We are a bit past the growing season here in NJ. But the farmers’ markets are still booming with the harvest of seeds that were planted back in the spring. We have had extreme weather this year – first wet, then dry, with a miserable heat wave in the middle. I’m not sure it has been a bumper year for farmers. But despite the weather, which they cannot control, there are a few things that farmers CAN do to ensure a good harvest.
I’m a novice at such things. Sonya and Marge can help us with the whole planting endeavor, but I need to read the directions to be successful. You might think that the directions for gardening might be pretty simple. Plant, water, and harvest. Someone once sent me a compilation of directions found on some common household products. I think they’re funny enough to share with you this morning:
Pop tarts: Remove from pouch. Place pastry in toaster. Toast.
Rowenta Iron: Do not iron clothes on body.
American Airlines packet of nuts: Open package. Eat nuts.
Swedish chainsaw: Do not attempt to stop chain with your hands.
Package of Spencer Bread Pudding: Product will be hot after heating.
Boots’ Children’s cough syrup: Do not drive a car or operate machinery.
So how hard can it be to get a good harvest? Jesus gives us some instructions here in Mark 4. Or, maybe he doesn’t. I want us to take a closer look at this parable. Because I think there’s much more here than meets the eye. It just might be that the point of this parable might be quite different than you might think.
Every paragraph heading in every Bible tells us that this is a parable. This passage is quite well known as the “Parable of the Sower”. But herein begins our problem. The way 99% of Christians interpret this passage is not as a parable, but as an allegory. What’s the difference?
A parable is defined as “a short simple story intended to illustrate a moral or religious lesson.” While an allegory is “a work in which the characters and events are to be understood as representing other things and symbolically expressing a deeper, often spiritual, moral, or political meaning.” What’s the practical difference?
In a parable, you look for one central point. It is usually not important what the component parts are. There is one central truth that is being communicated. On the other hand, with an allegory, you have many levels of meaning. Each part of the story may represent something different. It is much more complex than a parable.
Here’s an example of a non-biblical parable:
Once upon a time there was a wise man who used to go to the ocean to do his writing. He had a habit of walking on the beach before he began his work. One morning he was walking along the shore. As he looked down the beach, he saw a boy reaching down to the shore, picking up something and very gently throwing it into the ocean. As he got closer he called out,"Good morning! What are you doing?" The young man paused, looked up and replied, "Throwing starfish in the ocean." The man asked, “Why are you throwing starfish in the ocean?" The boy said, "The sun is up and the tide is going out. And if I don’t throw them in they’ll die." The man said, "But, my boy, don’t you realize that there are miles and miles of beach and starfish all along it. You can’t possibly make a difference!" The boy listened politely. Then bent down, picked another starfish and threw it into the sea, past the breaking waves and said, "It made a difference for that one."
So what’s the point? (ask) Little acts of kindness can make a big difference, even if the need is overwhelming. One central moral truth. Now, if this were an allegory, we might say that the man represents the heartless federal government, the boy represents environmental activists, and the starfish are the spotted owls whose habitat is being threatened. And someone could wax eloquent about how each owl is being threatened by the government who fails to understand how each and every tree is valuable to their habitat, and how the activists are so committed to their survival that they get up early each day to try and save a single owl. Or something like that. But do you see the difference?
How have you understood this parable? As a parable or as an allegory? In fairness to the majority of us, Jesus himself seems to interpret this story as an allegory in verses 13-20, doesn’t he? Most of us have never found this parable difficult to understand. The meaning seems obvious, and in fact, Jesus even seems to interpret it for us.
But let’s take a closer look. First, there is no imperative in this story. If we understand the identities of the different kinds of soils, wouldn’t it make sense for there to be an imperative here – a command to plow and prepare the soil so that the preaching of the gospel might be successful? Or shouldn’t there be a warning against sowing seeds on the path, in shallow soil, or amongst the thorns? I think that dynamic, the lack of an imperative, is the key to understanding that this is a parable rather than an allegory. Jesus is describing a reality, not commanding his disciples or us to do something.
And the central point is this: God’s Kingdom is in God’s hands, and the Gospel will do its OWN work!
The parables of Jesus are always more than a religious truth. They are always in the context of his ministry and his mission. His ministry and his mission is to advance the Kingdom of God. And in this parable Jesus describes a reality, rather than asking for help.
This gardener is really not very good at his job, is he? Why would you scatter seeds on a path, in poor soil, or in the thorns? Obviously, you wouldn’t if you were trying to get the best harvest possible. So it stands to reason that the gardener should first prepare the soil. But he doesn’t. Bad economics. It sure seems like he could do better!
I have often heard this passage preached or taught on to encourage us to prepare the soil for a good reception for the gospel. We need to soften folks up. Maybe by exposing them to Christian music at school. Maybe by leaving Bible verses on their desks at work.
Or by speaking lots of Christian language around them to make them curious or to get them comfortable with what they’ll hear at church. None of those things is bad, and perhaps all of them are helpful and even might qualify as a kind of proclamation ministry. But that’s not what is being taught or encouraged here. In this parable the farmer doesn’t change the soil, and the soil certainly can’t change itself.
What we see here is a farmer wasting seed in places where it is not going to grow or yield much fruit. Really poor economics, don’t you think?
Jesus made it plain that this parable really is hard to understand. In verse 3 he says, “Listen!” This is an unusual start – as if this story is going to be tough to deal with. And in verse 9 he says, “he who has ears to hear, let him hear.” We might say, “I sure hope that some of you are getting this!” And in fact, the disciples did miss the point. Later, they ask Jesus to tell them what he meant. And Jesus’ response is one of the most difficult passages in the NT.
