FOUR SOILS: A PARABLE (Mark 4:1-20)
INTRODUCTION:
The Old Testament prophets had predicted and promised that the Messiah would come. The truth of this promise waxed and waned through the centuries. When John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness and began announcing the coming Messiah, the response of the people was enthusiastic. When the long-awaited Messiah arrived, tragically the nation of Israel rejected Him. Why did this happen? How could the promised, long-awaited Messiah be so widely rejected by His own people? Everything about Jesus pointed to the fact that He was the Messiah. The power He displayed was without a doubt divine, His teaching was with authority, not like the scribes. There was no denying the supernaturalism displayed in His miracles, His life was sinless, His popularity unprecedented. But at the end of His ministry His following had diminished. We know that there were 500 who saw Him after His resurrection. Only about 120 followers in Jerusalem. Why so few? Jesus had answered that question in the Sermon on the Mount recorded for us in Matthew 5-7. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13–14, NASB95)[1] Saying this Jesus was emphasizing the narrow exclusivity of the gospel. Even so, those who truly believed in Him must have wondered why the majority of their fellow countrymen had rejected Jesus as the Messiah—especially after initially responding to Him with enthusiasm.
To help the disciples understand the cause of Israel’s growing rejection of Himself, Jesus told a parable that explained the different types of people that heard Jesus’ message during the years of His ministry. First, He tells the parable to the crowd, then when He is alone with the disciples and the wider group of His followers, He tells them the purpose for speaking to the people in parables. Third, Jesus explains or interprets the parable for those who have put their faith in Him. Let’s pray and then read our passage for today.
--PRAY--
SCRIPTURE:
Turn in your Bibles to Mark 4:1-20, our passage of Scripture for this morning. Please stand, if you are able, in honor of the reading of God’s Word and follow along as I read.
Mark 4:1-20,
“He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very large crowd gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole crowd was by the sea on the land. And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, ‘Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.’ And He was saying, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’ As soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, began asking Him about the parables. And He was saying to them, ‘To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in parables, so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.’ And He said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. 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. 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; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 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.’ ” (Mark 4:1–20, NASB95)[2]
THE PARABLE (Mark 4:1-9)
Jesus’ mother and brothers did not persuade Jesus to return with them to Nazareth, but He did leave the house and went again out to the shore of the Sea of Galilee. The crowds followed Him, but the seashore could better accommodate them. Mark tells us that Jesus began to teach by the sea. Remember earlier that same day Jesus had healed a demon possessed man that was both blind and mute. After casting out the demons and giving sight and a voice back to this man Jesus had been accused by the scribes from Jerusalem of casting out demons by the ruler of the demons. In response to their accusation, Jesus warned them of the eternal danger of blaspheming against the Holy Spirit who was clearly the One working through Jesus. Though Jesus was hated and rejected by the religious leaders because of His words, He was still massively popular with the common people because of His miraculous deeds.
Mark tells us that on this occasion that such a large crowd had gathered around Him that Jesus got into a boat in the sea and sat down and began to teach the people standing on the shore. This was the best way for Jesus to address this huge crowd was by putting some distance between Him and pressing multitude. The boat He got into was mostly likely a small fishing vessel, one of the boats of His disciples who were fishermen. Jesus sat down in the boat, which was typical of rabbis when they taught, they did not stand but sat. This also provided Him with the stability He needed due to the gentle rocking of the boat. The crowd arched around Him on the shore and listened to Him.
Mark tells us that on this occasion Jesus was teaching them many things in parables. Actually, from this point on, parables would be the primary way in which Jesus teaches the crowds. The purpose of parables was to clarify truth to believers and hide it from unbelievers. In this sense parables were both a blessing and a judgment. The word translated parable is a compound word in Greek, the first part of it meaning “alongside” and the second part meaning “to place or lay.” It refers to making a comparison by placing something alongside something else for the sake of illustration, or explanation. Jesus used familiar practices or objects to reveal unknown or complex spiritual truths. Parables were a common form of rabbinic teaching.
