The Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20)

 

The Parable of the Sower

 

Mark 4:1-20

 

Today we are going to think about the parable of the sower.

 

In the Bible are a number of parables Jesus used in order to teach people such as the parable of the mustard seed, the parable of the lost sheep, and the parable of the talents. “Parable” means “putting things side by side,” and it is used in order to explain or illustrate a hidden abstract or spiritual idea by analogy with a more familiar concrete fact. In today’s text as well, Jesus said the parable of the sower to the crowd, and then he explained its actually meaning to his disciples.

 

Jesus’ parables have double purposes. In verse 11, Jesus said, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables.” To the insiders, Jesus’ parables disclose the secret of the kingdom of God, but from the outsiders, the parables keep the secret of the kingdom. This is God’s wisdom. The Bible is full of the amazing secrets of the kingdom of God. But they are all written in the language of the Heavenly Kingdom, so they are NOT UNDERSTANDABLE AT ALL to the outsiders. Some scholars say that the whole Bible is a parable. We can read it in English or Korean, and understand what it is saying. Still we may remain ignorant of the secret of the God’s kingdom. This is God’s wisdom.

 

Today’s text tells us why we should listen to the word of God and study it carefully. In verses 11-12, Jesus says, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding! Otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.’” Simply saying, the purpose of the Bible study is “turning from our sins on earth and returning to God our Father in Heaven.” Actually, this is something absolutely impossible. It is impossible because our flesh desire and the deceitful temptation of the world stick together so stubbornly. Nevertheless, we must remember why we study the Bible. It is “turning from our sins on earth and returning to God our Father in Heaven.” Otherwise, we are hearing the word of God for nothing.

 

Then, let’s think about the parable of the sower. The parable is as follows: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grains. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”

 

In this parable, the seed means “the word.” Verse 14 says, “The farmer sows the word.” In several ways, the word of God is similar to the seed. A seed contains in it the power and knowledge of life. Although it is very tiny, it has the potential of its full-grown living individual. This is also the case for the word. The word of God we read in the Bible contains such power and knowledge of the Heavenly Kingdom. It embodies the entire spiritual realm of God’s kingdom in the meager form readable and hearable to us human beings on earth. Another similar feature is the fact that a seed grows only when it is planted in the soil. If a seed is kept unplanted, it remains as it is, not growing, hundreds or even thousands of years. But as soon as it is planted, the life hidden in the seed wakes up and begins to grow. In the same way, the word grows only when it is planted in our heart. Hebrews 4:2 says, “For we also have had the gospel preached to us, just as they did; but the message they heard was of no value to them, because those who heard did not combine it with faith.” This also means that, without planting a seed, we cannot harvest anything at the end. A good heart is still merely a soil. Without the word of God planted in it, there is nothing to harvest at the end of his or her life. Nobody can create a seed. All the lives and their seeds came from heaven, created by God. In the same way, the word of God is not a fabricated human idea. Peter says, “You have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God” (1Peter 1:23).

 

According to the parable, there are four types of soil. They are a path, a rocky place, a weedy place, and a good soil. These four types correspond to the four stages of growth of a seed respectively, which are planting, rooting, growing, and harvesting. And in each stage, the seed has to go through a great difficulty, and the difficulties denote our sins that obstruct the growth of God’s word in our heart.

 

The path-like soil is an unbelieving heart. It rejects the word of God from the beginning. Our hearts have many human ways paved with human experiences, human knowledge, human wisdom, and human ethics. Because of this, in the Bible, we can see many collisions between God’s way and our way. In Isaiah 55:8-9, God says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” Out of our pride, however, we put our ways and our thoughts higher than God’s. Fortunately, there were a few humble people who accepted the word of God against their ways. Virgin Mary said to the angel, “I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said.” (Luke 1:38). Peter said to Jesus, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.” Through these few humble hearts, the word of God barely penetrated into the world.

 

In the rocky soil, the seed springs up quickly but it dries out soon because the soil is shallow and therefore the plant cannot root into the ground. With regard to this, Jesus explains, “When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.” This means that receiving the word of God is inevitably followed by trouble and persecution. The life of Jesus Christ, who is the Word Himself, was full of such troubles and persecutions. It was because Jesus loved God and didn’t love the world, and Jesus loved God even more than he loved his own life. In fact, being a Christian is a drastic change from a self-centered life to God-centered one. This means the transformation of the very core of our life. And we all have an unbreakable and immovable hard rock inside our deep heart, which is the sanctuary enshrining ‘I’ as my idol. The word of God wants to break the rock and occupy the sanctuary so that only God may be worshipped even with all these troubles and persecutions.

 

In the weedy soil, the seed is planted and rooted, but it grows together with thorns and thistles, and therefore becomes unfruitful. The word of God is “holy,” and it requires our “undivided heart.” Psalm 86:11 says, “Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness, give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.” Jesus mentions things that distract our hearts, which are worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things. When these things are rampant in our heart, the word of God is choked. English reformer Hugh Latimer (1487-1555) said, “Devil ….. is the most diligent preacher of all others.” This is true. Like the serpent planted a lie in the woman’s heart, Devil works hard to plant all kinds of fears, worries, and desires in us. And the only way to overcome these distractions is trusting God’s faithfulness and revering His holy name.

 

The seed sown in a good soil produces a crop, thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times what was sown. A heart comparable to such good soil can be characterized with humble belief, full commitment, and patient waiting. These all may sound “too passive” in our side. But it is not. We are merely soil, and it is the word of God that grows in us and bears fruit. We often try to “apply” the word to our everyday life, and get some benefits from it in our living. But this doesn’t work as we expect. It is because we plant a seed today not for the dining table in this evening, but for the future harvest season. Even if we plant a seed, nothing happens today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow. Still we should have the farmer’s heart, his patience, his commitment, and his joyful expectation of the harvest. And with this heart, we should work hard to break the hardened heart, to remove rocks and gravels, and to weed out thorns and thistles so that only the word of God grows in us fruitfully.