Mark 4:1-20: The Parable of the Soils

(1) Bible Study Questions

Discuss: Do you know anybody who once called themselves 'Christian' who have since fallen away? What is your response to those who were once Christians but are no longer?

1. Why is this parable the key to understanding all the others? (vv. 1, 14, cf 1:14, 38)

2. Who does Jesus speak this parable to? (vv. 1-2, 10)

3. Who does the seed that was scattered along the path represent? (vv. 4, 15)

4. Who does the seed scattered along the rocky soil represent? (vv. 5-6, 16-17, cf. 6:20; Ezek 33:32)

5. Who does the thorny ground represent? (vv. 7, 17-18)

6. What makes these three soils the same? What makes them different?

7. Do you think the parable made it easier to understand Jesus' message? What is the disciple's privilege? (vv. 10-13)?

8. Will the preaching of the word always be barren? (vv. 8, 20)

9. What warnings and encouragements does Jesus have for me (a) as a preacher and (b) as a hearer?

Note: Luke sheds some light on what it means to be 'good soil'. Jesus there tells us "but the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop" (NIV). This is the hearer who is not just a casual enquirer. This one comes seeking the word of Jesus. This one hears the word and mixes it with faith, and perseveres through persecution to a great harvest (Luke 8:1-15).

(2) Sermon Script

Introduction: The Effect of Puzzles

Do you like puzzles? I’ve brought some puzzles here today. I would like everyone to sit down and work out their puzzle. I’ve provided for you the Cryptic Cross-Word from Saturday’s paper, there’s a rubix cube, and a jigsaw puzzle. Don’t forget the Where’s Wally Maze book, the nut puzzle, and the 3D magic picture book. I’ll give you 5 minutes with your puzzles and see how you go with them.

OK, I’ve got some questions to ask. Did you succeed? Did you solve the puzzle? What was the effect of your success? Did you get hooked by the success? Did you want to go on to another puzzle?

Or did you just want to ask an expert? Was the puzzle just frustrating, something that you were just not interested in?

Did you fail? If you failed, why do you think you failed to solve the puzzle? Was it that I did not set enough time for you? Or was the puzzle too hard?

Or if you failed, what was the effect of your failure? Did it make you want to give up? Did it make you want to blame the puzzle, or blame me for inflicting the puzzle on you? Did it make you angry—so that you slammed the puzzle down?

More Evasive Action (vv. 1-2)

In Matthew chapter 4, we find Jesus again at a Galilean beach. We are seeing Jesus at the height of his popularity, and thus it was a fertile place for ministry. Here is the first Christian beach! And Jesus didn’t need to do any scooping. For Jesus during this part of his ministry is like a magnet—he draws people out of the cities and towns from all over Israel. And again, this circumstance requires evasive action.

Offshore Teaching

In fact, the crowd was so large that he had to engage in a bit of offshore teaching. The crowd stands on the beach, Jesus sits in the boat, and he teaches them. Most fisherman fish from the beach into the sea: Jesus fishes from the sea onto the beach. For Jesus is the fisher of men par excellence. The water gives him a buffer zone from the crowd.

Parables

But there is a second aspect to Jesus’ evasive action: he speaks in parables. And this raises the question, “What is the function of the parables?” Are they simply a good story to illustrate the point? Are they a home spun yarn that will teach a nice moral and keep the people interested? Are they a bit like Aesop’s fables? There are elements of truth in each of these descriptions, but they do not grasp the essence of why Jesus uses parables?

Are the parables meant to make the point that Jesus is making clearer? Are they operating like a typical sermon illustration? That is, preachers are told to “make the point, explain the point, illustrate the point, and state the point again?” No, parables are not illustrations meant to make a preaching point clearer. In fact, at least initially, they operate to do exactly the opposite. So here in Mark chapter 4, we see another of Jesus’ responses to his popularity. He speaks in parables. Parables are yet another crowd control device. Jesus throws out riddles, verbal puzzles, and then he sees who is left standing around him, who is still interested.

The Mother of all Parables: The Parable of the Soils (vv. 3-8)

One might also call this the parable about parables. That is why Jesus says in verse 13. “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?” This parable is the key to unlocking all the parables of the kingdom. That is why the parable of the soils is the first of a series of parables in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Another of Mark’s Sandwiches

Again we see Mark’s sandwich structure. Jesus gives the parable of the soils, and then Jesus teaches about parables in general, and then Jesus gives the explanation of the parable of the soils.

The parable itself, the story, is quite simple. The subject matter would have been familiar to all of Jesus’ hearers. So Jesus calls on his hearers to ‘listen up’. We get Mark’s record of the parable itself in chapter 4 verses 3 to 8. In verse 3, a sower went out to sow—he scatters his seed, and the seed finds four types of soil.

Soil type one is described in verse 4. Some seed falls along the hard soil of the path. The soil here is like a cricket pitch. It has been walked on so its hard as concrete. Nothing goes into the soil, so the seed sits on the surface. You might as well be scattering seed on the concrete for the pigeons at Martin Place

Soil type two is described in verses 5-6. The soil looks promising from on top, up above, but appearances can be deceiving. The topsoil here is shallow, for bedrock lies just below the surface. And because of the shallow soil, the seed springs up quickly. But the sun also springs up quickly and burns the seedlings so they die. The plant had nothing below the surface, no roots to gather moisture or provide stability. Just as if you mow the lawn too short, the next sunny day, it all dies off, so it is with the seed that lands in this soil. A promising start, but there’s no root.

Soil type three is verse 7. Some seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with the seed and choked the plants. The seed grows, but the thorns grow also, so the seedlings do not mature nor bear fruit.

Verse 8 describes soil type four. This is the good soil. This is what Con the fruiterer would have called “bewdiful!” The soil here is that rich, dark soil with lots of chook poo and cow manure—a lovely potent smell which actually works to produce a crop. Mind you, there is a range of yield within this good seed. Some individual seedlings are more productive than others. Notice the different ratios. One seed produces a yield of thirtyfold, another seed yields one to sixty, and still another one to a hundred. But all of the seeds in this good soil produce fruit, and not simply mere replacement rates. All the seeds here produce abundantly more.

Well, that’s the story. It’s earthy, homespun, and it’s probably not rocket science to work it out. But then Jesus gives this cryptic statement in verse 9:

Then Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (NIV)

In other words, some of you who are gathered around me listening have ears. Some of you don’t. Notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “Look, I’m saying this for all of you to understand,” although there is nothing necessarily obscure about the story. He says, “Look, for those of you who understand this, who get it, this is for you to take to heart and be conformed by.”

So the parable of the soils itself, like the seed the farmer scatters in the parable, is scattered by Jesus among the crowed, and its secret is available for all who are listening to him, but the fruitfulness and productivity of the parable will be enjoyed only by those who get it, who inwardly digest it, and in that sense, understand it.

So in verse 9, Jesus divides his hearers. There are those who understand and there are those who don’t. For those who understand, Jesus wants them to see that their lives are to be as fruitful in the kingdom as the seed sown in good soil. For those who don’t understand it, or don’t care, well, that’s what the parables are designed for. They include some, but exclude others.

And so, from the way that Jesus gives the parable, the implicit question is, “Which soil am I?” Am I the bewdiful soil, with all that chook poo, that produces a yield, greater or less? Or am I something else, one of the unproductive soils, something not fruitful at all? That really begs the question, “Why parables?”

Why Parables? (vv. 9-13)

Why does Jesus speak in this veiled way? Well, let’s talk about this parable—which I’ve called “the mother of all parables”, and then let’s talk about parables in general.

Why this parable? Well, we can hear this parable as hearers—which soil am I, am I a hearer that hears?—or we can here this parable as sowers, farmers, preachers—which soil are they? Either way, the parable of the soils gives a warning as well as an encouragement.

