Digging Deeper into The Parable of the Sower - Mark 4: 3-8, 14-20

Over the last few weeks we have been looking at some of Jesus’s miracles, which established that he was not a wonder-working magician but that he was the Son of God.  He had power from on high which brought the Kingdom of God into reality on this earth.  We are now going to be looking at some of his teaching which explained how we can become part of the Kingdom of God.

Jesus was a master story teller.  As an itinerant preacher he would captivate his audience, who didn’t want him to finish and to leave.  And at the heart of His pulling power was the way he told stories to illustrate His message and to get the message across.

Thirty or so parables are recorded in the four gospel accounts of Jesus’s life.  What we have in the Bible is a selection, probably of the most often repeated stories.  Sometimes we hear the explanation given to the disciples – sometimes we don’t and we are left to work it out for ourselves.

The parable of the sower is one where we do.  Jesus describes four types of soil where the seed can fall as the farmer casts it by hand from a bag slung over his shoulder.  This was centuries before mechanised farming came in.  And this meant that inevitably some of the seed would fall on land that was not prepared and where it was not going to do well.  There were the paths where birds would feed on it. There were rocky areas with little soil, where the seed would grow rapidly, but the roots couldn’t grow deep and the plants would wither in the heat of the sun.  There were other areas where weeds grew up quickly and came to choke the seed as it came to life … and it didn’t end up producing anything.  And finally, there was good soil which produced an abundant harvest.

An invitation to Deeper Listening

Now Jesus could have left it at that  … but he doesn’t.  He says two things: v 9.  “He who has ears, let him hear” We hear with our ears, but there is a deeper kind of listening with our minds and our hearts that is necessary to gain spiritual understanding - to get what Jesus is getting at.  Not everyone wanted to learn and grow.  Some in the crowd were waiting for an opportunity to bring him down.  Jesus’s words were for the honest seekers.

And then in v 11 - 12, as he starts to explain the story to the disciples, Jesus quotes from Isaiah, effectively saying:  some people are not ready for God’s word.  God reveals truth to people who will act on it, who will make it visible in their lives.  Some people when we are talking with them about God may not be ready, so we should not be surprised when they don’t understand.  But we need to be patient, taking every chance to tell them more of the truth about God and praying that the Holy Spirit will open their minds and hearts to receive the full truth and act upon it.

Four Responses to God's Message:

Jesus goes on to give the explanation:  The four types of soil represent four different ways in which people respond to God’s message, to His rescue plan for us … in sending Jesus. The path is where distractions, other priorities, the ways of the world immediately take over and the word never has any impact.  It is snatched away.  The rocky ground is where promising germination ends up disappointing.  There is initial enthusiasm for the word, for Christian things, but it is a shallow experience, the roots haven’t gone deep and, when troubles and setbacks inevitably happen, they fall away.

The next soil is where thorns grow as well, which stunt and eventually choke growth so that there is no fruit.  Jesus identifies three things that do this: worries about the world, the false lure of money and consumerism.  He says elsewhere: you cannot serve God and mammon, which refers to these worldly, human concerns.

And finally he comes to the good soil where the word is heard, accepted and acted on and produces a crop.  The farmers aim, God’s aim, is for people to hear his word (the good news about Jesus), to be transformed by it, to flourish and to enable others to come to faith and flourish in the same way.

Jesus left his disciples (and he leaves us) to reflect on the story and his explanation and to allow our spiritual understanding to grow.

One Person, 4 Different Responses

So … I offer three reflections.  Firstly, we could think that Jesus is referring to different types of people, but it is actually four different kind of ways people respond. .There may be times or phases in a person’s life which Jesus was thinking about, or how we willingly receive God’s message in some areas of our lives and resist in others.  For example, we may be open to God about our futures, but closed about how we spend our money.  We may respond like good soil to God’s demand for worship, but like rocky soil to his demand to give to those in need.  The question is not so much which type of soil are we when the seed is first sown … but what is going on that will determine the fruitfulness of the seed.  How do we respond to Jesus’s call on our life?

The second thing that has struck me follows on from this:  to grow up to produce a 30, 60 or 100-fold yield, what was sown requires a season.  The final yield is only known at the end of the season.  Farmers have to live with unpredictability  - whether it is the weather, rainfall, availability of labour, disease or pests.  All of our lives will have areas outside of our control - life is messy.  But if fruitfulness is our goal, we have choices.  We may have messed up and got the first bit wrong, but the word has been sown, Jesus is there and able to heal where we are hurt, to encourage when we are discouraged, to forgive when we fail, to bring about fruitfulness in the most unpromising of situations – in my life and in your life.  Are we prepared for the full season?

Fruitfulness is not guaranteed, be watchful

For 29 years I have successfully grown spinach in my garden, but this year disaster struck.  As the seedlings sprouted, the local pigeons waited a couple of weeks and then shredded the lot!  I was confused, cross and concerned.  There are a number of options:

• Do the same as I have always done and hope for the best – but pigeons have memories
• Give up – but I like spinach!
• Use some netting to protect the seed – more effort required, but there is hope

Something that I have learnt is that fruitfulness cannot be guaranteed every season by just doing more of the same. We can become complacent with our successes.  We can hope for the best when things go wrong.  We can give up all together.  Or we can put in place protective measures that will lead to resumed fruitfulness.  Sometimes God causes us to pause as individuals, as a church, and to realise that even though things have gone well in the past our future fruitfulness is at risk.  Have we stopped trusting in God and become reliant on our own resources?  Has pride crept in? Have we failed to see challenges lying ahead and to plan accordingly?  Have we allowed all our worthy activities to distract us from time spent listening to God, being with God? 

For reflection

So … let’s continue to reflect on these three questions:

• How do we respond to Jesus’s call on our life?
• Are we prepared for the full season?
• What season are we in now and what new thing is God calling us to?

As a final thought, Pope Gregory preached on this parable over 1,500 years ago and shared some real wisdom:

“Store up in your minds the Lord’s words which you receive through your ears, for the word of the Lord is the nourishment of the mind.  Be careful that the seed received through your ears remains in your heart.”