As Jesus introduced the parable of the soils, He began by saying, “Listen to this!” This command to pay attention to what He was about to say was to make known to the people that what He was about to say was important, they needed to give Him their full attention. Jesus’ parable was from an agricultural setting, a setting with which they all were familiar. Many in the crowd were farmers themselves. They fully understood what Jesus meant when He said that the sower went out to sow his fields. The people understood, grainfields covered the landscape of Galilee, they had all seen the farmer with a bag of seed slung over his shoulder and scattering seed as he slowly went back and forth across his furrowed field.
Jesus went on to tell the people where this scattered seed fell as the sower sowed the seed. Some seed, Jesus said, fell beside the road. This is the hard packed paths that divide one field from another. Jesus and his disciples were on one of these paths on a Sabbath and accused of breaking the Sabbath because they were eating some of the heads of grain. These paths were hard packed from the foot traffic that they received, they were almost like pavement, they were dry and unprotected from the hot, arid climate. Any seed that fell there had no chance of penetrating the soil and germinating. Instead, it laid their exposed and quickly the birds would come and eat it up. The birds learned to follow a sower and eat the easily accessible seed that fell on the hard path.
Jesus went on to describe other seed that fell on rocky ground that did not have much soil. Israel is a very rocky land with much of the rock lying unseen just below the surface. As a young kid I remember making a few bucks by picking rock for a farmer, getting the rocks out of the field that had been plowed up so that the field could be planted. The rocky ground that is spoken of here is not rock that could be picked up, it refers to the underlying bedrock, usually limestone that was covered by only a shallow layer of soil. When seed landed in this soil and germinated, immediately a plant would sprout and begin to grow, because the soil was warm and the underlying rock helped trap the moisture at the surface, but what initially looked good on the surface was short lived, because the soil was only a few inches deep the roots were not able to go down deep enough and as soon as the sun had risen it would scorch the plant and it would wither. Once the spring rains ended, the young plant could not flourish during the scorching summer months because it had no root system to sustain it. It withered and was unproductive.
Jesus then said that some seed fell on soil among thorns. Though this ground looked good after it had been burned off and plowed, the roots of the thorn bushes were still there. The grain would sprout and begin to grow, but the thorns would grow too, overwhelming the good seed until its life was squeezed out. The thorns sucked the moisture and nourishment away from the good plants and choked them so that they yielded no crop.
Finally, in contrast to the first three useless soils, Jesus said, that other seeds fell into the good soil. The good soil was soft and deep and free of rocks and weeds, rich in moisture and nutrients. When the seed landed here, it would germinate, grow sending down roots deep into the soil and it would increase and produce a crop that yielded 30, 60, or a hundredfold. In Israel, farmers could usually expect a six-to-eightfold yield at harvest time. A crop that yielded tenfold would have been well above average. When Jesus spoke of crops that yielded thirty, sixty, and hundredfold—these were percentages that were unthinkably high—His listeners would have been shocked. Those kinds of returns were unheard of.
THE PURPOSE (Mark 4:10-12)
Jesus concluded this parable with a statement of warning and judgment. Not everyone who heard Him speak was able to understand the truth that He was explaining. The meaning of the parable would only be revealed to those whose hearts were ready to receive it, for the rest it was an unsolvable riddle. For this reason, He concluded His parable with the words, “he who has ears to hear let him hear.” The religious leaders had already rejected Jesus, and many in the crowds did not believe that He was the Messiah they just wanted to witness His miracles. The judgment on them was that their hearts and ears were closed to His teachings. Because of this they received no interpretation of the parable. Jesus’ statement served as an invitation to those who did believe He was the Messiah and Savior, those who were willing and wanted to listen to Him. To them He gave an explanation.
As soon as He was alone meaning the crowds had departed for the day, Jesus was alone with the twelve and the extended group of His followers. They began asking Him about the parables. In the parallel passage in Matthew 13 they ask Jesus why He is speaking to the people in parables. Possibly they asked this of Jesus because of their own lack of understanding. Even His closest followers did not know the meaning of the parable until Jesus explained the meaning to them.
