Matthew
13:1-23
Mark
4:3-9, 14-20
Luke
8:5-15
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Jesus said to his disciples,
"Don't you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the
parables?" (paraphrase Mark 4:13)
The key to understanding this parable
lies in the proper interpretation of the four types of soil.
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This parable's featured attraction is the soil.
Same Sower. Same Seed. Four Soils. Four Outcomes.
Understanding the soil type is so vital to understanding what Jesus was teaching that, as mentioned in the last post, some scholars prefer to call this the Parable of the Soils. However, all soils would be equally unfruitful if no sower had come along to toss some seed their way. It is the action of the sower putting word into people's hearts that allows them to either bring forth and bloom, or to shrink up and blow away. Without the sower, the soil would never have revealed its productivity.
Even though Jesus used parabolic language in public, when He explains this parable to His disciples later, as we read in these examples below, He makes it clear that the condition of the soil corresponds to the state of the human heart.
The soils represent the state of the heart.
Wayside
Different translations used slightly different terms to describe the first soil— seed along the path, beside the road, by the wayside, hardened soil of the road, the pavement. In each case, the description is one of hardness; nothing makes an impression. It's not hard to envision the seed bouncing as it hits the ground. The message it would bring stays on the surface and birds, agents of the adversary, come and take it away. The word will not produce a crop in the hard-hearted.
Stony Ground
This soil is described variously as rocky, gravel, and stony. The seed sprouted quickly here, but it never developed roots. When the sun came up, it quickly withered. Jesus described the people with rock-strewn hearts as the emotional "hearers." They received the word with joy, but when the affliction or persecution of a hot sun would rise, their character would prove to be as shallow as their soil. The happy emotions wear off and they are done for.
This is the category where Gwen placed her daughter, KarieLyn. She said the courtship had been too exciting, too enthusiastic, but that it was all thin-surfaced. She said KarieLyn's grip on the reality of marriage was superficial as well.
I don't know. Gwen has made darn-tootin' sure that I can't easily ask KatieLyn about it. But from the few hours that I did spend with KatieLyn, she never came across that way. Is she just a good actress? Did she really have a stony-layer heart right below the surface? Her mom says that all the people who have known KatieLyn for years saw that she was just getting too excited and didn't have any real root. Her mom could be right about that. If her happy emotions wore off, the devil would gleefully overwhelm her by supplying a hot sun that suffocates and wilts her soul with illusions that had nothing to do with Joe.
What I do know for sure is that deep-rooted faith never takes hold in a heart of stony ground. It is possible that Gwen is right: that KatieLyn's flighty emotion was a sign of shallowness that would not last. There was nothing shallow about Joe's love, however. He was prepared to stand for a lifetime. It is true that KatieLyn did not have the deeply-rooted faith that she needed to go through with the wedding. So either she never grew roots because her heart is too stony, or someone else yanked her out of good ground.
Thorny Ground
The "thorns" of this ground is also translated as thornbushes and briers. (In the quote below, the Message Bible uses "weeds.") These hearers have wandering thoughts which travel from worry to imaginations to desires, and then they repeat the circuit! The Message Bible describes them this way:
The stressors fall into three categories.
Cares of this world — anxious worries and concerns choke the faith right out of the word that the thorny hearers heard. Often, a problem that was thrown at them by the enemy did need some attention, but instead of keeping it in proper proportion, it gets put on steroids! Some will whine and expect sympathy because they have convinced themselves that their fear is 'legitimate,' but worry is a twisted form of a prideful sin that refuses to trust the Lord completely.
Deceitfulness of riches — this deceit causes people to trust in transitory feelings and impermanent possessions. It destroys by dividing the heart. "No servant can serve two masters; You cannot serve both God and money." Luke 16:13
Lusts of other things — the desire for pleasure and feelings of entitlement. Mark uses the term enter in to specify the status of these desires. "... the desires for other things enter in and choke the word." Mark 4:19 One's affections are entering the soul at this point; they enter in and push God out. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary (1882) describes it this way:- "These 'choke' or 'smother' the word; drawing off so much of one's attention, absorbing so much of one's interest, and using up so much of one's time, that only the dregs of these remain for spiritual things, and a fagged, hurried, and heartless formalism is at length all the religion of such persons."
