Mark 4:3-20 (The Sower...)

Fear of the unknown; Of discomfort; Of having to give up the things I enjoy. I know I'll be better off if I truly surrender to Him, but I'm a stubborn young man. I want what I have that keeps me comfortable. And I want what God has for me too!

Mark 4:3-9

With last week's post, I looked at the parable of the sower, but only the last line. The focus being on hearing and listening.

This week I'm going to focus on the parable itself and the explanation that followed.

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

And so we have the parable that, I think, most people Christian or not, know of. On the face of it, it's a story of farming practices and how they can go wrong. However, as we see below, there's a lot more to it than just sound practice:

Mark 4:10-12
Later, when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples and with the others who were gathered around, they asked him what the parables meant.

He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secret[a] of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables for everything I say to outsiders, so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled:

‘When they see what I do,
    they will learn nothing.
When they hear what I say,
    they will not understand.
Otherwise, they will turn to me
    and be forgiven.’”

It is a parable; An allegory in today's parlance. It has merit at face value, but there's a deeper meaning in the words and ideas involved.

Mark 4:13-20
Then Jesus said to them, “If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables? The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

The soils. As the pastor at my church said this morning, everyone on the face of the earth is represented in this parable. From the most righteous and holy people right through to the least savoury elements of society, they're all there. It a continuum of sorts.

So where do I fall on this list? Am I the good soil that readily accepts the Gospel and takes it fully to heart, instantly transformed? Or am I the path, with a heart so hard that the power of the Gospel bounces off me, never to take root?

I'd love to say I'm the first one, but, if I'm to be honest, I tend to fall into the thorny category.

I know I'm not alone in this. The very fabric of our society is founded on distraction. Without it, capitalism wouldn't work. We'd never covet anything, meaning we'd never be wanting anything more than we've already got. Ideally, this is where I'd like to be. If only I had the courage to do it.

The funny thing is, it's not the 'bad' things that trip me up. I am tripped up by comfort. I want to be comfortable; To be able to remove the distractions around me and escape to my happy place with my phone. I'm not seeking to ignore God and what He wants for me. At least, that's how I justify it.

I have my thorns and I have my deeper soil. Sometimes I even bring out the spiritual weed killer and have a go at being a 'better' Christian. However, I soon see the thorns grow up around me again.

My question is this: How do I move from the path to the rocks, to the thorns and push through to the deep, fertile soil?

I was born on the path, as we all were born into sin. Yet I survived that and made it to the shallow, rocky soil. I know I didn't make it on my own, now that I can look back and see that. I had friends around me who modelled Christianity to me with all it's lumps and edges.

I came through the rocky soil to the thorny patch. And again, I didn't do it on my own. I see God more clearly in this area. I see Him place me in a church that would be comfortable for me for a time. I see the Connect Group He put me in to coach me in my struggles. And I see Him in the slow realisation that that church was no longer where He wanted me.

I see God so clearly in all this, yet I still try to get to the deep soil under my own steam! I know God is there to help and guide me, but I tend to ignore Him a lot of the time. Much like my questions around how to keep the Sabbath Holy, I struggle to let God take lead. And I think it's fear.


Must God's leading and comfort be mutually exclusive?!?