Chapter 4
Mark also tells us that this message from Jesus was delivered from a boat because of the crowds. I still get hung up on the sower, and on the soil. But it's about the seed according to the one who told the parable, and "forcing" the other details to mean things is a mistake. This is about the seed, and the different ways the gospel is received. The seed on the path didn't reject the message, it was snatched away. The seed on the stony ground sprouted, but when it got tough, this seed had no teaching, no depth of knowledge, nothing but superficial understanding, and so withered away. The seed among the thorns let other things have more importance, but the gospel was retained. It just didn't get the priority. The last produced. It was in good ground...but this isn't about the ground. And I can't really argue. Every good tree produces. Faith produces works. If there is no fruit, there is no faith.
Here again, when asked, Jesus explains why he is teaching in parables:
12 so that "they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven." [Mar 4:12 ESV] There is a long note at Mat. 13:3 about this, and I included a lot of that note there yesterday. Luke also talks about the reasons for the parables. There seem to be two main reasons: One is that these people wouldn't listen to the truth if it was right in front of them anyway, and the other is that since they are not called, it is best that they really not understand at all, lest they be more condemned for understanding and rejecting than just for rejecting. This seems to be about "degrees" of hell. Are we to understand that eternity in hell can be bad, worse and worst, depending on how blatantly the gospel is rejected? It is still an eternity of torment, how can infinity have degrees? Yet if this is what it means, it also means that those who never heard the gospel and who go to hell because of that will be punished "less" than those who sit in church all their lives rejecting the gospel. And this does seem more fair...The length of the sentence for the crime of rejecting the gospel is eternity in hell, but the wantonness and the brutality of the crime determine which cell block you're in. 2020 - Still...that last phrase in Mark's version is hard to understand. Lest they should turn? Back when I was first reading the Bible, I thought the problem here was sort of an irresistible grace problem. If the Son of God in the flesh right there in front of you says "Come to me..." who can say no? Yet all are not called. So, if Jesus "called" in clear plain language that all who heard him would understand, wouldn't they all "have to be saved?" So he speaks in parables, so that only the called get the message, and only the called are saved. This too has lots of problems, but based on this language in Mark, seems like it could be the reason.
2024 *!*!*!* Ok forget every down to this symbol below, in 2024!
*!*Ok, forget the paragraphs above, and some of the below. This next section is the best sense I have yet made of these things. This was "spurred" by reading Mark 4 on 12/10/20.
2020, Later...I think I have it finally! Look at vs 12, in red. Jesus tells them exactly what the parables are about, and to explain it, he refers to a number of OT references that explain it in detail. I have struggled with this for so long that I am going to take an expanded look at each reference:
9 And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' [Isa 6:9 ESV] This is right at the beginning of Isaiah's ministry, before the 10 tribes fell. This is the message that Isaiah is to delver. It is accusatory in that it tells them to just go on being blind, because wrath is coming. I think there is also a very real sense here that the time for their repentance is past. The line has been crossed, and no matter what they do now, the Assyrians are coming. I don't know if the Babylonian's were a certainty at this time, but let's continue.
8 Bring out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears! [Isa 43:8 ESV] The same kind of picture is painted here. This is after the North fell, but before the south. So again, there is the implication that these people are not listening, and they are not going to listen, and possibly, they are being prevented from hearing and seeing because their rebellion has "cut them off". God is no longer allowing them to understand, because too much sin has accumulated, and they are under God's judgement.
Then this: 21 "Hear this, O foolish and senseless people, who have eyes, but see not, who have ears, but hear not. ... 23 But this people has a stubborn and rebellious heart; they have turned aside and gone away. ... 25 Your iniquities have turned these away, and your sins have kept good from you. [Jer 5:21, 23, 25 ESV]. Gets even more clear, more obvious here, especially in 25. Their accumulated sins - both individually, because all have sinned, and corporately because all Israel has sinned - have shut down even the offer of salvation to this people. What is happening in the NT, with the parables, is this same thing. The parables insure that only those truly chosen will have a clue what Jesus is saying. God's wrath against the nation of Israel is still in full force and effect, because the double is not yet complete. This wrath won't be finished until 70 AD, and the blindness God sends on them continues to this day. Like Isaiah and Jeremiah, Jesus speaks to a rebellious and unruly and stubborn people. Judgement came before. It is still being carried out.
