Earthly Stories with Heavenly Meanings:

The parable of the Sower, Mark 4:3-9

January 11, 2009

We are beginning a new series today based on our Gospel readings over the next several weeks.  The series is called “Earthly Stories, Heavenly Meanings.”  Starting today and going until Lent in just six short weeks(!) we’ll be looking at some of the parables Jesus used when teaching.  We’ll look at the context of the parables, and ask the question, “What does this have to do with me today?”  Hopefully at the end of each message, and especially at the end of the series, we’ll see how Jesus’ teachings through parables are still as impactful and relevant as they were when He told them to His first followers. 

First, where in the world did the title “Earthly Stories, Heavenly Meanings” come from?  That’s actually a pretty good definition of a parable.  It’s a story that people can relate to because it is almost tangible in its reality.  It’s a story that people can hear or read and say, “Ah, yes, I can understand what that person in the story was feeling” or, “That story is so shocking that it has really grabbed my attention, and I’m not going to be forgetting it any time soon.” 

At the same time, a parable is also a story that conveys a deep spiritual truth from God.  It’s not a morality story like the story of the boy who cried ‘wolf’ too many times so eventually people wouldn’t believe him when he really did see a wolf.  A parable is a story that offers an insight into the heart of God or the workings of the Kingdom of God, in a way that is clear and understandable to the reader or hearer.

Today we are looking at the parable of the sower as found in Mark 4:3-9.  I invite you to open your Bible with me to Mark, and get ready to make some notations in the margins today!  Mark is the second book in the New Testament, so the order goes Matthew, Mark, Luke and then John.  We’ve mentioned this before, but Mark originally ran away from a mission trip with the apostles Paul and Silas.  Later in life he and Paul became close, and Mark spent a lot of time with the Disciple-turned-Apostle, Peter.  Many scholars think the Gospel of Mark is Mark’s recordings of Peter’s memoirs about Jesus.  Again, we are going to Mark chapter 4, beginning with verse 3.

“Listen! 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 grain.  Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”  Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

You can underline the word “Listen!”  This is one of those ‘key words’ we’ve talked about.  Whenever you see a word like this it means that what is coming next is something we are called to really pay attention to.  And what comes next is a story about a farmer!

A farmer?  Really?  Jesus, the king of the universe, creator of all there is, the author and perfector of the faith, is conveying a deep truth about the kingdom of God by telling a story about a farmer planting some seeds?  Absolutely!

This community would immediately connect with this story, because they were so dependent on the land for their food.  There was no Stop-n-Shop around the corner from them.  The bread they had… was bread they made from the grain… that they harvested from the fields… where they planted it… when they sowed the seeds.  These people knew what it was to be the sower, and you can almost imagine these farmers, these agricultural people, nodding and smiling a little as they related to the parable.

As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. “Oh, I understand that.  Those birds are ridiculous!  They make it hard to plant sometimes because as soon as the seeds are put on the ground those birds eat them.”

 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.  Rocky soil.  We understand what that’s like here in New England!  Imagine some seeds falling between the crevices of some of the rock fences around.  They would take root and grow right away, but wouldn’t amount to anything because of the lack of soil.

Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.  How many of you have ever had to go out to a garden and dig up the weeds because they were choking out the plants, or because there were so many in the flower garden it didn’t look like a flower garden, but a weed bed?  I thought I had the perfect answer to this a few years ago, but Stacey didn’t agree with me: I told her I thought dandelions looked pretty and we could just pretend we were growing a bunch of those in her flower garden. 

Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop… so far so good.  A crop, that’s what we’re going for.  Plant a seed, get an ear of grain; get a stalk of corn with a couple of ears on it; maybe a potato plant with 6 or 7 potatoes coming from the one spud/seed that was planted.

… multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.”  And now is when it gets interesting.  A thirty, sixty or even hundred times yield was something unheard of.  It would be like saying you plant a single kernel of corn in the ground, and you end up with a whole crop of healthy, strong corn.

What was the problem?  The problem had to do with the condition of the soil.  A seed can’t grow and mature into what it was designed to be if the soil is not there to support it.  In this parable, it’s not about the nature of the seed, it’s about the nature of what the seed falls on.

The seed is the Word of God, the soil is the heart of the individual.  It’s not that the Word of God is lacking somehow, it’s that the heart upon which the Word of God is given is not always receptive.

So, here’s the hard question for us this morning: How’s your soil?

In your Bibles you can underline the birds came and ate it up, and in your margins you can write, “The enemy, verse 15.”  Jesus says in verse 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.”  So the question with this one is, “What path are we on?”  Are we on a path that leads us to the truth of God’s Word, or a path that takes us away from it, produces a hard heart and mind to the truth so that we can’t even hear or understand it when it is presented to us?

