Mark 4:1-9: 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."
We continue
this week with our four week journey into the topic of Stewardship. The overarching
theme this year is FEARLESS GENEROSITY--a theme gleaned from Ephesians 3:20-21:
20 Now to him who by the power at work within us is able to accomplish
abundantly far more than all we can ask or imagine, 21 to him be glory in the
church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Throughout
each of the four weeks we'll look together at different aspects of Fearless
Generosity.
Our theme verse holds up the reality that it is GOD who has the power (Gk dynamis)
to do abundantly far more than we can ask or imagine. And, as mentioned
before, the word rendered abundantly is a triple compound: hyper-ek-perisou.
It would be like saying, literally in the English,
WAY-SUPER-LOTS-MORE-OVER-AND-ABOVE. *This is what the power of God is able to
accomplish, and fascinatingly, Paul says that power/dynamis is within
us! We began by seeing how that empowers us to FEARLESS LIVING; last week
the emphasis was on FEARLESS SERVICE;
this week we'll take a look at FEARLESS SOWING.
Since late
Summer, into early Autumn, one of the things I've been enjoying is taking
little day drips out of the city in search of hiking trails. These trips have
led me primarily westward--and it's amazing that you don't have to drive very
far at all before the landscape turns quite rural; sprawling farms, with fields
tall with oats, or wheat, or corn, as far as the eye can see. The "amber
waves of grain" line from the old song comes to mind.
Such is the
agricultural 'view' in our day and age. Really, the same could be said for my
grandfather's day. But not for first century Palestine. Farming, and fields of
crops, would've looked much less clean/tidy with haphazard foot-paths, trees,
shrubs, thorns/thistles, 'tares,' etc. as all part of the mix. This was the
rural pictorial reality of Jesus' hearers, and it's the picture we need to
conjure in our mind's eye as we approach Mark 4.
Vss 1-2 are
simply 'stage-setting' on the part of the writer. While we may think it odd
that Jesus got in a boat to teach the crowds, scholars tell us that there are
several 'cove' like settings along the lake that actually have quite natural
'acoustic' settings. Vs 3 begins the parable. I love how one commentary
describes parables. Most of us learned the Sunday school definition of a parable
(an earthly story with a heavenly meaning).
This is fine as a starting point, but truly there is more going on than
just that. He says: The Hebrew 'mashal'
(proverb) provides the backdrop for Jesus' parables. It can mean a dark,
perplexing saying that is meant to stimulate hard thinking. They reveal the
mystery while hiding it at the same time because a listener can only understand
them by daring to become involved in their imaginative world. The same
commentator reminds us that in the Greco-Roman world 'sower' was a stock symbol
for a teacher, 'sowing' for teaching, 'seed' for words/content, and 'soil' for
students. In this general sense, what stifles the seed from growing is lack of
intellect (or application) on the part of the student. In the case of Jesus'
parable(s), the idea is similar: Jesus (and his emissaries after him) is the
sower, the Word/Gospel/promises of God is the seed, and outsiders are the soil.
In this case, however, what prevents the seed from growing isn't a lack of
intellect... it is, rather, the difficulties brought on by spiritual realities:
Satan snatches the seed, the allure of the world, and the condition of the
hearer's own heart.
There are
three noteworthy things about this story. The first is that three fourths of
the seed is evidently wasted effort: (v4)
As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path... (v5) Some fell on rocky places (v7) Other seed fell among thorns. In they hyper productive era in
which we live, it seems hard to imagine that anyone would countenance ANY
activity in which they knew going in, was going to result in so much 'failure.'
The second noteworthy thing is that
the sower sows ANYWAY. Because, in the end, there's no choice; and there's no
better method. Tractors, plows, weed-killers, and combines haven't been
invented yet. The farmer doesn't do it this way because he's stupid; the farmer
does it this way because it's the ONLY way to be a farmer.
And the third noteworthy thing is
that even though only a fourth of the seed will bear fruit, the harvest is
worth it. (v8) Still other
seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying
thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.
In short, the sower may not look
like much, a simple peasant farmer doing his job, broadcasting seed in the
hopes of a future crop... yet... it is also true that trusting in nature and
the goodness of God, the sower goes out and FEARLESSLY SOWS.
Of course, Jesus was the
prototypical fearless sower. And when we think of all of the seed/words from God
he sowed in his life, at the end the 'crop' was about a dozen key guys plus or
minus, and maybe twice that number in terms of close associates; not much,
really. And in truth, that's where it all would've ended if his
followers had not followed his example of fearless sowing.
This is food for thought for us as
we contemplate our call to engage in fearless sowing!
Cheers,
T.M.
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