2 "Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house. [Eze 12:2 ESV] Lest we think that the wrath was over at the Babylonian captivity, Ezekiel tells us from Babylon itself that this people remains rebellious, blind and deaf to the message of God, the message of salvation. So all these years I struggled with this, and it is now plain as day. It was NEVER that Jesus didn't want the people of Galilee to be saved. It was that they had been condemned already, by their own acts and the acts of their ancestors, and the sentence was still to be served. This also explains what the "let him who has ears hear" phrase is about. It is about all these OT references to rebellion and to judgement and to punishment for rebellion - by the nation of Israel!!! Only a few, a remnant, are to be preserved!!!! Most are blind and deaf!!!
I wonder now if the whole "he who has will be given more, and he who has little will lose even that" is about insight into the OT scriptures, for those to whom Jesus was speaking? Is that how the parable of the sower really ties in? Some of Jesus' listeners had a cursory knowledge that Messiah was coming, but weren't all that keen about it. They have other things to do. So Satan snatches that hope away, they never really experience. They are the blindest and deafest of all. The little they had was snatched away. But some hear about Messiah and grab onto the hope of his coming and are filled with the joy and thrill of anticipation. But he doesn't come. Time goes on. Life is the misery and hardship it has always been. The joy fades. This one had a little more, but that too was lost. Skipping ahead, this makes the good ground the remnant. The few that God has selected for himself to be saved, to be given insight and understanding from the OT that this man before them is THE Messiah, not just another prophet. Not only do they recognize him, but all the puzzle pieces fall into place, even the ones they didn't recognize as even being part of the puzzle. These, who are chosen, who still hold onto joy and hope in the face of hardship, trial, and worldly bonds, these who have the "most" compared to the others, these will be given abundantly hugely more. So maybe, just maybe this parable is hard to understand because we always look at it as being about salvation only, and we look at it as being universal. But that's not all it is. It is about the earthly ministry of Jesus to the Jews, and reason it was the way it was. Like so many other things in the Bible, these things are specifically to and about the Jews, and it is the principal of how God works that is applicable to us today, NOT the details!!!! And one last point about that lamp...this is about all that there is to be revealed, hidden in darkness. For those to whom more will be given, there is MUCH to see. This encourages those in the fourth group to continue digging, studying, learning. There is no end to the more that will be given.
It is a relief to see that Jesus had to explain so many of his parables to his disciples. They were with him every day, most were saved, surely, and yet even though the parables veiled truths revealed only to believers, these believers also needed some help with understanding. If they did, it seems ok if I do. There is no test of salvation in whether or not we understand a parable on first reading/hearing it. Jesus explains the parable of the sower yet again. It is explained three times yet I still have trouble with it. In this explanation also is the phrase "Satan immediately comes and takes away the word". In Matthew it says it this way: ...the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. [Mat 13:19 ESV]. The explanation in Luke puts it this way:
12 ...the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. [Lk 8:12 ESV] Satan, the evil one, and the devil. All the same.
I note that MSB goes into a lot of detail in the notes on Mark 4 to explain the rocky ground, the thorns and the good ground. Nothing about the seed on the path. But he does address it in the Matthew notes. He says this refers to those who hear the gospel superficially, on the surface only, but never really take it and deal with it. They don't maybe see it for the "pearl" that it is, and so make no effort to hold on to it and preserve it and be changed by it. It never "enters" their heart, only their ears. So Satan can easily distract them from it, and since they didn't see it as important in the first place, they never think to try and retrieve it. It has been snatched away.
This is all pretty good then. Those in this group were never saved. In the second group, on stony ground, the gospel was accepted like a new diet where the first 5 lbs melts off like ice in a furnace. This is great! But then it slows down. And things get tougher. And then YouTube videos come out saying this diet is stupid and only stupid people would do it. It becomes very unpopular...so you go back to the old way. No real commitment. Fair weather Christians.
2022 - No, I think I have the stony ground wrong. As I read it this year, these are saved. The first are not, because Satan snatched away the word. He cannot snatch away salvation. They heard the gospel but never considered it important enough to deal with, and so, before it could begin to change the heart, Satan put other things in their way, and they never came back to it, because it was never important. But look at these phrases about the stony ground: ...immediately receive it with joy..., ...when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word..., ...they fall away...".