“The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables 12so that,
“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”
Wow. What the heck is Jesus saying, and just how does this fit in with the parable of the sower?
First, let’s note the fact that the word translated here as “secret” actually means “mystery”. There is a big difference between something that is hard to understand and something that is being hidden from you. Paul uses this same word and speaks of the same dynamic in 1 Cor 2:6-8, where he says, “6We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. 7No, we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. 8None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
I think what Jesus is communicating to the disciples, and by extension to you and me, is that God has revealed His truth to his chosen people, while to those whose hearts God has not inclined to respond, the gospel remains a mystery. Let me repeat that, because it is an important foundation for where we are going next:
God has revealed His truth to his chosen people, while to those whose hearts God has not inclined to respond, the gospel remains a mystery.
Telling parables alone does not produce faith. Otherwise, everyone who heard them and could figure them out would respond to the gospel. We know this. Preaching does not always result in faith, or else nearly everyone in the US would be saved. It is only by faith that we can recognize Jesus as the Messiah!
Story about Alison’s first day of kindergarten – could not understand why her public school was not going to teach about Jesus because “It’s true! Why don’t they know that?”
John Calvin said that Jesus taught in parables for two reasons.
1) To reach the elect
2) That the others might be judged by their lack of understanding.
It is God who gives us an ultimate understanding the things of the Kingdom, and even of parables at their deepest level. Consider 1 Cor. 2:14: 14The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
People do not understand nor respond to the gospel because of the condition of their hearts. Apart from God doing a work in their hearts, they are both unwilling and unable to embrace the Good News. That is not politically correct, but it is what the Scriptures teach. Now, should we let them off the hook and blame God for their lack of sensitivity to the Gospel? No, people absolutely have free will. They can do whatever they choose to do! The problem is that they only want to choose to be at enmity to God.
John Calvin puts it this way:
All who have been given over to a reprobate mind do voluntarily, and from inward malice, blind themselves. Nor can it be otherwise wherever the Sprit of God does not reign, by whom the elect alone are governed. Let us therefore attend to this connection that all whom God does not enlighten with the spirit of adoption are men of unsound mind; and that while they are more and more blinded by the word of God, the blame rests wholly on themselves, because this blindness is voluntary. Again, the ministers of the word ought to seek consolation from this passage, if the success of their labors does not always correspond to their wish. Many are so far from profiting from their instruction that hey are rendered worse by it. What has befallen them was experienced by a Prophet (Jesus), to whom they are not superior.
Calvin notes that when we share our faith, it does not always result in people giving their lives to Christ. You’ve noticed that, right? Some folks who you’ve shared with for years seem no closer to responding, while other folks seem to hear the Gospel and embrace the love of Christ immediately. This past month at Young Life camp we saw some of the toughest, most jaded kids respond immediately to the gospel, while other kids, nice kids, kids raised in churches all their lives, rejected God’s love as if it were radioactive.
I think this dynamic that we see all the time helps us to make sense of Jesus’ quotation of Isaiah:
“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”
Parables are actually a kind of judgment. They don’t keep people from seeing the truth so much as they indicate who does see it. They are a kind of teaching, like all of God’s Word, that separates the believer from the unbeliever. Quoting Calvin again: When persons of a weak sight come out into sunshine, their eyes become dimmer than before, and that defect is in no way attributed to the sun, but to their eyes.
Jesus does go ahead and interpret the parable in verses 13-20. But still, there is no admonition or imperative. He is simply describing the way things are. It’s almost as if he is saying,
The seed = The Word
The sower = God
The soils = people
The meaning? You figure it out!
So, back to the beginning. Remember Jesus’ insistence that this seemingly easy parable is actually a tough one? He says, “Listen”, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” and finally, “Don’t you understand this parable?” It IS a tough teaching, both to understand and to deal with. God’s Kingdom is in God’s hands, and the Gospel will do its OWN work!
I once pulled together a seeker’s Bible study in our neighborhood. I was really encouraged that a lady from up the street, a devout church-goer who I was pretty certain did not know Christ, began to attend each week. We were studying our way through Mark. And when we got to this passage, I pointed out that the central point was not about sowing on good soil or about trying to be better soil. I tried to be faithful to the text and help her see that the Gospel is God’s business. And that was the last Bible study she attended. She was quite offended that somehow God’s business might be beyond her control.
Here are a couple of principles for you:
1) God is not into economics. The Word is sown far and wide. It may look like a waste to us, but it is all in God’s control and God’s hands.
2) Faith is not easy to come by! We don’t generate it in ourselves, nor can we create it in others. It comes by the movement of God’s Spirit.
3) The servant of the gospel is never in control of the gospel. People’s response is never about how well you preached.
4) People’s response is never about how well you preached. I just said that, but it is a great encouragement! Especially to me as a preacher, but it should be to you, too! God WILL accomplish a work through your proclamation. You are not in charge of that. You just need to faithfully share what Christ has done in your life, and God will cause seeds to grow.
If you are sitting here this morning a bit confused, God bless you. I would say that the fact that you are here this morning and the fact that you are ruminating on this sermon are great indicators that God is indeed doing a work in your heart. You may be a little plant that is just starting to grow. I hope you are encouraged by that! Follow that little spark wherever it leads, knowing that God has set his affection on you, has opened your heard and your mind, and is causing you to respond to His love! Perhaps this would be the day when you quit fighting against his kindness and invite him into your life!
God’s Kingdom is in God’s hands, and the Gospel will do its OWN work!
Bad economics, but great news.
Amen.