This. Is. Gwen. The mother of the runaway bride is a classic example of the thorny-ground hearer, the hearer with the wandering mind, who found it overwhelming to think that her Karie might have started a home of her own—without her. These thoughts and concerns got down inside Gwen and filled in the spot that ought to have been reserved for the Word of the Lord.
These three things, (a) the cares of the world, (b) the deceitfulness of riches, and (c) the lusts after other things, entering in, choke the word, and the word becomes unfruitful. The NET Bible expresses Mark 4:19 this way: "But worldly cares, the seductiveness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it produces nothing."
That is exactly what KatieLyn and Gwen got —Nothing! Years of prayers and preparation had been sown into this. Both Joe and KatieLyn had received the Word of the Lord that this marriage was His plan for their lives. But KatieLyn got her word choked right out of her. She got nothing.
But, we must complete the parable...
Same Sower. Same Seed. Four Soils. Four Outcomes.
Understanding the soil type is so vital to understanding what Jesus was teaching that, as mentioned in the last post, some scholars prefer to call this the Parable of the Soils. However, all soils would be equally unfruitful if no sower had come along to toss some seed their way. It is the action of the sower putting word into people's hearts that allows them to either bring forth and bloom, or to shrink up and blow away. Without the sower, the soil would never have revealed its productivity.
Even though Jesus used parabolic language in public, when He explains this parable to His disciples later, as we read in these examples below, He makes it clear that the condition of the soil corresponds to the state of the human heart.
♦ "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart." Matthew 13:19.It is worth noting also that Jesus acknowledges a real, active, adversary—the evil one (Matthew), Satan (Mark) and the devil (Luke), who is out to filch and steal the word. Gwen, the mother of the runaway, was in denial about that. And because she flatly rejected any notion of demonic involvement, she probably never trained her daughter to have her guard up for it. That was horribly and disastrously naïve.
♦ "These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them." Mark 4:15
♦ "Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe." Luke 8:12
The soils represent the state of the heart.
Wayside
Different translations used slightly different terms to describe the first soil— seed along the path, beside the road, by the wayside, hardened soil of the road, the pavement. In each case, the description is one of hardness; nothing makes an impression. It's not hard to envision the seed bouncing as it hits the ground. The message it would bring stays on the surface and birds, agents of the adversary, come and take it away. The word will not produce a crop in the hard-hearted.
Stony Ground
This soil is described variously as rocky, gravel, and stony. The seed sprouted quickly here, but it never developed roots. When the sun came up, it quickly withered. Jesus described the people with rock-strewn hearts as the emotional "hearers." They received the word with joy, but when the affliction or persecution of a hot sun would rise, their character would prove to be as shallow as their soil. The happy emotions wear off and they are done for.
This is the category where Gwen placed her daughter, KarieLyn. She said the courtship had been too exciting, too enthusiastic, but that it was all thin-surfaced. She said KarieLyn's grip on the reality of marriage was superficial as well.
I don't know. Gwen has made darn-tootin' sure that I can't easily ask KatieLyn about it. But from the few hours that I did spend with KatieLyn, she never came across that way. Is she just a good actress? Did she really have a stony-layer heart right below the surface? Her mom says that all the people who have known KatieLyn for years saw that she was just getting too excited and didn't have any real root. Her mom could be right about that. If her happy emotions wore off, the devil would gleefully overwhelm her by supplying a hot sun that suffocates and wilts her soul with illusions that had nothing to do with Joe.
What I do know for sure is that deep-rooted faith never takes hold in a heart of stony ground. It is possible that Gwen is right: that KatieLyn's flighty emotion was a sign of shallowness that would not last. There was nothing shallow about Joe's love, however. He was prepared to stand for a lifetime. It is true that KatieLyn did not have the deeply-rooted faith that she needed to go through with the wedding. So either she never grew roots because her heart is too stony, or someone else yanked her out of good ground.
