There Went Out a Sower

The words of Jesus ... "Hearken; Behold ..."

Today if we wanted to get people's attention to some life changing information we would say something like ... "Listen up people, I have a word you need to hear."  That was exactly what Jesus was saying to what is described by Mark as, a great multitude, a large company of people, perhaps several hundred to a thousand who came to listen to Jesus speak and teach about the things of God. 

There were so many that Jesus thought it best to speak from a fishing boat out a little distance from shore.  His voice would project and carry much better over the water than on the shoreline.

Mark 4:1-20 relates that Jesus began His talk with the word ... "Hearken" ... meaning, "to hear and understand." 

Then Jesus adds ... "Behold" ... which means, "look and see."  

Jesus was about to tell one of His remarkable stories that are called "parables," a proverb or a narrative of common life that those listening could relate too.  Jesus wasn't the only one who taught in parables; most Rabbis also taught the common folk through parables to explain the difficult points they wanted them to understand.  Jesus just perfected the art of story telling like no other.

So, what did Jesus want His contemporaries (and we by extension) to "hear and understand?"  A simple truth that had been going on for thousands of years, which most people ... if they were paying attention ... could "see and understand" exactly what He was saying.

We hear about fishing quite often in scripture; not so much about farming.  Most of the common folk may not have been fishermen or farmers, but I'm sure they had their own vegetable gardens that helped feed their families.  Because gardening was prevalent in most communities, this parable would have been easy for most to "see and understand."   

"There went out a sower ... to sow." 

Although Mark doesn't say who the sower is, Matthew declares the sower is ... "the Son of man" ... referring to Jesus.

Because this parable is so well known, I will speak very little of where the seed fell, except to say, it all fell basically on the same stuff ... dirt.  Yep, the same stuff we are made of.  Isn't that an interesting parallel?  I'm not sure the dirt was really the problem.  It was where the dirt was and what was mixed in and around the dirt.

The sower intended to cast the seed in his field to produce a crop.  The fertile Jordan Valley usually yielded a crop of 20 to 100 harvested seeds for every seed the sower planted.  But in this story there is a problem.  Some seed fell on the wayside or the road, the hard path around or through the field.  Part of the field had thin ground; part of it was too rocky and dry.  Thorns grew in other parts of the field.  Even though Jesus said nothing grew in these parts of the field ... all was not lost to the sower.  There was some good ground that received the seed.

We don't know the percentage of good ground compared to the bad non-yielding soil, but the good ground did produce a hundredfold.  Doesn't this sound like the world today?  It seems like half the people produce nothing, while the other half produces all that we must share together.

Jesus ended His parable to the multitude of people with ... "He that has ears to hear, let him hear."  In other words, observe and take notice of what has been said as being of great importance.

Later in private, He speaks to His disciples and explains what the sower was sowing. "The sower soweth the Word."

Let me speak now to the character of the people (the soil) that the seed (the Word of God) fell upon.  When the Word is sown in a heart that does not understand it, when it produces no feeling or consciousness between that heart and God ... the enemy takes it away and it does not remain in the heart.  The devil is as busy snatching the word from careless, half-hearted hearers, as are the birds of the air devouring the seed that lies on top of the soil.   

Whatever causes the heart of man to see his true self as if in the presence of God, (which is always a serious thing) whether drawn by need, hope, or grace ... if his soul and conscience (his inner voice acting as a guide) is reached ... the seed (the Word) will take root.

At the end of this parable, Jesus explains that ... "the good ground, are those that hear the Word and receive it" ... not just hear it.  You must receive it before it will take root and produce fruit.

So ... what has Jesus sown in your heart?  Or is the seed still in the process of making it through perhaps dry soil, or thin rocky soil?  Or, are you like many people who have been stepped on for so long that nothing can penetrate your hard ground.

Or could it be ... immediately upon hearing the Words of Jesus, did Satan come and steal the Words of grace and mercy that He was speaking to you?

I pray that the Words of Jesus have already taken root in your heart and are producing great things in your life.