The parable acts as a warning to hearers because not every hearer of Jesus’ words bears fruit. There is not just a happy ending of fruitfulness, but three different types of unproductive hearing.

But the parable is also a warning to preachers. For Jesus would soon send out his own trainee preachers, first the twelve, and then the seventy. They would all be sent out to do the work of preaching and its ancillaries, of healing and driving out demons. These apostles and missionaries would effectively be Jesus’ hands and feet, multiplying the ministry that the incarnate Christ would render to the nation Israel. And so Jesus speaks this parable to his disciples and the apostles as future farmers, as soon-to-be-sowers. For they need to know what response to expect when they do then what Jesus is doing now? Will everyone respond to the message they take with faith and repentance? Or will anyone respond by faith and repentance? The parable of the soils is a word for both the extreme optimist and also the extreme pessimist as to the success of their future mission.

The extreme optimist thinks, “Surely all who hear me will want to come down the front, pray the prayer, ask “What must I do to be saved?”, and then be integrated into regular church attendance, a small group bible study, regular giving, joining a prayer triplet, doing a Moore College Course, starting “Two Ways to Live” training, and then heading off into full time ministry.

The extreme pessimist thinks, “We’ve tried all this before and it didn’t work then. I’ve told them the gospel before, and no one responded, no one wants to know. They’re too hard, it’s too hard, what’s the point?”

The parable of the soil speaks to preachers at both extremes. Not everyone will respond by any means, and some of the ones you think have responded positively haven’t really—it won’t lasted—but there will be real, discernible fruitfulness among some of your hearers.

Can you see how this parable is relevant for our job of evangelism? When you or I invite people to church, or preach a sermon, or do “Two Ways to Live” with someone, or hand out a pamphlet at the station, or speak the gospel to my neighbour, or give someone a tract or book, or share my testimony, we should not expect either that all of those hearers will repent and believe, nor should we opine and despair that none of them will repent and believe.

So Jesus’ parable is both a warning and encouragement for preachers.

But why any parable? Why does Jesus use these figures of speech to communicate his message of the kingdom?

It’s because Jesus wants to divide his hearers, and drive his hearers.

Firstly, the parables divide Jesus' hearers. There are many kinds of hearers who come to listen to Jesus, and the parables are a bit like a sieve. They let through all the casual enquirers, all the people just checking out the new teacher, the flavour of the month—they pass on by having received from Jesus what they came for—they ate their bread and had their fill, they saw the latest sensation, they received the bodily healing they longed for—but the parables catch all of the serious seekers, all of the interested and diligent hearers—those who press beyond the presenting problem of sickness and demon possession and poverty to the underlying problem of sin and death and hell—well, they come to Jesus through the parables and are gathered to him.

The parables both attract people to Jesus and repel them from him. They work a bit like the cryptic crossword. I am repelled by the cryptic crossword. The investment in time and brainpower it requires is just too great for too little return. I couldn’t be bothered. It’s all a bit hard. But there are some readers of newspapers who only buy the paper for the cryptic crossword puzzle. They are not only drawn in by the puzzle, but they are well and truly hooked. And that is the intention of the parable—to draw people to Jesus Christ and bring them into the kingdom.

This leads, secondly, to the operation of the parables. They drive these serious enquirers, these people who are hooked, to find the answer. These people really want to uncover the secret of the kingdom of heaven. A serious chess player studies the game. Someone wanting to master the rubix cube gets a book or manual. A committed crossword or soduko player buys books of them, and about them. And likewise, serious enquirers into the mysteries of the kingdom which Jesus Christ brings don’t leave the matter as a mystery. The disciples go straight to the source, and ask Jesus about whatever parable he has said which they don’t understand. The parable drives them to Jesus, so that they ask in private to explain the meaning of the parable (cf. vv. 33-4). We see this in verses 10-11:

¹⁰When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹He 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.” (NIV)

So the purpose of parables is not fundamentally to conceal; it is to reveal. Parables do not cover up the kingdom of God for everybody, but they uncover the kingdom for those who have ears to hear. But when the secret of the kingdom is grasped—when Jesus himself is grasped—then the parable actually illumines and does indeed work as an illustration, an aid to memory, and a peg on which to hang the teaching point. We also see this in chapter 4 verses 33 and 34:

³³With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything. (NIV)

Notice that Jesus is not intending the parables to be un-understandable. Jesus only told his disciples “as much as they could understand.” Any lack of understanding does not stem from the form of teaching, the parable. Rather, it stems from the type of soil the person is. This is apparent because Jesus always explained everything to his disciples, the ones who forsook everything to follow him. For those who could always be found learning at his feet, they received the mystery of the kingdom. But to those outside, it remained a mystery.

As in many areas of life, it’s not what you know but who you know. And because the disciples know Jesus, they have the key to unlocking any parable. They can go to Jesus and ask him what the parable means. And Jesus will always explain the parable to them. So the meaning of the parables is open to all, if they are prepared to become followers of Jesus. For the parables are not merely an invitation to knowledge about the kingdom Jesus is bringing in: more important that that, they are an invitation to a relationship with the king of that kingdom.

But the parables do also conceal, not because of their nature as parables, but because those for whom they conceal do not hear Jesus aright, and so they do not turn to Christ and receive forgiveness. We see this in Jesus’ quote from Isaiah 6 verses 9-10, “Otherwise they might turn and be forgiven.” So for some, the parables have a hardening effect.

And of course, something in each of us recoils at the thought: “But this is not fair. Doesn’t God want all people to be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth? It is all a bit exclusivist, and mean, the spiritually rich getting richer, and the poor get the picture.”

Well it is true that the strategy of parables has an exclusive element: the parables do indeed seek to exclude a particular class of hearer. But the process of the parable inherently requires self-exclusion. Jesus casts out no one who comes to him. No potential follower or disciples is rejected, no hearer is turned away, everyone who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door is always open. But the problem is this: most hearers didn’t actual come to Jesus for relationship, to become a disciple, for him to explain to them the kingdom of God. Most came to be healed, to be relieved, to be amazed, to wonder, to eat their fill, to be part of the crowd. But only a small circle came to see they needed more than the show, and that they needed to seek the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

The Mother of All Parables Explained (vv. 14-20)

Now we could probably understand this parable without verses 14-20. It's a bit hard to tell, because with the benefit of hindsight, the meaning of the parable is so straight forward—but that’s just because we read on to Jesus’ answer. But the fact is that most of the parables Jesus told don’t have Jesus’ interpretation tacked on the end. And despite that fact, we can understand them! We could work hard on them, ask God to show us, talk about them, read what other people think, and come to understand the parable. And this is because it is not the nature of parables as parables that conceals, but the requirement of the hearer to make an extra step—whether it is think about it, search the Scriptures about it, or what is always the best approach, which is to come to Jesus for him to reveal the answer.[1] For all of these reasons, the interpretation is not strictly necessary.

But it is always nice to have Jesus’ interpretation. In fact, all three synoptic Gospels—Matthew, Mark and Luke—give us Jesus’ interpretation of this parable (Matt 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20; Luke 8:4-15).

The first type of soil is the concrete-like path. The message that the farmer scatters does not bed down in the soil, but it sits on the surface so that the birds of the air eat it up. Look at verse 15:

As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. (NIV)

There is more to rejecting the gospel of Christ than meets the eye. Satan is the god of this age, and he has blinded the minds of unbelievers. And the result is that people reject both then and now the message of Jesus. But we gathered here in this building today are less likely to be that type of hearer.