Here is the whole "rocky ground" part:
"16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away." [Mar 4:16-17 ESV]
The word translated "receive" is the Greek "lambano", G2983. As is so very often the case with passages difficult to pin down, this Greek word is unusual. Unusual in the sense that it has a wide range of possible translations, and in this case, it is an unusual verb, described this way: "A prolonged form of a primary verb, which is used only as an alternate in certain tenses." Even so, this unusual word is used 263 times in the KJV. It is most often translated as "receive", 133 times, but next on this list is "take", 106 times! Those two don't seem very much alike to me. You receive something that is given to you. But the sense of "take" here, is that you grab what is being offered, not that you steal it. You really want it, and it is being offered, so you "take" it with joy and abandon. Hand a child a cupcake, and he will "take" it in this same way. In vs 16, it could have been translated "take" in this sense. The fact that the words"immediately with joy" are included almost require that "take" be the correct word for translation...but ESV, and KJV both used receive. In fact, all the translations I looked at use receive. Even so, those extra words tell us that what was offered was received in a way that says it became a cherished, valuable possession to the one who received it. It was not a "gift" placed on a shelf. It was a huge deal. Here is a verse where "lambano" is translated take: "40 And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well." [Mat 5:40 ESV]. It is not stealing here either, but legally obtained. If the suit is won, the tunic will belong to the one who sued. Here is a different verse that translates it "receives": "8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened." [Mat 7:8 ESV]. If you ask, you will receive. God does not give and then take back. What He gives is ours. Surely "gift" is in view in vs 8. All this to say that this seed on the stony ground surely represents saved people. Only the first seed is unsaved.
But there is a problem with these saved people. They have no root. What does that mean? (Hmm...I think our tendency in these days is to make as many people "saved" as we can. That may be why I fight against the interpretation that only the last group - the seed on good soil - are saved. I think it is because I see myself in the seed on stony ground at some times in my life. I see myself at other times like the seed on thorny ground. And at times, I am even the seed on good ground. But I don't see myself as on the path. I received. Those on the path never did. Only the seed on the path failed to "sprout".
No root. What does that mean? The word for root is "rhiza", from which we get rhizome. This is what a rhizome is: a somewhat elongated usually horizontal subterranean plant stem that is often thickened by deposits of reserve food material, produces shoots above and roots below, and is distinguished from a true root in possessing buds, nodes, and usually scalelike leaves. Translating this word root does not really tell the whole story. However, in other places, this word rhiza just seems to me a plain old root, not this whole rhizome idea. So this seed starts to grow, but its roots are insufficient to supply it when testing comes along. It has to have some roots, or it would never have raised up. We surely should not understand this is as being "minimally saved". We are going to stick with binary here. Saved or not saved and no position in between. One or the other. Perhaps this seed is about the current generation of young people in the US. So very many were brought up in church, but are not going now that it is their own decision as to whether to do so or not. How many of them were "saved" as children, how many prayed the prayer, and were baptized...and now they stay home. Now they keep their own children at home and don't consider the consequences to their children of not being saved a source of worry. But...this generation is not being persecuted, at least not blatantly. No. This generation seems more like the path, don't they?
So what are the consequences of having no root? "They fall away". Now this is a hugely interesting phrase, the subject of countless arguments. The argument is whether this means you lose the salvation you already had, or it just means "stumble". Stumble in the sense of not making much progress, for a little while or a long while, but just a delay during the journey, not a complete restart. The argument as to which it means falls along predictable denominational lines. There is only one Greek word here, and it is translated into the three English words "they fall away". I think it is important that there is only one Greek word here. Simplifies the study. The word is "skandalizo". Pretty sure we get our English word "scandal" from that word. We need to add the sense of that to "fall away". They should be able to continue the journey, but they don't. Like the fourth runner in a relay, who decides that because he is so far behind, he'll just coast and not even try. He'll just "fall away" from the pack that is running the real race, and not work up a sweat. This is the sense that I get about the seed on stony ground. If the analogy holds, remember that even this runner finishes the race, but is unworthy of our praise for his efforts.
Skandalizo is used 30 times in the KJV. It is NEVER translated "fall away" in the KJV. It is translated "offended" 28 times, and "make to offend" twice. Only the more modern translations have it as "fall away". Here is the verse we're looking at in the KJV: "17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended." [Mar 4:17 KJV]. Almost like the KJV didn't want us to think this was about losing salvation. Here is another place the word is used: "29 And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast [it] from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and not [that] thy whole body should be cast into hell." [Mat 5:29 KJV]. And the same verse in ESV: "29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell." [Mat 5:29 ESV]. Skandalizo is the "causes sin" part of the phrase. In these two verses, the sense of skandalizo is of something getting between you and God, and you need to get rid of it. It is not about a permanent condition, but it is about a serious situation. So can you get rid of the condition of "having no root"? Of course. More study, more focus, fewer distractions - that is, fewer rocks. Rocks are part of every persons life. Our flaws and foibles, the things we have to work through and constantly guard against that keep us from our goals. Are we really to consider them insurmountable in terms of what this parable is about? The seed sprouted, but the sun got to it quickly, before it dealt with working it's way around the rocks and down into more soil, more moisture down below. Perhaps the whole point is about those who face serious problems while their faith is new. Or about those who are saved, but never receive the training that they will require in the face of the persecution that we all know is coming.
