We have been hearing in the Gospel of Mark of Jesus continually “proclaiming the Gospel of God” and “the Kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14-15). As His public ministry began after His baptism and when He was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3: “It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:3-4). As we heard last week, Jesus then chose twelve disciples and began to teach them the Word of God, so tha...
We have been hearing in the Gospel of Mark of Jesus continually “proclaiming the Gospel of God” and “the Kingdom of God” (Mark 1:14-15). As His public ministry began after His baptism and when He was being tempted by the devil in the wilderness, Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 8:3: “It is written: Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that comes from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:3-4). As we heard last week, Jesus then chose twelve disciples and began to teach them the Word of God, so that they could then help Him share that Word of God with others.
In Mark Chapter 4, Jesus told a series of parables, most of which use the picture image of the Word of God as being like seed which is sown in the ground and produces a crop and eventually is ready for harvest. Jesus of course describes farming as it was done in His own day, very different from our own. Yet we can still get the main point of each parable.
I’d like us to begin with the short parable in Mark 4:26-29. This is a parable of Jesus that only Mark recorded for us. Read those verses. Jesus says that this is what happens as the seed of God’s Word is scattered in the world, for growth in the Kingdom of God. The sower sows his seed and then waits, night and day, until the seed sprouts and grows - note what is said next - “he knows not how.” There is much that the farmer does not know or understand or have control over. So, he waits some more and plants grow and eventually are ready for harvest.
Obviously, today we know much more about the process of farming and can do much more - but we still don’t know and cannot control everything. I planted some seeds some weeks ago and hopefully will have plants to go in my garden once the weather is warmer and we are beyond the killing frost that can still come well into April where I live. But guess what? Not all the plants are coming up. Some are and others are not. I don’t know why and what to do. Most likely there was some error on my part, in some way. The good news, though, is that in spite of me, some seeds are working and growing and there will be some plants to go in the garden and a harvest will come.
God’s Word is like that. It is not simply ordinary words on a page. God’s Word has power, because God’s Holy Spirit is working with the Word and accomplishing what God wants - though we don’t know just how or why it works as it does. Just as this parable tells us, “we know not how.”
As we read more of these parables in Chapter 4, we will have questions. We will wonder the how and why about some of these things. But we are simply to try to trust God and keep on spreading the Word, listening to it first for ourselves and sharing it with others and then trusting that God will bring some fruit, some effect in peoples’ lives, as He knows best.
Let’s go back now to the first and main parable, as Chapter 4 begins. Jesus had already been teaching God’s Word, as he always wanted to do. Then “a very large crowd gathered about Him” and He needed to use that boat we heard about in Chapter 3. He went in the boat, a little off shore, for safety’s sake, and began to teach in parables from the boat. In verse 3 He said, “Listen!” Hear! Pay attention! “A sower went out to sow seed.” In those days, seed was simply taken by the handful and scattered over the earth. If the wind was blowing, seed could blow all over, not only where wanted. If the casting of the seed wasn’t perfect, the seed could also end up in undesirable places, with unknown results. Jesus gave several example in verses 4-7.
There were paths running around fields and sometimes through fields. These had packed-down soil, and seeds would just sit on the top of the soil and soon be eaten up by birds. There were rocky areas, with more rocks than soil. The seeds might work and begin to spring up there, but had small, weak roots, and would wither away and die in scorching heat. There was thorny ground, as well. The seeds might grow, but the weeds would likely grow even better and choke them out. Again, there would be no fruitful grain.
By God’s grace, seeds would also fall on good soil, and those seeds would grow and do well and produce a bountiful harvest, though with differing amounts of grain in different places. Jesus then ended this parable as He began it. “He who has ears, let him hear.” Listen to and think about this parable (v.8-9).
When Jesus was alone later with His 12 disciples and some others, the disciples asked about the parables. Even they didn’t get what the parables meant. Jesus then told them that He would give them “the secret of the Kingdom of God” - which centered in receiving and trusting Him and His Word and works, as their Savior, in spite of the many temptations to ignore or reject Him and His Word.
Jesus then quoted from a surprising passage from Isaiah 6:9-11a. When Isaiah was called to preach God’s Word, God warned him that he would speak to a sinful and rebellious people. He was to keep preaching and writing, though, no matter what the response was. Isaiah did so - with 66 chapters of God’s Word, full of warnings (the Law) and of very hopeful promises for the future (the Gospel). Many would refuse to listen and would reject this Word. Sadly, the more they rejected the Word, the harder their hearts would become, the more blind they would be, and many would never repent and turn to the Lord in faith.
Isaiah asked, “How long, O Lord” will this go on? God warns of judgment coming for both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel. Both would fall to enemy nations and many would be carried away into captivity. Yet through it all, some would believe and trust in the Lord. There would be fruit from God’s Word, and eventually the Savior (Jesus) would come to help His people and the whole world. Isaiah was to trust the Lord, no matter what, and keep sharing His Word.
Jesus quoted this passage because He Himself would face similar opposition, as would His disciples. Many would reject the Word and eventually would kill Jesus Himself. Yet, He and His disciples were to keep spreading the seed of the Word of God, because there would be fruit and some would believe. Jesus went on, then, to explain the barriers to the Word of God described in the parable.
