The Parable of the Sower Mark 4:1-25
Sermon by Pastor Dennis Gleason -- February 19, 2006
Consider this story told by Bernard L. Brown, Jr., president of the Kennestone Regional Health Care System in the state of Georgia.
Brown once worked in a hospital where a patient knocked over a cup of water, which spilled on the floor beside the patient's bed. The patient was afraid he might slip on the water if he got out of the bed, so he asked a nurse's aide to mop it up. The patient didn't know it, but the hospital policy said that small spills were the responsibility of the nurse's aides while large spills were to be mopped up by the hospital's housekeeping group.
The nurse's aide decided the spill was a large one and she called the housekeeping department. A housekeeper arrived and declared the spill a small one. An argument followed.
"It's not my responsibility," said the nurse's aide, "because it's a large puddle." The housekeeper did not agree. "Well, it's not mine," she said, "the puddle is too small."
The exasperated patient listened for a time, then took a pitcher of water from his night table and poured the whole thing on the floor. "Is that a big enough puddle now for you two to decide?" he asked. It was, and that was the end of the argument. Bits & Pieces, September 16, 1993, p. 22-24.
Our text today tells us that Jesus began teaching the people, who had gathered around him, in parables.
The first thing we need to do is come to an understanding of what a parable is. Herbert Lockyear in his book All The Parables of The Bible makes it clear that there are two Greek words for our English word parable. The one used by Matthew, Mark and Luke to describe Jesus’ teaching is parabole. The word parabole suggests two ideas “to represent or to stand for something”; and “likeness or resemblance. This Greek word implies “beside”or “to throw or cast”suggesting nearness for the purpose of comparison for likeness or difference.” (Page 12)
A parable then is a comparison. Generally a parable is a story that has a single point of comparison in it.
In our passage Mark makes it clear that he is making a comparison for likeness. And it is a Kingdom Parable for it shows us what the Kingdom of God is like.
It is at this point in his public ministry that Jesus begins to teach in parables. Before this time he was quite clear in what he was teaching and what he had to say. But now we have a shift in his methodology of sharing with the multitudes who are following him.
Why would Jesus change his method with the multitudes who are following him? He speaks in parables to the crowds but then explains what they mean to his disciples. Why does he not explain what he is saying to the crowds?
This parable introduces us to the sower who goes out to sow. He sows his seed and it falls on the hard path, into rocky soil, thorny ground and then on good soil. The method of sowing seed was called broadcasting. The farmer would throw the seed out by hand over as large an area as he could as he walked through his field. Most fields in New Testament times were separated by a path on which people walked most of the time. Some of that seed fell on the path that was hard and the seed was lost to the birds. The seed that fell among the rocky soil did not have much to grow in and withered away in the hot sunshine. The thorny ground choked out the plants from the seed falling there. But there was a lot of good soil that produced a bountiful crop.
For our understanding, in some way this is what the Kingdom of God is like. We have read what Jesus explained to his disciples about this parable. The seed is the Word of God. And the soils with the seed represent what happens with the seed when it is sown there. Satan takes some away, some withers and dies, some gets a good start but gets choked out and some bears fruit. That is what happens when the Kingdom of God is proclaimed.
Why does Jesus turn to parables? You would think that Jesus would want his message to be clear and easy to understand. After all, He did come to save the world. He came to call unto himself a people of his own. So, why would he make it hard for them to understand?
To answer those questions we need to consider this: Opposition to Jesus and his teaching is growing.
= In Capernaum it began in the house when he forgave sins and the scribes challenged him with “who is this that forgives sins? No one can forgive sins except God.”
= At the home of Levi, the tax collector, he was criticized for eating with publicans and sinners and allowing his disciples to ignore ceremonial fasting.
= It continued when he permitted his disciples to harvest grain to eat on the Sabbath day.
= On another Sabbath day, he healed the man with the withered hand and the Pharisees and Herodians met together to see how they might destroy him.
= Finally, again in Capernaum, they declared that he was possessed by Beelzebub and that he was casting out demons in league with the prince of demons Satan.
This is the evidence that opposition to him and his teaching is growing. He has been exercising his ministry in that context of opposition.
His response to his critics has been anger. He has been grieved at the hardening of their heart.
And now he turns to parables.
And his disciples ask him about this first parable and he replies: (verse 11-12)
“To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but those who are outside get get everything in parables, in order that while seeing, they may see and not perceive; and while hearing, they may hear and not understand lest they return and be forgiven.”
The statement of Jesus here puts us in a difficult place.
It doesn’t sound fair, gracious or merciful toward these people. It sounds as if they don’t have a chance to change. It seems so un-God-like to us. Mark must have it wrong.
