Mark 4:1-8 - Parable of sower

4:1,2

Another lakeside rendezvous, and again Jesus gets into a boat, both to get some space, and to be better able to address the crowds, His voice carrying further because of the water.And yet again we see the emphasis on teaching. It seems that today we so often focus on “giving a show”, we need to give the word of God. Here Jesus gives one of His most famous parables. Jesus taught many things in parables. So while we focus on presenting the word of God, we do also need to think about how we do this. Many of us remember the parables,even people who are not Christians will remember some of the parables, if they are beyond a certain age (ie went to school when the Bible was still taught to some degree).

4:3-8

This is the parable of the sower. The farmer went out scattering seed. Some fell on the path, the path, was quickly taken up by the birds. Some fell on rocky ground where there was not much soil. It sprang up for a while, but as soon as things got tough it withered away because there was no depth to its roots. Other fell among thorns and never bore any fruit at all because of the competition of other things. But some fell on good soil and produced a rich harvest. Later Jesus will give an explanation of the parable. We will look at that when we get there, but there are two lessons that we will not be drawing from this because they are unbiblical nonsense. The first is that we should seek to sow on good soil. Jesus does not teach that, this parable does not teach that, the Bible as a whole does not teach that. It does teach that we should watch our own lives so that we are good soil, but God sends His word to all, and it will get all sorts of reactions. The second lesson we are not going to draw is the prosperity non-gospel teaching about getting thirty, sixty or hundred fold return on giving. The parable has nothing whatsoever to do with that.