JESUS TEACHES
Eighty percent of adults in the U.S., consider the Bible a holy book (according to AmericanBible.org.) but few read it. So, it seems that whatever respect the Bible gets in America is superficial. A survey by Lifeway research indicates that only 11% of Christians read the Bible daily and 34% rarely read it. Therefore, so many miss out on the joy and abundant life that comes from applying its truth to their lives. They do not really know about Jesus’ teaching, let alone understand it, if they do not read the Bible. Jesus is the ultimate Teacher, who knew His subject perfectly, and cared deeply for people. Obeying Jesus’ teachings leads to fruitful living.
Read Mark 4:1-2a
Scriptures make it clear that God plays no favorites (Acts 10:34-35). By sending Jesus into the world, God the Father was affirming His love for every person. This is the starting point for really understanding the message behind Jesus’ parable of the soils, coming up. The Greek term translated parable literally means “placed alongside” (a comparison). For the people who heard these parables they would have resembled ancient Jewish wisdom literature. There are four things about parables of Jesus that will help us understand them: 1) A parable is a story with a plot; 2) A parable refers to a real-life scenario that would have been familiar to Jesus’ audience; 3) A parable if for the purpose of instruction, not entertainment; and 4) A parable normally teaches one truth. It is not an allegory with many truths hidden inside of it. Jesus used parables to teach. However, we must be careful not to go beyond what Jesus intended to teach. Parables were simple stories from everyday life that shed light on profound spiritual truths. The parable helped make abstract teachings concrete and meaningful- moving from the known to the unknown. Parables left men and women wondering and thinking that were beyond their understanding.
Jesus taught many things by parable, but in this chapter, he focused on the kingdom of God. There are some perplexing verses in Mark 4 that leave us puzzled about whether Jesus also used parables to conceal truth. Before we examine the parables themselves, we need further insight into “the kingdom of God” and into the purpose of parables. Jesus used parables to help all to understand the “kingdom of God”. The term means the reign of God. Matthew 6:10 sheds light on the meaning of this concept, where it says, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done”. The focus here is that God is doing the ruling. This fact is the great central truth of Jesus’ ministry. The terms “kingdom of God” and “kingdom of heaven” appear over one hundred times in the Gospels. Jesus wanted to rule in a man’s heart, not on an earthly throne. To communicate these great truths, Jesus chose parable.
Read Mark 4:2b-7
Jesus invited His listeners to “consider the sower who went out to sow”. The image of a farmer sowing seeds would have been familiar to Jesus’ audience. Seeds were planted by hand. As the farmer walked across the field, he threw handfuls of seed onto the ground from a large bag, slung across his shoulders. The plants did not grow in neat rows as they do with today’s machine planting. No matter how skillful, no farmer could keep some of his seed from falling on the footpath, from being scattered among rocks and thorns, or from being carried off by the wind. So, the farmer would throw the seed liberally, and enough would fall on good ground to ensure the harvest.
In His interpretation of the parable for the twelve disciples (vv.10-20), Jesus identified the seed as “the word” (v.14). “The word” could represent the good news of God which Jesus had been proclaiming in Galilee: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news” (1:15). “The word” could also represent Jesus Himself. “The word sown would therefore be the people’s response to Jesus would they accept Him or not?” In explaining the nature of the four soils, Jesus began with the negatives- focusing on the soils in the farmer’s field that turned out to be unproductive. This lack of productivity was to be expected. No matter how much effort the farmer exerted to prepare the ground for the seed, some parts of the field were bound to be problem areas. And since broadcasting seed resembled a kind of “shotgun approach” to planting, some of what the farmer pitched was bound to land in soil that could not produce a crop.
What kind of “rocks” make our hearts shallow so that God’s Word doesn’t take root?
What “thorns” choke out the growth of God’s Word in our lives?
Read Mark 4:8-9
Unlike most parables, the parable of the sower has more than one main point: The double thrust comes from both the condition of the soil and the yield from the seed. The parable of the sower tells about the growth of the kingdom and the conditions for that growth. The uniformly good seed refers to the good news of the kingdom, while the soil of varying conditions refers to those who hear the good news. In Palestine the planters first scattered their seed; then they plowed the ground. From everyday life they knew the farmer could never know his proportion of yield until he knew the conditions of the soil. No wonder Jesus’ hearers could picture every detail of the story.
In the story there are four kinds of soil: 1) wayside soil that served as a path and was beaten down so that it was like cement, 2) a thin layer of surface soil that was bedded on limestone,3) soil that was polluted by thorns, and 4) soil that was pure, rich, and deep. Jesus told the parable in verses 3-9 without interpreting its spiritual meaning. Basically, the meaning was this: Get the soil of your life in shape so that you can receive the seed of the good news and then bear spiritual fruit as God reigns in your life. However, Jesus interpreted the spiritual meaning in verses 13-19 after His disciples asked Him for an explanation. The conditions of the four soils are matched by four types of conditions in the lives of those who hear the good news.
The hearing Jesus wants from us is not the kind we use when we listen to background music or when someone starts to recount a long story we’ve already heard. To truly “hear” Jesus’ words is to believe them, to use them immediately in decisions and attitudes, and to base life on them- our recreation and work, family plans and money matters, praying and singing. To hear Jesus’ words is to make Jesus our true Lord. Jesus is asking what are we going to do?