Either Jesus actually said it and meant it as recorded here and in the other Gospels and began teaching in parables with the intention that people would not understand or we have to declare it to be untrue, a mistake.
Well, the latter possibility of declaring it to be untrue is impossible for us to consider. After all, this is part of the Scriptures and Paul declares to us that all scripture is inspired by God and trustworthy. This makes it an interesting exercise for us to determine what Jesus meant by this and what he is doing here.
Matthew’s account of this parable (Matthew 13:1-5) and it’s explanation to the disciples is important for us at this point. Mark’s account is a condensed version of the parable and explanation while Matthew’s is fuller version of it.
The disciples have noted the shift in Jesus’ method of teaching. And they ask him why he is teaching in parables. They want to know why. Jesus answered: “Unto you is given the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but unto those who are outside it, all things are done in parables.”
To his disciples Jesus is going to reveal the mystery of the Kingdom of God…that is they will know the secrets, the hidden things. But those who are outside the Kingdom will only be given the picture, the parable, the comparison. The difference is due to the fact that there are differing relationships involved here. The disciples enjoy an intimate, close relationship with Jesus that the multitudes and his critics do not.
The people who do not have that intimate relationship with Jesus, who lacked the capacity or ability to understand, could no longer be given the mystery of the Kingdom. He could no longer speak clearly to them. They had hardened their heart. For them, the picture, the parable was necessary and even essential.
This takes us back to the passage quoted from Isaiah, in verse 12: “Their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest haply they should perceive with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart.”
= They have closed their ears and eyes and don’t want to hear or see
= They don’t want light or truth to lead them back to God
= They don’t want to be placed under conviction by that light or truth
= So
= They have purposefully closed their eyes and ears
That is why Jesus has made the switch to parables.
= Not to blind them.
= Not to judge them.
= But to make them look once again at the picture, at the parable. His plan is to lure them back into a new attention, a new consideration of the message, the good news.
= Jesus did not come to judge people or to make it impossible for them to see and live.
What is Jesus hiding by speaking in parables? He is hiding the mystery of the Kingdom from them. He is not hiding the fact of the Kingdom from them. He is adapting his method to account for the strange and appalling attitude of heart and mind that has so filled him with anger. He saw their hardening of heart and their refusal to listen to him. He saw their resistance to repentance and turning back to God. And he changed his method.
They had shut their eyes and ears. When they did that he changed his method in order to get them to see the picture and willingly listen again.
When you go fishing one of the essential things is that you use bait to catch the fish. You have a number of options, but usually you have a pole with some line that is essentially invisible to the fish and you cover the fish hook with the bait. If the fish sees the line and the hook, it will not bite. If you use lures it is essential that the lure look like something appetizing to the fish and that the hooks are hidden away. When the fish strikes the lure it gets caught by the hook. You want the fish to look at the lure or the baited hook. If it looks at your lure or baited hook, it might just catch itself on the hook. If it doesn’t look at your bait, you will never catch the fish.
Jesus’ ultimate goal is that people will see and understand the mystery of the Kingdom of God and be saved. He is trying to get people who have hardened their heart and have shut their eyes to look again at the Kingdom of God and what he has to say about it. So he turns to parables. He hides his message in these stories, these comparisons.
It they are lured back by the picture, even those with hardened hearts, they might actually hear and believe and turn back to God through Christ and find their way into that Kingdom. For these people who have the hardened heart it is the last and only method left to Jesus to draw them in.
When people consider the picture he paints in his parables, they will be compelled to inquire about what the parables mean. And if they inquire about the parables, they can find Jesus Christ. He will answer them because he loves them dearly. He is gracious and he will save them.
How do we know that this is what Jesus is doing here?
Proverbs 25:2 gives us the answer: “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing; but the glory of kings to search out a matter.”
This is the principle involved here in a nutshell.
God conceals things because there are things that we are not ready for. We cannot accept them now because we are either incapable of doing so or are unwilling to do it.
However, we can come to the right conclusion about these things if we will only look at them honestly and openly. When we do that God who has concealed the matter will answer us with revelation.
For example, how much of what has taken place in creation of the universe and all that is in it has been hidden from mankind? We live in an age of discovery. Knowledge is expanding so quickly that no one can keep up with it. And yet there are still things that God is concealing. Why? Because we are not ready for it. One day we will be ready and capable of handling it.
Jesus told parables so that people could be “wooed” back into a right relationship with God through Christ. People have the responsibility of responding correctly to Christ and the message of reconciliation he brought to mankind.
We have to be ready to lure people back to consideration of the gospel message, the good news.
We are to live our lives for Christ in such a way that people will ask us about the faith we have in Jesus.
We are walking and talking pictures of Jesus in our world. Are we faithful enough in our Christian life to lure people into considering the message of Jesus again?
--Dennis Gleason