Jesus gave a two-part answer to why He was using parables: to conceal the truth from the hard-hearted while revealing it to those who believed. Jesus said to them, “To you [who believe in Me] has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside [who have rejected Me] get everything in parables.” (Mark 4:11b, NASB95)[3] Jesus’ followers possessed the ears to hear, and Jesus would willingly disclose the meaning of the parable to them. This explanation then becomes the key to the explanation of the other parables. The word mystery in Scripture refers to a spiritual truth that was previously hidden but now has been revealed. The mystery of the kingdom of God, is a reference to the realm of salvation. Though God reigns over everyone and everything, the kingdom of salvation consists only of those who belong to Him through saving faith. Through faith in Jesus Christ believers have been rescued by God from the domain of darkness and brought into the kingdom of His beloved Son.
The parables Jesus told had a completely different purpose for unbelievers, the purpose was to hide the truth from them. For those Jesus describe as outside, like the religious leaders who had declared Jesus to be demonic, for these the parables were left unexplained and sounded like riddles to them. As I already stated, from this point forward the people would get everything in parables, and this was an act of divine judgment against them for their persistent unbelief. Jesus made this point clear by quoting from Isaiah 6:9-10, “so that while seeing, they may see and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear and not understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven.” (Mark 4:12, NASB95)[4] This quote that Jesus used from the prophet Isaiah was written seven centuries earlier, but it provided a fitting description of the unbelieving Israelites in Jesus’ day. During the lifetime of Isaiah, the people continually ignored the prophet’s warnings until their consciences were so seared and their spiritual senses so dulled, that they no longer had any ability to understand or respond. God allowed them to harden their hearts to the point that they could no longer repent. Then divine judgment came on Israel through the instrument of Nebuchadnezzar’s invading armies. Jesus’ parables also represented divine judgment on the stubborn unbelief that He found in the first century. Due to the people’s repeated rejection of His clear teachings and undeniable miracles, from this point on Jesus would frame His teaching in way they could not understand. Unable to understand or perceive the truth they would never return and be forgiven. Instead, they would face God’s wrath. Historically, divine judgment came upon apostate Israel in A.D. 70 when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. Eternally, that judgment came when those who rejected Jesus died and were cast into Hell, where they are tormented day and night forever.
Both the religious leaders and the curious crowds had been given enough time and evidence to conclude that Jesus Christ was the promised Messiah. Even with all the evidence they persisted in unbelief, growing increasingly firm and unyielding until they passed the point of no return. The result was that divine judgment began. Their willful rejection of the Son of God led to God’s judicial rejection of them. God confirmed them in their unyielding hard-heartedness, allowing them to remain firm and unmoving in their own unbelief. Because their rejection was final, the time had come when they would no longer be given the message.
CONCLUSION:
My hope was to get through this whole passage this morning, but that is not going to happen. If you want to hear the explanation of the parable of the four soils you will need to return next Sunday. At the beginning of the parable Jesus said, “Listen to this!” At the end of the parable He said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” With both statements Jesus was making a distinction between those who were truly His followers and those who were not. Only those who recognized and believed that Jesus was the Messiah would be given the understanding of the parables. The ones who rejected Him, refused to believe the evidence before them, these words of Jesus were words of judgment. Instead of acknowledging that Jesus’ authority and power came from God as He claimed, they in their hatred of Him claimed that it was from Satan. This was a major turning point in the ministry of Jesus, His teaching to the crowds would be in parables that only those who truly believed in Him would understand. The rest would be left outside awaiting judgment.
This morning my question to you is where do you stand? What do you believe about Jesus? Last week we learned that Jesus was the Son of God, to not believe that is to call Him a lunatic or a liar. To believe that He is the Son of God is to believe that He is everything that He claimed to be. There is another day of judgment coming for those who refuse to believe the claims of Jesus, those who refuse His grace and the forgiveness of sin that He paid for through His death and resurrection. I am certainly thankful that I will not have to be here for that time of judgment on the earth. I hope and pray that each of you also will not be here.
[1]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[2]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[3]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.
[4]New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. 1995. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation.