The Parable of the Sower - Mark 4:1-9
The Parable of the Sower
4 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” 9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Reflection:
One of the ways Jesus taught about the kingdom being upon us was through parables. In parables Jesus told stories about earthly things in order to illustrate truths in the spiritual realm. The stories build on an analogy and usually end with a punch line that makes the main point of the story with insight into the things of God. Today Jesus uses a parable about a farmer for who was sowing seeds. This was common thing in Jesus' day as a lot of people were farmers and had to plant seed for the grain to grow to feed the livestock. In the parable today we see that the seed is affected by the quality of the soil.
There are four scenarios given by Mark, the gospel writer. In the first three examples the grain does not take root and therefore can't grow and produce a crop. In each of the first three cases because the seed did not take root, some external factor came into play to prevent the seed from rooting and growing. On the path the birds ate it up. In the rocky soil it didn't go very deep so the sun quickly scorched and withered them. In the third scenario the thorns grew and overwhelmed the good soil and choked out any possibilities for the seed to do what it was supposed to do. Fortunately for the farmer there was some good soil, where the seed was allowed to take root, grow to its potential, and multiply many times over.
What is Jesus teaching here? One, just because you sow seed, it does not automatically produce growth. Second, you might want to sow the seed liberally so that it will be spread around quite a bit. Finally you had better pay attention to the soil condition, if you want to see an exponential harvest. Now you can bet that these farmers who earned a living this way paid great attention to those factors. He couldn't prevent the birds, the sun and thorns, but he could tend to the soil. There were some things he could control and others he couldn't.
Tomorrow Jesus will help us to interpret what this parable might mean for our spiritual lives and how we can grow the church. But we could generally conclude today that if soil condition is so important, what might that mean? How can the condition of someone's heart be an indicator of their openness to the seed of the Gospel? What ways can we test soil condition to know where to spread the seed? Can praying for someone possibly break up the hard ground of the heart? What thorns in people's life choke a chance for Jesus to produce fruit in them? How does God's Word act as the seed that provides for the exponential growth? These are all great questions as we seek to understand Jesus teaching us how to be that seed that multiplies sometimes 30, sometimes 60 and even 100 times. I would like to know more about that. How about you?
4 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” 9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Reflection:
One of the ways Jesus taught about the kingdom being upon us was through parables. In parables Jesus told stories about earthly things in order to illustrate truths in the spiritual realm. The stories build on an analogy and usually end with a punch line that makes the main point of the story with insight into the things of God. Today Jesus uses a parable about a farmer for who was sowing seeds. This was common thing in Jesus' day as a lot of people were farmers and had to plant seed for the grain to grow to feed the livestock. In the parable today we see that the seed is affected by the quality of the soil.
There are four scenarios given by Mark, the gospel writer. In the first three examples the grain does not take root and therefore can't grow and produce a crop. In each of the first three cases because the seed did not take root, some external factor came into play to prevent the seed from rooting and growing. On the path the birds ate it up. In the rocky soil it didn't go very deep so the sun quickly scorched and withered them. In the third scenario the thorns grew and overwhelmed the good soil and choked out any possibilities for the seed to do what it was supposed to do. Fortunately for the farmer there was some good soil, where the seed was allowed to take root, grow to its potential, and multiply many times over.
What is Jesus teaching here? One, just because you sow seed, it does not automatically produce growth. Second, you might want to sow the seed liberally so that it will be spread around quite a bit. Finally you had better pay attention to the soil condition, if you want to see an exponential harvest. Now you can bet that these farmers who earned a living this way paid great attention to those factors. He couldn't prevent the birds, the sun and thorns, but he could tend to the soil. There were some things he could control and others he couldn't.
Tomorrow Jesus will help us to interpret what this parable might mean for our spiritual lives and how we can grow the church. But we could generally conclude today that if soil condition is so important, what might that mean? How can the condition of someone's heart be an indicator of their openness to the seed of the Gospel? What ways can we test soil condition to know where to spread the seed? Can praying for someone possibly break up the hard ground of the heart? What thorns in people's life choke a chance for Jesus to produce fruit in them? How does God's Word act as the seed that provides for the exponential growth? These are all great questions as we seek to understand Jesus teaching us how to be that seed that multiplies sometimes 30, sometimes 60 and even 100 times. I would like to know more about that. How about you?
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