If we are on a path that leads us away from the truth, here’s the good news: God allows u-turns!  In fact, He encourages us to make u-turns away from other things and to Him.  You can write the reference 2^nd Chronicles 7:14 in the margins.  God tells us there, “…if My people, who are called by My Name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

The path doesn’t define or hold us.  We may have walked 10,000 steps away, but it’s only one step back, and we don’t even have to take that step on our own!  The Holy Spirit is the One who brings us to the place where we can take the step.

What about the rocky soil?  The reason the seeds didn’t grow there is because the soil was so shallow; there was no depth for the seed to take root.  Folks who fall into this category have a very shallow faith; a faith that is rooted not in the truth of God’s Word, but in what feels good at that moment.  The problem with this is what feels good today may not last beyond tomorrow.

Here’s a great understatement, and one we’ve gotten to see and understand more and more as we’ve had information every week in our bulletins on the persecuted church and Christians in other countries: as a Christian, life is not going to be easy.  Jesus even tells us this.  You can write Matthew 10:22-23 next to this verse about the rocky soil.  In these verses in Matthew Jesus was speaking to His disciples, and the same words are still for us today: “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.  When you are persecuted in one place, flee to another.  I tell you the truth, you will not finish going through the cities of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”

It’s not “if” people don’t like you because you are a Christian, or “if” you are persecuted because you are a Christian, it’s “when” these things happen.  It’s a given, a foregone conclusion – life is not going to be a bowl of cherries for the Christian, especially as the world goes on and on further and further away from a Christ-centered focus.

Why is this so?  We need to remember that a Christian has a huge cross over his or her heart marking them as one redeemed by Christ the crucified, just like we say at every baptism as we make the sign of the cross over the heart of the person being baptized.  At the same time, we also have a big target on our backs as the devil is aiming for us.  Anything he can do to destroy us, our families, our reputations as we succumb to temptation, he will do. 

You can also write Revelation 3:5 in the margin here.  Jesus says in that verse, “He who overcomes will… be dressed in white.  I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but will acknowledge his name before My Father…”

How do we get our soil deeper?  We let the Spirit have His way with us.  We spend time in God’s Word.  That’s the place where He has opened His heart to us and shown us who He is, and what He desires for us.  We spend time with other Christians in worship.  We pray.  You’ve heard me mention this before: you can’t have a relationship with someone you won’t talk to.  Spend time in prayer with God – talking and being silent.  Martin Luther used to say, “I’ve got so much to do today, I need to spend an extra hour in prayer this morning!”

What about the thorns?  It’s a simple question for us, really.  What have we invited into our lives that chokes out the truth of God’s word?  Who are we listening to – God or the best answers the world gives us?  What thorns need to get plucked from our soil; from our hearts?  TV shows?  Certain CD’s or songs?  Internet sites?  People?  What are the things that choke out the Word of God in our lives that are so plentiful and have taken over?  What are the thorns?

You can write the reference James 1:21 in the margins of your Bibles next to this verse.  James says it this way: “…get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the Word planted in you, which can save you.”

The Message paraphrase of the Bible puts it this way: “So throw all spoiled virtue and cancerous evil in the garbage.  In simple humility, let our gardener, God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.”

A salvation garden.  That’s what Jesus ends this parable with.  Good soil that produces a salvation garden.  Such a person is at all times willing to listen and to learn.   He or she is never too proud or too busy to receive God’s Word.  To have it planted in them time and time again through reading and study and prayer and worship.  God's Word has power to change and transform us into the likeness of Christ.  God gives grace to those who hunger for His Word so that they can understand His will and have the strength and freedom to live according to it. 

Are we hungering for God's transforming Word today?  

Finally, in Jesus’ day, a 10 fold return on planted crops was considered good.  To have a 30, 60 or 100 fold return was unheard of.  What’s the crop, the return, He’s talking about?  It’s what results in our lives as the seed is sown in us and grows.  It’s an ever increasing understanding and growing closer to God the Father.  It’s not a onetime thing, but a life-changing transformation that continues on and on and on.  And the harvest it produces affects not only us, but those around us as we are able to share with them what has taken place in our lives.

It’s an earthly story with a heavenly meaning.  An ongoing parable that reveals a nugget of the Kingdom of God, and asks the question, “How’s your soil?”

Will you please pray with me?

Lord God, You send Your Word to us; open our heart and minds to hear it, receive it, and be changed by it.  Make us like rich, fertile soil that Your Word will grow and blossom and explode in.  Put us on the path we need to be on and protect us from our enemy as he prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to devour us; mature us in our faith; through the power You give us in the Holy Spirit give us the courage and strength to pluck the thorns from our lives we’ve allowed to grow.  Take us, grow us, and use us for Your Kingdom to come.  Amen