PARABLE OF THE SOWER: REVELATION AND RECEPTIVITY*

The so-call “Parable of the Sower” (Mark 4:3-8) is not an easy parable.  The disciples did not understand it (v 13); Jesus had to explain it to them (14-20).

Brief Explanation
The parable is about how people receive the Word/Presence of God in one’s life.  It calls for self-assessment.  For some (the path), God’s Word makes no impression; they are too hardened.  Some (rocky soil) receive the Word joyfully, but superficially.  When confronted by opposition to the will of God, they fall away from trusting God.  Some (thorny soil) others give some allegiance to God, but their worldly concerns and desires take precedent over God.  None of these soils/people bear God’s fruit.  Finally, others (good soil) openly receive God’s Word and Presence and entrust themselves deeply and fully to Jesus.  God causes their lives to bear fruit of righteousness for God’s Kingdom.

First Application: Regular Self-Assessment
Jesus challenged his hearers at that moment to stop all the whirl of life around them, to identify which type fit them, and to decide what they would do in response; that is to totally “hear.”  Would they fully commit to God?  I suppose these types of “soil-receptivity” to God may well express a general and rather static state of people.  I find, though, that I need this introspection daily.  I move through these soil caricatures day to day.  I want God’s Word/Presence to be so deeply rooted in my life that I am not shaken by the coercive power of unrighteousness nor lured and choked by desires of wanting something more/other than Jesus.  But, I still fail in these respects.  I need to apply this parable to myself every day.  (BTW: I would rename the popularly-called “Parable of the Sower,” the “Parable of Soil-Receptivity.”)

Explanatory Notes
A. The framing and linking of this parable indicate that it is a crucial one to understand:

1.     After the Gospel writer states that Jesus taught in many parables, this one is chosen for presentation (1-2).

2.     Jesus opens and closes it with the command, “Listen!” (3) and “Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear" (9).  (“Hearing” in this cultural-linguistic context means that one takes in, engages with, and responds appropriately to the given words.)

3.     Between the presentation (3-9) and explanation (14-20) of the parable are what are often called “hard sayings” of Jesus (10-12) about “the secret of the kingdom of God” and “never perceiving.”

4.     Jesus says to his disciples, “Don't you understand this parable? Then how will you understand any parable?” (13)

5.     Following the “hard words” and the explanation of parable and are a group of sayings about revelation (21-25) which link together and back to the parable by the motif of hearing and the repetition of verse 9 at verse 23.

The framing and context of Jesus’ explanation shows the parable teaches something crucial about revelation:

1.     The “hard sayings” (10-12) and the sayings about revelation (21-25) bracket Jesus’ explanation of the parable (14-20) and re-enforce the message. 

2.     Jesus’ reference to “secret/mystery” of the kingdom of God, does not have a good English equivalent.  In the context of revelation, it refers to the way/will of God that is not yet known but will be made know in God’s timing. 

3.     In verse 12, Jesus is quoting Isaiah 6:9-10.  In that context, Isaiah is told that he will take God’s message to his people, but since they will reject it, their hearts (sensitivity to God) will be hardened.  By citing this text, Jesus implies that he is facing the same obstacle and results of Isaiah. 

4.     The point of verse 21-23 is that a lamp (think “candle”) obviously is not meant to be covered up, but placed where it can share its light.  So are the ways/will of God.  Still, person must have ears that hear. 

5.     Verse 24, which is confusing by itself, now makes sense in light of the parable: those who are receptive to God, receive even more; those who are not, become shut out in regard to God.  The saying captures an aspect of biblical theology about God’s self-revelation: those who receive the word of God, become increasingly sensitive to God; and those who refuse to hear, “harden” their hearts to the Presence of God.

Second Application: There Is No Neutral Response to God’s Self-Revelation
We always respond to God’s self-revelation, and our responses shape our “hearts.”  God’s revelation is relational.  Our response is relational.  In my assessment about what kind of soil I am (Am I being receptive?), I am assessing the state of my “heart's” relational receptivity.  If I am receiving God’s Word, then I am opening myself up to more of a relationship with Jesus.  If I am not actively hearing and receiving God’s Word, then I am creating a callousness that makes me less and less sensitive to Jesus' offer of relationship.  Each day I need to ask, “How am I responding?”

Lord, thank you that you offer Yourself in relationship with me.  Help me to always “hear” Your word fully every day.  I do not want to miss knowing You more and more.  Amen.
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*I have found in my teaching experience that students who were previously exposed to Jesus’ parables have the harder time understanding them.  In childhood Sunday School, the parables were reduced to platitudes.  As a result, those students struggled to go deeper.

WOULD WE RECOGNIZE DIVINE DISCIPLINE?

 

A friend recently asked me if God disciplines the Church for collective unfaithfulness the way God disciplined Israel.  Yes.  God repeatedly disciplined the assembly of Israel in order to move the people back to a faithful relationship (e.g. the punishments in the wilderness for unfaithfulness [“forgetting God”] after God had just delivered them from slavery in Egypt; see too Pss 39, 50, 107).  [Note: The Hebrew word for “assembly,” qhl, is translated in Greek by ecclesia, which in English is translated by “church.”]  As God disciplined the ecclesia of Israel, so God disciplines the NT ecclesia (e.g. Heb 12:1-13; Rev 3:14-22).

I’ll explain more below about “discipline,” but what strikes home to me is the question, Do we, the church collectively, and I personally, even recognize divine discipline in the midst of our lives?  Have I become blind to or accustomed to or numb to God’s discipline, so that I fail to respond by turning back to God, by repenting?  I need such self-examination.

Divine judgment -- discipline, when people turn back to God -- is a two-way street of accountability.  In the OT "hardening of heart" of a person (e.g. Pharaoh) is attributed to both God and to the person. The consequence is a "distance" between God and the person that makes it more difficult to know God.  A similar line of thought comes from the prophets who use a creation-theology argument: when people sin, they are reversing the creational order and bringing chaos back into their lives.  That is to say, when people reject the guidance of their Creator, God “steps back” and withdraws his life-giving order.  This prophetic argument of creational reversal is also how Paul is thinking in Rom 1 about the wrath of God "handing people over" to their own depraved minds, to what they want.  “Sin” (self-rule) works against divine order and brings chaos, suffering and death.  The thinking in the OT and NT seems to be that God's discipline is sometimes allowing us the "natural" consequences of sin; other times, it seems more active.  More importantly is that I am faced with the question: Do I, or we the Church, even see what is happening and respond to God or sink deeper into a hardness of heart?

Lord, I do not want a hard heart toward you and anything that you are doing in my life.  I want the Church, your Body, to present a witness to the world of your goodness and holiness.  Help me to see and respond to the consequences of my unfaithfulness with quick repentance in order to restore a closer walk with you.  Amen.