Thorny Ground
The "thorns" of this ground is also translated as thornbushes and briers. (In the quote below, the Message Bible uses "weeds.") These hearers have wandering thoughts which travel from worry to imaginations to desires, and then they repeat the circuit! The Message Bible describes them this way:
“The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get. The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.
(Mark 4:18, 19)
The stressors fall into three categories.
Cares of this world — anxious worries and concerns choke the faith right out of the word that the thorny hearers heard. Often, a problem that was thrown at them by the enemy did need some attention, but instead of keeping it in proper proportion, it gets put on steroids! Some will whine and expect sympathy because they have convinced themselves that their fear is 'legitimate,' but worry is a twisted form of a prideful sin that refuses to trust the Lord completely.
Deceitfulness of riches — this deceit causes people to trust in transitory feelings and impermanent possessions. It destroys by dividing the heart. "No servant can serve two masters; You cannot serve both God and money." Luke 16:13
Lusts of other things — the desire for pleasure and feelings of entitlement. Mark uses the term enter in to specify the status of these desires. "... the desires for other things enter in and choke the word." Mark 4:19 One's affections are entering the soul at this point; they enter in and push God out. The Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary (1882) describes it this way:- "These 'choke' or 'smother' the word; drawing off so much of one's attention, absorbing so much of one's interest, and using up so much of one's time, that only the dregs of these remain for spiritual things, and a fagged, hurried, and heartless formalism is at length all the religion of such persons."
This. Is. Gwen. The mother of the runaway bride is a classic example of the thorny-ground hearer, the hearer with the wandering mind, who found it overwhelming to think that her Karie might have started a home of her own—without her. These thoughts and concerns got down inside Gwen and filled in the spot that ought to have been reserved for the Word of the Lord.
These three things, (a) the cares of the world, (b) the deceitfulness of riches, and (c) the lusts after other things, entering in, choke the word, and the word becomes unfruitful. The NET Bible expresses Mark 4:19 this way: "But worldly cares, the seductiveness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it produces nothing."
That is exactly what KatieLyn and Gwen got —Nothing! Years of prayers and preparation had been sown into this. Both Joe and KatieLyn had received the Word of the Lord that this marriage was His plan for their lives. But KatieLyn got her word choked right out of her. She got nothing.
But, we must complete the parable...
Good Ground
The good ground represents the hearer with the steadfast mind. The seed of the word can enter the whole person, filling the soul's mind, conscience, and will, and sending roots deep into the spirit's heart. When the word is received and yielded to in faith, then comes growth and understanding. Then comes the fruitfulness, then comes the thirty-, sixty-, or hundred-fold return. It is the fruitful harvest that brings glory to God.
♦ ♦ The Lesson ♦ ♦
But Gwen and KatieLyn did not want to follow God's order for growing fruit. They decided that faith was too risky. They wanted the understanding first. And in Gwen's case, she wanted to be assured of a good harvest before she ever heard the word! God does not work like that. There is another parable in Mark 4:26-28, that explains the order:
The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows— how, he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.
He himself does not know, but he uses faith and reaps his grain. KatieLyn and her mom wanted a guarantee for the grain before they'd consider casting seed. They considered what could go wrong.
Surely there are windstorms, flood, drought, insect infestation, fungus, and predatory crows. These might drop the harvest from one hundred-fold down to sixty- or even down to thirty-fold. But when you do as Gwen did and demand to see the full grain before you are happy, or if like KatieLyn you run off in the middle of the night and aren't even around to get up by day, then in cases like that God gives a different guarantee: You are guaranteed no harvest fruits at all!
Surely there are windstorms, flood, drought, insect infestation, fungus, and predatory crows. These might drop the harvest from one hundred-fold down to sixty- or even down to thirty-fold. But when you do as Gwen did and demand to see the full grain before you are happy, or if like KatieLyn you run off in the middle of the night and aren't even around to get up by day, then in cases like that God gives a different guarantee: You are guaranteed no harvest fruits at all!
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