In conclusion, in 2022, the seed on stony ground is about saved people faced with the world's derision before they have been established in the faith. They are saved, but they are children in the faith. They have not learned to exercise their faith to resist, to withstand, to rejoice in trials, and so they stumble. They lose their way. But their salvation is still there.
The big question then, is how to we "reignite" the joy they first felt???
Ok, really a long time spent on the stony ground in 2022. Moving on. Next year I will spend the time on the thorns, and see whether I think that person is saved - right now I most certainly do. I think every seed that sprouted represents a saved person. But not all are productive. How is that not consistent with Paul's writing to the churches? With John's letters to the seven churches?
The seed among the thorns - successful people who don't have time for church. They hear, they know it's a big deal, but their priority is the job, the wealth, the position. These are the guys that say "you and the kids go on to church, I have to get some work done this morning". Or the every Sunday morning golfers. Or the PBS watchers. That was my excuse. Or the "I only have the weekends to keep up the yard and the house". Or the "shift diff and weekend pay" people. With these, they know, but they choose otherwise. (2021 - I think this paragraph, from an early reading of mine, is pretty much the traditional interpretation of the parable of the sower. I didn't really think it worked then, and I don't think it works now. I think my interpretation above, marked *!*, is better, but maybe still not right.
It is hard for me to deny that I was in the third group for a lot of my life. Then I committed for a long time...and drifted out into the third group again. When was I saved? Looking at my own behavior, it might not have been until a few years ago. But I just don't believe that. I believe I was changed at church camp in Gary that year. I think my heart changed, I believed, and I never disbelieved after that. (So...I do well, for even the demons believe and tremble...) I think it was more than that. I think that's when I was saved. Yet I think of all the long droughts of commitment between then and today. What explains those? Maybe this parable is not JUST about salvation. Maybe it is about the lives of saved people also. Not everyone is Billy Graham from day 1 on. Not everyone produces 100 fold. But even if you don't produce until the bitter end, were you not saved until the bitter end? The thief on the cross got one thing right his entire life. What was his fruit? The witness of salvation to those at the foot of the cross?
How can so much, so many possibilities, so many angles of approach be in so few words???
*!*!*!* This is what it means!
2024 - Oh no....Reading the NASB this year and it just opened up a whole new way to look at this parable, and possibly the best way to look at it. Here are the relevant verses in NASB95:
15 "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.
16 "In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky [places,] who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; ...
18 "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, ...
20 "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold." [Mar 4:15-16, 18, 20 NASB95].
Remember Jesus' explanation. The sower sows the word. The SEED is the WORD as contrasted with those who receive the word. Those who receive are the SOIL!!! The Word is delivered to the hearers! So you cannot/should not conclude that if the seed sprouted then that person was saved. The seed sprouting or getting choked out and such is about how and to what extent the seed is able to grow fully into yielding maturity based on the conditions - the souls - to which the seed is cast! Look at the NASB phrase in EACH CASE: "These are the ONES". In 15, they are the ones BESIDE the road where the seed is sown. These just happen to have a few seeds fall on them as it is being sown in the field. They are not even the intended recipients. These are people who never go to church but maybe hear a preacher for 5 minutes on the radio, and it grabs there attention....but then they see brake lights and it's gone, and they go on scanning the channels for something. These "had ears but did not hear". The second group...these are people who live under conditions that are not all that supportive of growing in Christ. They did receive the word, they were saved, but lacking instruction, teaching, support, mentoring, encouragement, and all those things, they never "increased", These are the kids invited to VBS one summer who prayed the prayer and were saved that week, then went back home to no real follow up and nothing in the way of spiritual growth. These are the people that got invited to revival services and heard the word preached effectively enough to sprout in their hearts, and they walked the aisle...and then they disappeared back to where they came from and were never encouraged to grow in Christ. All these have is the word that they heard and received, and their own lonesome resources. They have "no firm root in themselves". Their faith is not nurtured and watered because there is no one to do that. What there is are those who ridicule them for the faith, laugh at them, exclude them because of their faith...and for some, this is enough to just stop things at a very menial, immature level, and maybe someday their situation will change and that seed - that rhizome - will get some water and some "stone removal" and what is left of it might find a way finally to sprout. The third seed falls among thorns. These are busy people. Worldly successful people. People who have made long term commitments to worldly things in terms of jobs and house payments and perhaps child support payments. These people have serious obligations that have nothing at all to do with the church or growing in Christ. They heard the word - some seed landed on this ground - and they jumped at the chance for peace in their souls and real meaning in their lives instead of the cold heartless grind in which they were trapped. They tried hard...but there were deadlines ahead, and this payment or that was due in a few days, and the child support just got increased, and a second job was necessary if all the balls were to be kept in the air. And so they choose to take care of what is most pressing. They try to avoid being stickered by those thorns that surround them and keep them from reaching the light and the water that will help them grow even in their difficult situation. The word never caught at all in the first group. It changed the lives - but only for a time - in the second and third groups, and their maturation in the faith withers in the heat or gets choked by the thorns. And then there is that last group, where the seed fall on the ground of a Christian home with Christian parents, and faith going back generations. Where the sprouting of the Word is celebrated, where teaching is available and learning is encouraged. Don't tell me that it is only the last group, only the ones where all the conditions are nearly perfect, where salvation takes place! That is NOT how it works! We all know people that came from the stony ground or the thorn-choked ground, and yet they overcome or their conditions change, or a caring, interested friend comes alongside and mentors them despite the hindrance of heat or thorns, and just refuses to go away, or the Holy Spirit supplies them in some way and allows them to grow to maturity DESPITE adverse conditions around them. They are STILL the soil, and not the rocks or the thorns!
