Thoughts on Mark 4

Today’s reading: Leviticus 23; Mark 4

The parable of the sower is certainly one of the most famous of Jesus’ parables, and maybe the most famous, but it’s one that I don’t think Christians pay enough attention to.

I have often heard this parable taught in terms of the gospel, and people’s response to the message of Jesus’ death on the cross for their sins. Some hear the message of salvation but the seed is snatched away and it never makes it to their heart. Others are happy to receive forgiveness, but don’t ever get rooted in their faith, and shortly run back to life as though nothing ever happened. Others are happy to receive it, start to try to follow Jesus, and then the worries of the world spring up, choking out/distracting them from their young faith, and they do not grow. And then others receive the gospel, take root in it, and bear fruit living their lives for Christ.

Here’s the problem: that is 100% a valid way to teach this passage, but it cannot be where we stop teaching it. Jesus does not say that the seed that is sown is the gospel; he says it is the word. So the parable of the sower is not just about how the non-Christian responds to the gospel, but is about how each person responds to the word. Think about what the author of Hebrews says about the word in Hebrews 4:

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

The revealed word of God is the bedrock of our faith and the most powerful agent of growth and change in our lives as Christians, so how we receive and respond to the Word is vitally important.

As Christians, there are times we are the path, and even though our faith is in Christ, we hear the word and are not willing to let it penetrate and take root, and instead allow it to be quickly snatched away. Sometimes it’s an inconvenient truth for us, calling out sin that we don’t want to set aside. Sometimes it’s an invitation to a greater depth with God, but at a cost we aren’t willing to pay. In these times we are happy to have Satan come and snatch the word away from us so we don’t have to hear he voice of the Holy Spirit convicting us and calling us forward. But there is very real danger here. We cannot harden our hearts to the word of the Lord in one area without hardening the whole thing, and the more we harden our hearts to Him, the more we make Satan a partner with us, gladly letting him snatch away the seed, the less we will hear the voice of the Lord. It’s not just the one area we are “protecting” from the Lord that is affected, but it is our whole heart and person that we callous to the voice of the Lord, until our faith itself is nothing but the hollow shell of what it once was. There is a very real danger in allowing our hearts to be hardened path.

As Christians there are times when we are the rocky soil. I would call this person a “fad” Christian. Not in that their faith itself is a fad, but in that their life of faith is characterized more by fads, than by real growth and change. Are you the kind of Christian that has a “conviction of the week” so to speak? You are deeply struck by the pastor’s sermon on Sunday morning, or hit hard by that book you read, and you think about it, tell your friends about it, and are generally excited about it, but then nothing ever comes of it. You receive the word gladly enough, but it doesn’t take deep enough root to last, so no matter how gladly you receive it at first, there is no lasting change or growth. If we are to really see the growth and change in our lives that the Spirit is calling us toward, we have to be willing to sit with Him and allow those thoughts and convictions to take deep enough root that they are more than a passing fancy. If you continue on as rocky soil, no matter how many times you hear the word and receive it with joy, you faith will never take deeper root, grow, and mature as God intends.

As Christians, there are times we are the plants choked out by thorns and thistles. I fear that this characterizes a lot of Christians in the West. People who know and love the Lord, and want their lives to mean something for Him, but allow the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things to choke out the word that is calling them to something more. Caught up in the rat-race of career advancement, keeping up with the Joneses, and otherwise chasing something like the “American dream,” they never stop to ask whether this is actually what God would have for their lives. Often it seems like an unexamined assumption that this is what life is supposed to look like, but it is nothing more than chasing after thorns and thistles that frustrate your desire to grow and invest in your faith. For many, the first step here might be taking that step back to look and realize just how bound up they are in those thorns and thistles, and begin to question if this is really the life God has for them, or if He has greater growth and maturity available in a little bit clearer soil.

And finally, as Christians, there are times we are the good soil, open and receptive to the word of God, letting it take root and grow, allowing ourselves to be changed and transformed by that living Word. Obviously this is the kind of soil we, as followers of Jesus, should want to be, but we have to realize that this is not our natural or unexamined state. Yes, by the grace and mercy of God, there are times when, in spite of ourselves, we are open and receptive to God’s truth, but that same Word tells us that our flesh is at enmity with God. That same Word tells us that Satan prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Even as Christians, if left unchecked, our hearts will turn back (or be led back by God’s enemies) toward becoming rockier soil.

We should seek to be the good soil, our hearts a good home for the Word of God, but the work is not done once we are there. There will always be thorns and thistles trying to grow up and choke out the life of God, there will always be spiritual enemies trying to snatch away the truth, even as we reach out to receive it, and our own flesh will always be trying to fill that soil with rocks so that the roots of the Word have less and less depth to grow into. Being good soil is not a passive endeavor, but is one we fight for every day. But each time we fight, each time we clear out a rock to deepen our roots, each time we pull a thistle so it cannot choke out our spiritual life, we lay a foundation for that work to continue the next day, and the next, and the next, until the day we stand before our Lord in glory!