Bible Studies

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A SIMPLE STORY
Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around Him was so large that He got into a boat and sat in it out in the lake, while the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables and in His teaching said:
‘Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty some a hundred tines.’
Then Jesus said: ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.’ (Mark 4: 1-9).
One kind of seed, four kinds of soil, four responses to the seed! What could be more ordinary than that?
Jesus had the opportunity of a lifetime. There were people everywhere. The crowd was so large that He was in danger of being pushed into the water by their jostling to get the best positions. Using a boat as a pulpit, He told them a four-point story. We know it well, but did they get it? They must have stood there scratching their heads and wondering, “What on earth is He getting at?” His disciples were just as puzzled because they questioned Him afterwards about the meaning of the story. Jesus’ stories were never complicated but they packed a powerful punch.
They would have asked two questions: “What is the point of the story?” and “Who am I in the story?” That’s how Hebrew people would have responded to a parable. First of all, they had to realise that He was talking about people and their attitude to God’s word.
When He was alone, the Twelve and the others around Him asked Him about the parables. He told them, ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,
‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding, otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’ (Mark 4: 10-12).
“What are you saying, Jesus? You can’t really mean that!” Did He mean that He told them believe? But why? Didn’t He want them to believe in Him and be saved? What was the point of coming to earth to reveal the Father and to take them to the Father if He told stories for the opposite reason? It just doesn’t make sense.
Jesus quoted from Isaiah 6 – God’s commission to Isaiah during his vision of God’s glory in the temple. He was to go and preach to the people until they were blind and deaf to His word (Isa. 6: 9-10). What was Jesus saying? God’s word has a powerful effect on people. It will either harden or soften their hearts depending on what they choose. If they have no interest in responding to His word, every time they hear it, their refusal to respond with make them less able to understand and believe.
In a sense, Jesus was teaching the people in parables to confirm what was already in their hearts. His disciples were open to learning the truth. Was that the reason why Jesus chose men from ordinary walks of life instead of from the recognised streams of learning – because they were open to the truth rather than already moulded into the ways of their teachers?
In a crowd like that there would have been people who were hungry for God as well as people who had no sense of need – who were satisfied with the status quo and who had not desire to change. Those were the ones whom His stories hardened into callous indifference or even outright opposition and resistance.
Of course, the Pharisees and religious leaders were everywhere. They hounded Him wherever He went, looking for opportunities to accuse Him. They had murder on their agenda although they would not admit it. He had to go because He disturbed their stranglehold on the people and exposed their ungodly hearts. Every time He told a story, they were stripped naked and they hated Him for it.
Why did Jesus speak in parables? To make soft hearts softer and hard hearts even harder. It had to be because each person must, in the end, be his own judge. That’s what happens, and we don’t like it. When we open our mouths, we reveal out hearts. When we resist the word of God, we reveal the condition of our hearts. Jesus was being absolutely fair – giving each person an opportunity to hear and respond to His word because, in the end it will be His word that will be our judge.
Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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