ministry, and those who continue teaching and sharing it. The different types of ground represent different responses to the same message.
| Ground | What happens to the seed | Meaning for discipleship |
|---|---|---|
| Path | Birds eat the seed before it grows. | People hear the message, but Satan takes it away before it becomes an enduring commitment. |
| Rocky ground | Seed sprouts quickly in shallow soil, but the sun scorches it because it has no root. | People receive the message joyfully, but abandon it when trouble or persecution comes because of it. |
| Among thorns | Thorns grow around the plants and choke them, so they produce no grain. | People hear the message, but worries, the lure of wealth and desires for other things prevent it from bearing fruit. |
| Good soil | Seed grows and produces grain: thirty, sixty or a hundred times what was sown. | People hear and accept the message, allowing it to produce lasting results in their lives. |
These are not four different messages. The contrast lies in how people receive and respond to God’s word. Nor does the story suggest that initial enthusiasm is enough: the rocky ground produces quick growth, but no lasting harvest.
The rocky ground shows that discipleship needs endurance. A person may welcome Christianity but stop practising it when their faith attracts hostility. Jesus specifically connects this group’s failure with trouble or persecution arising because of the word (Mark 4:17).
The thorns show a different danger. Faith can be crowded out without being openly rejected. For example, a Christian might allow the pursuit of money to become more important than living according to Jesus’ teaching. The warning concerns the power of wealth and other desires to dominate a person’s priorities, not simply the possession of money.
Good soil represents receptive, committed disciples. They do more than hear: they accept the word and bear fruit (Mark 4:20). Christians can understand this fruit as living out Jesus’ teaching and sharing the good news with others, helping the Kingdom to grow.
The role of the sower matters too. Christians who spread the message should expect varied responses rather than assume everyone will accept it. The unsuccessful seed does not make sowing pointless: the good soil produces a substantial harvest. The story therefore encourages continued teaching and witness despite disappointment, while challenging hearers to examine their own commitment.
In Mark 12:1–12, a man plants a vineyard, rents it to tenants and goes away. When he sends servants to collect his share of its produce, the tenants mistreat them. Finally, he sends his son, expecting the tenants to respect him.
Instead, the tenants recognise the son as the heir and decide to kill him, believing they can take the inheritance. Their plan does not succeed: the owner punishes and removes the tenants and gives the vineyard to others.
This parable works as an allegory, with its characters representing people in the relationship between God and Israel:
The immediate challenge is to the religious leaders who recognise that Jesus has told the parable against them. It should not be treated as a claim that every Jewish person rejected Jesus; Jesus and his first disciples were themselves Jewish.
Jesus also refers to the stone rejected by the builders becoming the cornerstone. The image reverses the apparent outcome: the rejected one becomes essential. Christians understand this as showing that human rejection of Jesus does not defeat God’s purpose.
The Tenants presents a much more confrontational picture than the Sower. God’s messengers do not merely encounter indifference: they face violence. Jesus continues challenging the leaders even though doing so makes him enemies.
For Christians today, this means that faithful discipleship cannot be measured simply by popularity or personal safety. Spreading Jesus’ message or challenging wrongdoing may bring rejection, persecution and, in extreme circumstances, death. The servants’ treatment and the killing of the son show how serious that cost can be.
The story also challenges Christians who exercise authority. The vineyard belongs to the owner, not the tenants. Religious responsibility should therefore serve God’s purposes rather than personal power. Christians can apply this warning to their own communities instead of assuming it concerns only other people.
Together, the two parables show both sides of the challenge: disciples must remain receptive to God’s message, and those who communicate it may suffer for doing so.
Some Christians emphasise a realised Kingdom: God’s rule is already active through Jesus and those who accept his teaching. The Sower supports this because people are responding to the word now. Good soil already bears fruit, suggesting that the Kingdom grows through present faith and action. This interpretation gives immediate importance to Christian discipleship: living according to Jesus’ message participates in God’s rule today.
Other Christians emphasise the future Kingdom, associated with eternal life with God or the full establishment of God’s rule at Jesus’ Second Coming. They interpret the Sower’s harvest as pointing towards a future fulfilment rather than only present results. The Tenants also supports a future emphasis: rejection is followed by the owner’s judgement and the vineyard being entrusted to others. On this reading, opposition to Jesus does not prevent God’s Kingdom from ultimately being fulfilled and opened to others.
Both interpretations have strengths, but neither necessarily excludes the other. A future-only interpretation can understate the importance of people’s present response to Jesus. A present-only interpretation can understate the expectation of judgement and complete fulfilment.
A Christian can therefore conclude that the Kingdom is already present but not yet complete. The Sower shows God’s word producing results now while pointing towards a harvest; the Tenants shows that rejection is real but will not have the final word. This conclusion connects present responsibilities with future hope, explaining why Christians should persevere even when discipleship is difficult.
Seed = God’s word; sower = one who spreads it; ground = responses.
Discipleship requires lasting commitment, right priorities and fruitful action. Sowers should persevere despite varied responses.
Owner = God; vineyard = Israel; tenants = rejecting leaders; servants = prophets; son = Jesus.
Tenants mistreat messengers and kill the son to seize the inheritance. The owner punishes them and gives the vineyard to others. The rejected stone becomes the cornerstone.
Christian significance: witness may bring rejection or persecution; authority is entrusted by God, not owned for personal advantage; rejection cannot defeat God’s purpose.
Weigh what each interpretation explains, then justify a conclusion using the parables.
When explaining a parable, connect the story detail to its meaning and then to Christian discipleship today.
Distinguish rocky ground from thorny ground: persecution causes the first group to abandon faith; worldly concerns choke the second group’s commitment.
Use relevant references such as Mark 4:17–20 and Mark 12:1–12, explaining how they support your point rather than simply adding a quotation.
In an evaluation, compare different Christian interpretations and weigh their evidence. Explain why your conclusion is stronger than the alternatives.
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Last updated
Parable
A short story using familiar situations to communicate a religious or spiritual meaning.
Allegory
A story in which characters, objects or events represent other people or ideas.
Discipleship
Following Jesus and putting his teaching into practice, including accepting the demands and possible costs of doing so.
Kingdom of God
God’s rule, understood by Christians as active through Jesus and in believers’ lives now, and as something that will be fully established in the future.
Realised Kingdom
The understanding that God’s rule is already present through Jesus and in the lives of those who accept his message.
Persecution
Hostility or mistreatment directed at people because of their religious beliefs or practices.
Second Coming
The Christian belief that Jesus will return, associated with judgement and the full establishment of God’s rule.
Put your knowledge into practice — try past paper questions for Religious Studies A
Parable
A short story using familiar situations to communicate a religious or spiritual meaning.
Allegory
A story in which characters, objects or events represent other people or ideas.
Discipleship
Following Jesus and putting his teaching into practice, including accepting the demands and possible costs of doing so.
Kingdom of God
God’s rule, understood by Christians as active through Jesus and in believers’ lives now, and as something that will be fully established in the future.
Realised Kingdom
The understanding that God’s rule is already present through Jesus and in the lives of those who accept his message.
Persecution
Hostility or mistreatment directed at people because of their religious beliefs or practices.
Second Coming
The Christian belief that Jesus will return, associated with judgement and the full establishment of God’s rule.