THIS HAS TO BE POSTED ON FB!!! How to do it?
Post the verses and set up the difficulty of Jesus' words and what they might mean.
Then take each kind of soil, a day at a time, and talk about "who" they represent. This is going to have to be a day by day, not a twice a week. At the end, encourage self examination. How are you doing in your Christian life? Have the heat and rocks held you back? Did you get tired of the thorns poking you every time you tried to do the right thing? You do not have to give up just because things in YOUR life make it hard to grow! But you do have to fight harder to get what you need. You have to TRY and find a Christian friend who'll help. You do have LISTEN to those radio preachers on the way to work and back. You absolutely should download a Bible app onto your phone and READ THE WORD! These are the things that provide what you need to grow despite adverse conditions.
Mark turns now to the lamp under the basket. I think now that the lamp is the truth of the Word, not just the gospel. Many "mysteries" are being revealed while Jesus is in the world, and they remain there for those who look hard enough to see them. To understand and connect the thread of God's plan throughout history. Jesus' coming threw the light on all of it. In Mark's words nothing is secret except to come to light. The plan was only partially revealed to the prophets, but that very secretiveness was part of the plan. The impact of the revelations of the full meaning of the OT prophecies was like a bomb going off in a tiny room. It had been there all along, but the impact of discovery was a spectacular moment! AND, more than that, after the shock wave has passed, the more one studies and learns about these revelations, the more there is to understand, the deeper the understanding and intricacy of all that is really there. But if you don't study, as I didn't for so many years, then you limit how much you can ever take in. I can't imagine what all Dad knew.
2021 - This paragraph goes well with the interpretation I have of the parable of the sower. The light is revealing the Messiah, and the prophecies of the Messiah, and the good news of the Messiah. Others got it in part - and for many it was not enough for continuance - but now the light is shining for the remnant chosen to see it.
Then Mark tells us one the others don't - at least not so far. The Parable of the Seed Growing. A man plants a seed, and it grows, and matures, and "sets fruit", and the farmer has no idea how all this happens, no understanding of the actual workings of seeds and plants reproducing after their kind. But when it is ripe, the man knows to harvest it. MSB says this is only in Mark, and expands on The Sower to bring out the maturing of the seed that falls on the good ground. I guess it could be that. I really don't remember seeing this parable before. Haven't thought about it. "At once..."? The man recognizes that it's ripe? Do we even have that recognition about planting the gospel? Not too sure about this one.
The Mustard seed is next. I am happy with the previous explanation of this one. Either the church or the Millennial is in view I think. And right after, Mark also says that Jesus only preached in parables from here on. The directness of the Sermon on the Mount goes away.
2024 - Look at this verse in NASB95: 34 and He did not speak to them without a parable; but He was explaining everything privately to His own disciples. [Mar 4:34 NASB95]. The saved didn't understand the parable either, at least a lot of them didn't. Even they had to be taught the deeper meanings. That is why we study! And those who just walked away because they couldn't make sense of the parables? That the seed that fell on the path, and Satan snatched the see away from them. We have to accept that some will not be saved, and Jesus' choice to teach in parables was like a knife, separating the receptive soil from that which was too beaten down and walked on to even sprout a seed anyway. Only those who could see and hear would take the time and trouble to learn what the parables meant! They were not meant to be "secret information", but neither were they meant to "simplify".
They go in a boat, seemingly to escape the gathered crowds. Jesus calms the sea as they cross, after his apostles wake him up.