“The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others.” Mark 4:14 NLT
Our Sunday Biblical Insights over the next couple of months will feature the ‘Parables of Jesus.’ One third of Jesus’ teaching was in the form of a parable. There are close to forty in all, and we will examine as many as we can, reviewing a couple of them in the same week. A parable is simply an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. We begin this week with the parable of ‘The Farmer Scattering Seed.’ This is one of several parables found in all the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). Mark’s gospel is our text for this parable. FYI, the book of John contains none of Jesus’ parables.
Much of Jesus’ teaching was done before large crowds and this first parable is no exception. The crowd was so large that day Jesus got into a boat sitting down to teach all those who were gathered along the shoreline to hear Him. Jesus started by saying, “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed.” (Mk. 4:3 nlt) Familiar illustrations were often employed by Jesus in His teaching. Jesus’ day was mostly an agricultural society. Most people understood the principles of agriculture, the planting and harvesting of crops. This is where Jesus begins.
The farmer is scattering his seed in the soil of his field to produce a fruitful crop. When scattering seed, it falls in various locations of the field. Jesus describes the seed as being scattered in four different areas. Some seeds never make it to the field as they fall on the footpath and the birds immediately devour it. Other seeds make it but fall on shallow soil on top of a rock. The plant rises quickly but is soon wilted and dies for lack of deep roots. Some seeds found deep soil, but the adequate dept also contained thorns which grew and choked out the plants. And then there were seeds that fell on good fertile soil. They sprouted, grew, and produced a bountiful crop.
Later, Jesus’ disciples asked Him the meaning of the parable. Jesus did say as He concluded the parable, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” (Mk. 4:9 nlt) They obviously didn’t understand. The farmer’s seed is providing earthly subsistence of food needed for survival. Jesus implies the heavenly meaning by equating the seed being planted by the farmer as the Word of God. He tells His disciples, “The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others.” (Mk. 4:14 nlt) God’s Word is the spiritual subsistence we need for eternal life. More specifically, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Word made flesh. “So the Word became human and made his home among us.” (Jn. 1:14a nlt)
The four types of soil in the parable represent four different responses from individuals who are presented with the gospel. There are those with ‘no response’ for Satan immediately shows up and steals it away before it has the time to germinate. Many people have an ‘emotional response’ when they hear the gospel being preached, but not having deep roots they fall away when start to receive flak from others due to their interest in Christianity. A third response is a ‘conformity to the world response.’ “Do not conform to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” (Ro. 12:2a niv) The word taken in begins to grow along side the thorns of this world, the lure of money, success, and all one would have to give up being a Christian. And those thorns chock out any new desires for God or His Word. But then there is the ‘fruitful response’, those who readily accept the gospel message being drawn by the Holy Spirit. “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!” (Mk. 4:20 nlt)
The farmer scattering seed in Jesus’ parable is every Christian today. All who accepted Christ as savior has received a bag of seed from the Lord to spread around. Gospel seeds are not reserved for only pastors, Bible teachers, evangelists, or seminary professors, but everyone who names the name of Christ. Jesus is encouraging each of His followers in this parable not to be discouraged in the lack of response as we tell others about Him. There will be different types of responses according to each heart. The preparation of the soil is not our responsibility. God will prepare the soil. We are only called to be faithful and scatter the seed.
Read: Mark 4:1-9, 13-20 NLT – Parable of the Farmer Scattering Seed – Bible Gateway
Word for the Soul 