Illustrating the Truth about hearing the Truth
Mark 4:1-2
"Again, he began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around him. So, he got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore. He taught them many things in parables..."
In our stories and testimonies, teachings and preachings, we're all trying to understand the mysteries of our faith. Many of the stories (parables) Jesus would tell were subtly directed at the religious teachers and authorities to illuminate what he hoped might impress upon them some of the issues he was having with their ideas. He wasn't trying to be divisive or offensive, especially since they often pressed him with their own purity tests. He was no doubt hoping that someone somewhere might catch a clue and learn from him. But even if they didn't or wouldn't, and even if he knew they wouldn't, just the same, he knows someone somewhere will hear about these things and find knowledge about God's kingdom from it.
And after all,...isn't that just exactly what happened?
I mean, here I am reading a story about a story-telling some two thousand plus years later. So, I suppose the story must and did go on.
And maybe that's why Jesus begins the parables here with a story about the Word of God and how it gets around.
I've talked often about this particular parable for a variety of reasons. I learn so much from it. I've got a horticultural background, so like those crowds who were there with Jesus by the seaside, I can relate to the subject matter he is talking about. I've sown many a seed in my life. Some that you plant twice as deep as they are in their own size, and others that you barely cover with soil. Every seed needs its own seed bed according to its own kind, and once they've made it, it's left there for them to lie in it. The Sower doesn't lay down with it. You maybe cover it lightly to shield it from the extremes of nature. You nurture it with watering, and sunlight that warms the soil. And once the soil temperature reaches the correct level germination begins to happen. If the temps are too extreme the germination is altered and likely this can mean death for the tender seeds.
That moment of time when the seeds are first planted is incredibly significant. Everything needs to be just so if there's any hope for survival.
So, the Sower goes out to sow his seed.
Mark 4:3-9
“Listen! Consider the Sower who went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep. When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit. Still other seed fell on good ground, and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.” Then he said, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”
Now, on the surface, the first thing someone like me gleans from this story is that the Sower doesn't seem concerned at all about the setup, except to say that the point of this parable seems to be an explanation about what occurs in these various setups. He isn't changing or cultivating the various setups, he's only sowing the seed. He doesn't make it his business to till the earth or enhance the soil conditions with manure and fertilizer. He's not treating the soil for disease and insect infestations. And I'm pretty sure he didn't even do a soil test.
I don't think he's even considered whether it's rich valley soils or rocky mountain areas. Everything everywhere gets the seed.
No doubt some people in that crowd listening would be like me, immediately thinking about this seemingly reckless Sower who isn't preparing the way for the seed. But maybe he did, and we just don't realize it yet.
The society there in Capernaum was an agrarian society. That lifestyle dominated everything about who they were. Their resources were highly dependent upon the what the soils produced and the things they could take from the sea. This wasn't an industrialized urban environment. And so, every aspect of their lives was dependent upon the land. And so it goes with the Word of God.
It was critical that the listeners had ears to hear.
Have you ever been listening to a devotional message or maybe a Sunday morning preaching, and it seems like the story being told is your story? Almost as if the preacher is preaching directly to you. I'm sure you have.
Now here's the truth of what's really happening. You, and everyone around you are likely feeling the same things but feeling those things for different reasons. You hear what the soils in your ear allow you to hear. And what you hear is being filtered through the other things you've got growing in your ears already. And your soil is not necessarily your neighbor's soil. So, twenty people can be crowded around each other listening to the preacher and come away with twenty different fruits of his labor.
Jesus reflects on this phenomenon when he pulls a thought from Isaiah 6:9-10 about the nature of the secrets of God's kingdom found in God's Word and how it's received by various people.
"...they may indeed look,
and yet not perceive;
they may indeed listen,
and yet not understand;
otherwise, they might turn back
and be healed."
Jesus realizes that everyone should have a chance to hear The Word of God, but also that many will close their ears and hearts to it. And so, he tells this parable about those various situations in which the church is listening but not always hearing or receiving The Word. And not always growing in it, or cultivating expositional Bible study and exploring its roots, but are instead too wrapped up in other things to produce a harvest.
Each group perceives the Word differently. They all hear what they want to hear, some are not really listening but are looking for something to disagree with, something to get angry about. They want an excuse to put it aside. They don't want to hear.
And then Jesus says something incredibly important.
Mark 4:13
Then he said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand all of the parables?"
Wow!
I mean, that's it isn't it?
If they can't get past this simple understanding about God's Word and what it's doing in the world, how will they understand anything else that's going to come up?
Jesus is trying to explain expositional constancy but without using a direct reference to that term or a definition. I'm not going to try and explain it like him, I'm going to use examples and a definition.
Example:
Throughout both the Old and New Testaments the rock and/or stone is used as a type for the Messiah. Other examples: leaven represents idolatry, and a lamb represents purity and sacrifice.
Definition:
The Principle of Expositional Constancy is the theory that an idiom about these sorts of things is used in the same way throughout all the Scriptures.
So, you see, if they can't get their heads wrapped around this parable in particular, which is about understanding God's Word, Jesus is saying, how are they going to understand anything else that's about to be told to them. It's absolutely imperative that they understand that God's Word implanted in their hearts MUST grow and produce a harvest if it's going to advance them into the kingdom of God. For faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
This is the key to the parable. The seed is The Word of God. That's the expositional constancy. Those by-the-wayside, them who are not on the path, are those who have been lost to Satan who took the seed from them. Satan here is represented in the birds of the air. That's expositional constancy again. They are spirits, "of the air", and they attack the seed (the Word of God) and steal it away. It doesn’t even have a moments peace to germinate and take root in them.
Have you ever experienced that encounter?
Have you tried talking about God's Word with someone who is ardently opposed to it? Have they ever chinked your armor while doing battle with them? Has one of them ever stole away a truth from you? Maybe planted doubt in your mind? Caused you to compromise or fall back on "let's agree to disagree"?
It takes a strong desire, good soil, to keep faith with God's Word. Especially when the birds come. Next time it happens, try imagining them as birds. When I do this, I see crows. They're all demons to me, crows that is. You need to setup a scarecrow if you're going to plant the seed which is the Word of God. Something that will keep them away. For me, my scarecrow is assurance, and a firm faithfulness to the Scriptures. And maybe I'm a little scary anyways.
Then there are those who have no root because the Word was sown on rocky ground. They have no deep roots of understanding about the Bible so when trouble comes, they get offended by it. These are also those who Jesus referred to as "The Hypocrisy of The Pharisees". They have understood the Bible, but they have a stoney heart. No love in their hearts. So, when someone or something comes along and challenges their way, their joy withers and they get angry. They want nothing to do with that someone or something. They lash out and demand a change or else. Or else what? Or else they'll either remove that someone or remove themselves. Have you ever had that encounter? Has someone in your church ever threatened to leave unless someone did something to right the perceived harm done to them or done to "the church" by their reckoning?
At one time I was the church sign guy at my local church. I put up the weekly information about the services and sometimes funny messages. Once I put up, "Now open between Christmas and Easter". It kind of went viral in the area, getting attention on Facebook and such. And then this couple in our church, this influential couple, took me aside. Oh boy! Once that happens...
At any rate they threatened to leave if I didn't take it down. Ahhh... the good times of doing church. The seed is sown but when perceived affliction arises, they are immediately offended.
Then there are those seeds sown among the thorns. They are choked out by the cares of the world, wealth, prosperity, success, vibrancy, your best life now. They are deceived by riches and fame, light shows and fog machines, concert-like displays of religion. Trappings like Cathedrals and various other forms of art and architecture. Many idols and celebrities are invited to perform their inspirational works and uplift the worship and fill the offering plates. All sorts of glam and glitter adorn the celestial-like atmosphere. And the lusts for all these things chokes out the Word of God. It's the Vanity Fair.
And then there is seed sown on good ground. These are those who hear the Word of God, and who welcome it, and receive it with a pure heart and pure motivations. In them it produces fruit in many different forms at different seasons and to many different degrees. They are different than most people it seems. They received the Word of God differently than all the rest.
So, it comes down to how you receive the Word, but also what else you've got going on in your heart that impacts your growth. It's not to say that any of these unfruitful groups are antichrist sinners. I don't need to speak in those terms, it's not going to help anyone to argue about who's better at being a hearer of the Word of God. All that we should glean from this parable is that it's vitality important that EVERYONE understand that how we go about hearing the Word of God will have a huge impact on how we grow and bear fruit for Christ's sake.
All I'm saying is, f you've already got potatoes growing in your ears, it's going to be difficult to develop a clear understanding of Christ's voice.
In Jesus name, amen.