In Mark 4:15, the seed falling on the path represents people who hear the Word, but Satan quickly tries to obscure it and take it away, by His own opposition and by the opposition of others, who would question and attack God’s Word and plans in Jesus. Remember that later even Peter would try to stop Jesus’ plans, and Jesus had to say to him, “get behind Me, Satan” (Mark 8:31-33). There are parts of the world even today where it is hard for people even to have a Bible or hear the Word, because such teaching is forbidden.
In Mark 4:16-17, some seed of God’s Word falls on rocky soil. This represents people who receive God’s Word with joy and it begins to grow in them, but the roots of their faith are weak, not yet strong, and troubles come and even “persecution on account of the Word” and they stumble and fall away from the faith.
In Mark 4:18-19, some seed of the Word falls on thorny ground. People hear the Word and it begins to grow in them, but then “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things enter in.” We know the excuses that sometimes even we use. “I don’t have time for God and His Word right now. I have better things to do. I need to get ahead with my work and investments and future plans. I need to relax and rest and have time for myself and what I want. I’ll have time for God and spiritual things later.” People listen less to God’s Word. Their faith is not nourished. The Word of God is choked out. There is no fruit of faith, and that “better” time for God may never come back to them.
There are so many failures in people’s spiritual life. The key to failure is a rejection of Jesus Himself and His Word of Life. He is the Sower of the seed. As one commentator put it, “The kingdom comes in the unspectacular and vulnerable form of the Word of God, which can be devoured, scorched, and choked. But the 'failure' of the Word indicts the soil, not the Sower or the seed. A person is responsible when confronted by God’s Word and guilty when he fails to use it. Therefore there is the stern warning at the end of the parable. 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear'" (Martin Franzmann).
The good news comes in Mark 4:20. The seed of God’s Word also falls on good soil, where people do, by God’s blessing, receive and trust the Word of God and bear fruit through Jesus at work in their lives, through that Word. There are different kinds and amounts of fruit, but there still is fruit in Christ and His Word. The believers are blessed, and the Kingdom of God grows. Jesus says through this parable that the Word of God is always worth receiving and sharing with others. It will work, for you and others.
But be aware of the opposition to and dangers to the faith and weak spots in your own life. Keep hearing the Word of God. Keep praying that the Lord will keep your heart strong in faith. As a Gospel song by Handt Hanson says, “Lord, let my heart be good soil” (© 1985 Prince of Peace Publishing/Changing Church Inc.). Keep sharing the Word, also. It helps others and strengthens your own faith.
In Mark 4:21-23, Jesus told a related parable. The Word of God is also like a Lamp. It needs to be out where it can be seen and give its light, not under a basket or under a bed. The Word of God shines light and reveals our sins and secrets, but it above all gives us hope and forgiveness in the darkness of our lives and a very troubled world. It gives direction for our lives. See other Bible passages like Psalm 119:105, Proverbs 6:23, and 2 Peter 1:19-20. Keep listening to that Word of God, Jesus said, in Mark 4:24-25. The more we listen, the more blessings we have. The less we hear, the less the blessings. The ultimate danger would be losing our faith entirely, for lack of nourishment.
In Mark 4:30-32, Jesus returned to another parable about the Kingdom of God being like a growing seed, a mustard seed. It is a very tiny seed, but it can grow into a very large bush, where birds can even live and build their nests. In the same way, Jesus and His few disciples were a very small group. From that small group would grow a great Kingdom of believers, by God’s blessing. Again, don’t give up, Jesus was saying. Keep sowing the seed of God’s Word.
Jesus was also using picture images used in the Old Testament that people might know and remember. Great Kingdoms like those of Assyria and Egypt and Babylon were pictured like a great growing tree, towering over others. Yet all of those kingdoms fell. Earthly nations come and go. (See Ezekiel 31, and especially v.5-7 and 10-14, and Daniel 4:11-15.) In contrast, God would provide a new Kingdom for His people, like a mighty tree (Ezekiel 17:23-24). That is the Kingdom of God ultimately brought by Jesus. It will continue forever.
As we read Chapter 4 of Mark, we may still be left with lots of questions. “We know not how” all this works with our Lord (Mark 4:27). We are simply called to trust our Lord and His ways and promises in Christ and His Word and to keep sharing that Word. Other Scriptures also tell us that there is no promise of a perfect life now - but only when we are in heaven. In the meantime, the Lord will help us through, as we trust Him.
The final story in Chapter 4 of Mark, v.35-41, is a real, true story of what happened with Jesus and his disciples later that evening, but it is also a kind of parable about trust in Christ. Jesus told His disciples to go across to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. He was in one boat, asleep, and there were other boats with His, too. A great windstorm came up and the boat was filling with water and about to sink. The disciples woke up Jesus and said, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” Jesus rebuked the wind and the sea, saying. “Peace! Be still!” “And the wind ceased and there was a great calm.” And Jesus said to the disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” And instead of having great joy in Jesus, at their rescue, the disciples had “great fear, asking “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Clearly, the disciples did not yet understand a lot about Jesus, who He was and what He was doing. They really needed more of Jesus and His Word, for a growing faith. (Do you think Jesus ever says to you and me, too, “Why are you so afraid?”) The Lord keeps calling us to trust Him and His Word and His eternal promises for us, too. He kept on sowing the seed of the Word and encouraging His disciples and others, as we will hear in the next chapters of Mark, too. These are words for us, too.
