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The Sower, The Seed and The Soils
Mark 4: 1-20
Proposition: The receptivity of a person to grasp what Jesus is offering is dependent on their willingness to not to be callously packed down, shallow in character or cluttered in life style but rather plowed up by repentance and belief.
Introduction: In the previous chapter we saw how Jesus instructed that a small boat be made ready for Him because the crowds were getting greater and were crushing in on Him. So earnest were the people to receive healing that they pushed forwards to touch Him and created such a furor that He could not address the crowd. It was like a Boxing Day sale on healing, a frenzy of hands reaching out to Him and yet this was not the main purpose for why He had come. What benefit was there in a restored leper or eyes that can see if they still end up in hell? As Jesus pushed out from shore in the small boat He could likely still hear their cries for attention and He could see that there was a wide range of receptivity in the hearts of the people to all that He had taught. I believe that the gospel always accompanied the healing, the truth walked hand in hand with the power. So it is as Jesus looks upon this crowd that He now speaks to them about the receptivity of their minds and hearts to what has been taught. Turn to Mark 4:1-20.
I. The Point of the Story – Don’t Waste the Word of God. The viewpoint of a farmer is that everything that does not produce crop is wasted seed. There are four examples of how the seed is sown, only the last example is the one that actually results in some kind of multiplied result. Let’s take a moment and identify the pieces in the story or parable. The sower is Jesus, it refers to Him even as He is now sitting in a boat casting the truth before the people. The seed is the truth of what He is teaching, it is the words of God. Strange to think that God uses words just like us and yet we know that it’s really the other way around, we were created in His image, not He created in ours. We have come to know words because God uses words. Jesus is even described by John as being the Word that was with God and was God. In the purposes of God His Word is mostly about self revelation, He uses it to reveal Himself to us that we would know Him. He also uses His Word to direct us in our thoughts, attitudes and actions that we would move closer to Him. The soil in the story refers to our thoughts and attitudes and actions as we respond to this seed of His word. Clearly the seed or words of Jesus are being wasted because of the resistance of some of the soil types, the wayside type, the rocky ground and the thorn choked ground. The implied point of the story then is ‘Don’t Waste the Word’. I suppose that if we were to push the parable a little more what we’d also conclude is that the seed never gets the opportunity to un-package itself properly unless there is a ploughed up and receptive heart. The seed has a DNA packed into it, the ability to open up design and then foundational construction that brings about full purpose in what is planted. It produces fruit or crop or in simple terms an evident benefit to others than looks just like what was originally given. That’s what the Word of God can do, it can make your life fruitful by directing you to Christ and to become like Him. It not only causes life to spring up in you, the eternal life of Christ, it can transform your life so that others benefit deeply in the same way. It’s why we receive the implied warning, ‘Don’t Waste the Word of God’. So what are the contributing factors that would cause this?
II. Waste Occurs When the Soil Has Not Been Prepared.In the parable the three soil types, that represent non-receptive hearts to the word of God, describe three ways we neglect the work of preparing our hearts.
1. The Wayside - it implies a pathway by the side of the field, a place where the ground is compressed because of people walking on it. And it’s good that it is compressed because now it’s easier to walk on, in fact it’s why people walk there and not in the field. You could say it’s the path of least resistance, it’s where I don’t have to work so hard to get from A to B. Perhaps the Wayside in our lives can be that path of least resistance where the Word doesn’t penetrate because it takes too much time, too much effort. Perhaps the well trodden routines of how we go about each day pack down harder and harder so that the idea of creating time to read, time to pray, time to think and to bless others spiritually is like that wayside which the seed falls on. It becomes an easy issue for Satan to distract you from it, to get it away from you before it can begin to un-package the design it has for your life. Wayside living looks for the path of least resistance, especially that which resists my sin nature and inclinations to self.
2. The Rocky Soil – this implies that there’s something in the soil, in the receptivity of these people’s hearts, that displaces the soil. That’s what a rock or stone does, it takes the place of the soil that could be there. If you’ve ever experienced the education of picking rocks from a farmer’s field you’ll know how many rocks there can be. It almost seems like the field produces rocks because year after year they pick rocks and next year they have to do it again. So what could these rocks represent in our lives that contribute to the wasting of the Word. The clue is given by Jesus in verse 17, they have no root in themselves. In other words there is no source of life, that’s what a root does, it finds the water, it becomes the nutrient source and the anchor. The rocky soil has displaced the desire to know God with a desire to know other things. That knowledge is polluted with the belief that we only need God to help us occasionally and it slowly changes into… ‘We don’t need God.’ The rocky soil has no root in itself, it fails in temptation and trial.
3. The Thorny Soil- this implies that there are other seeds also getting into what started out as good ground. It’s worthwhile noting that thorns are a result of Adam’s sin, they are a reminder of the consequences of unbelief in God. Thorns grow faster, consume more nutrient and defend themselves better than good seed. They are pernicious, hard to get out once they get in. Being dominant, they will suck out the life intended for the Word. I suppose in short, the thorns seek to promise to deliver what only the Word can deliver. The deceitfulness of riches refers to the lie that wealth is life. The cares of the world refer to the diverted resources of time and energy away from the truth towards that which is all about right now. The thorny soil receives the Word but also receives many other things as being of equal priority, the net effect is that the Word gets choked. When the word is choked, says Jesus, people become unfruitful in terms of their ability to know and glorify God. So waste occurs when the soil has not been prepared. So how does a person’s receptivity to the word become the good soil?
III. The Mystery Revealed and the Shocking Words of Jesus! When the disciples asked Jesus about the parable Jesus tells them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God…”. God is taking the initiative to help them connect the dots of prophecy, to grasp the understanding that His kingdom is eternal and it’s entry point is through faith and the forgiveness of sins which Jesus Christ has come to accomplish through the cross. They are just beginning to grasp that and to be able understand what the various parables are all speaking about. God takes the initiative, it’s what the phrase, “to you it has been given..” refers to. But look at the shocking statement that comes next. “But to those outside all things come in parables so that, “Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn and their sins be forgiven them.” This shocking statement is a quote from Isaiah 6 and it seems to go directly against the desire of Jesus to reach the lost. Is Jesus really saying that He uses parables so that people will not discover the kingdom of God? The answer is ‘No’. We can say that assertively because of the many, many times Jesus proclaimed His invitation to all who are burdened and under the weight of sin. He came for this purpose, to fulfill the directive of John 3:16. So how do we interpret this? Do you remember what Jesus had just said to those who accused Him of being possessed by Beelzebub, how He told them of the unforgiveable sin. We spoke on that last week and recognized that the consequence of a hardened heart was the loss of ability to hear the Spirit of God in terms of conviction of sin and counsel of truth and ultimately loss of eternal life. Jesus was saying that those people who had become so resistant to God that there was no receptivity to the Holy Spirit, would have the word of God presented to them and they wouldn’t be moved by it. They could see the evidence of the Lord but be blind to see it as a God event. God would move in accordance to that unbelief as He did with Pharaoh and cause their heart to be hardened even more so. A person’s heart becomes the good soil because of the work of God, it’s given to them by the Spirit to be able to see and hear the truth of the Word. The heart grows in receptivity as it recognizes the perils of being wayside or rocky or thorny ground and seeks to do the opposite for His glory, that fruitfulness occurs.