Prepare
Get ready to go – today’s passage demands action. What will you do after you’ve heard the message?
Mark 4:13–20
‘Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?’
Mark 4:13–20 13 Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown."
This parable is not a slice of heavenly teaching carried down on angels’ wings. Jesus’ parable is rooted in the gritty dirt of his own experience.
He knew all about people not listening to him, and people who wouldn’t commit themselves to seeing his teaching through. He had 30 years of first hand experience of the seductive temptations of human society.
Failure and fruitfulness
Jesus reminds us that God’s economy can accommodate a level of loss and failure. He knew that a significant amount of his effort would go to waste.
But he also knew about the staggering fruitfulness of his heavenly Father. He knew that the few who did listen, who did persevere, would make the effort worthwhile.
God’s productivity
The numbers are important here. Ask a farmer about the percentage yield he gets on his seeds. Jesus was talking to farming folk, and they knew the maths of their trade. Jesus told them that God’s productivity is out of this world (v 20)!
So try not to worry about the people who aren’t interested in God, or who don’t get to your church regularly. Focus your attention on the ones who are ready and willing to learn from Jesus.
Jesus clearly felt an urgent need to ensure that his apostles understood this parable, which is why he provided a simple explanation for their ears alone. He was preparing them for hard times.
Jesus needed these 12 very hopeful but fallible men to appreciate that his way was not a way of easy triumphs and quick gratification. It wasn’t until the trial and crucifixion that they finally grasped this fundamental reality.
Hearing God’s word
Through this parable Jesus was explaining what it means to hear God’s word – really hear it. Fundamentally, to hear God’s word is to choose, and keep on choosing, to keep walking in Jesus’ footsteps.
It is about radically altered priorities and values. It is about the transformation that begins with an encounter with Christ and continues under the influence of the Spirit.
This is the hearing that Jesus was demanding of his disciples – ‘the commitment of the entire person, a successful life in relationship to God.’1 To really hear, is to choose to love and obey Christ, for this is the prerequisite for communion with God (John 14:23,24).
Choosing to follow
Not all of us can point to a specific time when we decided that it was Jesus we wanted to follow, but we all know that this is a choice that continues to confront us. Each of us also knows of former companions in Christ who have chosen to listen to alternative voices, voices which we, too, have heard, and which often begin their subversive campaign with the faintest of whispers.
The pressures and counter-attractions identified in the parable are not unknown to us. Moreover, we experience times of deep confusion, disappointment and impatience with God, sometimes even despair. Jesus knows this, and continues to love and challenge us through such times.
Steve Bradbury
1 L Schottroff, The Parables of Jesus, Augsburg Fortress, 2006, p68
Background: The point of parables
Parables occur in other ancient literature and there are a few in the Old Testament, but Jesus uses them far more than others (Matthew 13:34). In the synoptic Gospels they are his preferred teaching method.
Different forms
● Some parables are brief similes – the kingdom of heaven is like yeast (Matthew 13:33).
● Some are extended analogies – the shepherd (Luke 15:3–7).
● Some are full blown narratives – the prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32).
Why parables? It is often assumed that Jesus told parables because they were easy to understand. But Jesus says that he used them because they are hard to understand (Mark 4:10–12) – and that we find difficult to accept.
But parables are not cosy little stories. They are brain-teasers intended to make us think and to see things from a different perspective. They challenge us to change the way that we live our lives.
Twist in the tale The prodigal son (Luke 15:11–32) was told in the context of Jesus being criticised for mixing with sinners. The Pharisees of Luke 15:2 were intended to see themselves in the critical elder brother – and change as a result.
The same group clearly saw themselves as the target of the parable of the vineyard tenants (Matthew 21:33–46), but refused to change.
What’s the point? Parables are meant to evoke a response. Like all good stories they catch us off our guard, worm their way into our minds and undermine our received ideas. When we read a parable it’s always worth asking: how did Jesus expect the first hearers to react?