What about the thin layer of soil covering the bedrock? Verse 17 tells us that “trouble or persecution for the word” shows this sort of hearer for what he or her really is. These hearers are the fair-weather friends, who are happy to accept at once the good news of forgiveness and heaven, but not so happy to hear about repentance and hell. They like the benefits of fellowship and love that come by Jesus’ work and among Jesus’ people, but they do not really prepare themselves for the costs like persecution and suffering for Jesus’ work. Sadly, these people receive the message at first with joy, but in time they fall away. Time will tell, and the furnace reveals.

Friends, could we be the shallow soil hiding the bedrock? Sadly, yes. Many of us are young. We haven’t lived all that long, we haven’t been Christians all that long, we haven’t been tested all that much. We might be those who run well for a time, but lose heart because of the cost. And we need to make sure that this is not us, and take the preparatory and evasive actions we can to keep ourselves in God’s love as we wait for Christ to be revealed.

What about soil number three? That soil was the one that received the seed that fell among the thorns. This soil stands for those hearers for whom the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things, choke out the good seed that was sown and made it unfruitful. For the seed is always good, but it is the soil that is bad or good, and that makes the difference. And notice also, that at the beginning, as the seed starts growing, these worries, these “other things”, weren’t tall plants. The thorn plants grew up with the seed that was sown. And notice that it was only over time that the seedlings were choked out and the plants proved unfruitful.

I think we are in most danger of being this soil, and that it is this soil that poses the greatest risk.

We live in a wealthy country, relatively speaking. We can be deceived by wealth. It is easy, isn’t it, to be anxious about many things. Those worries and anxieties can be a snare. It might be money worries. Money is horribly deceptive. It promises security, power, and prestige, but it cannot deliver these things in the long term, either now or eternally. Moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break in and still. Money and wealth is deceptive. It cannot save in the face of death and hell.

And then there is the desire for other things such as pleasure, leisure, recreation, distraction, and comfort. The nice way of talking about this is our ‘standard of living’, our ‘lifestyle’. We are basically a materialistic and hedonistic society. Perhaps it could be sex, drugs, and rock and roll that choke out the word, and the Christianity of the person fizzles out like a shooting star. Or perhaps it is the slow grind of trudging to work, climbing the ladder, paying the mortgage, supporting the family, dealing with the challenges of life. Perhaps it wears down our fruitfulness so that we are baren, and we hardly even know it.

There is another soil, however: the good one, the beautiful one. It is ‘bewdiful’, full of dynamic lifter. This is what I hope represents each one of us. These are they who hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop. Notice, you can tell them by their fruit. Time doesn’t show them up to be fruitless disappointment. Suffering does not show them to be fair-weather friends. Like a good wine, they mature, and through time and distress, they persevere.

Friends, each one of us wants and needs to be a soil full of chook poo and manure. That is, we want to be fruitful and bear thirty times, or sixty times, or one hundred times what was sown. May that be us.

Amen.

[1] We don’t have the incarnate Christ personally and bodily with us to explain what he himself said in the Gospels, but we do have the apostolic testimony recorded for us in the New Testament, and this explains the secrets of the kingdom for us. So the way we go to Christ to get the secret of the kingdom is to go to the words that the Spirit of Christ breathed out in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, and engage in that prayerful and careful process of comprehension of the Bible text.

(3) English Translation

[2] Luke adds, “those from the various cities would travel to him.”

[3] Matthew adds, “standing.”

[4] Luke adds, “and it was trampled underfoot.”

[5] Luke adds, “of the heavens.”

[6] Luke adds, “different.”

[7] Luke, “rock.”

[8] Luke, “the thorns grew up with it.”

[9] Luke, “one hundred times as great” and Matthew has them as “one hundred, sixty, thirty.”

[10] Matthew and Luke have “disciples.”

[11] Luke, “mysteries.”

[12] Luke, “the seed is the word of God.”

[13] Matthew, “when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand, the evil one comes and snatches the seed sown in his heart,” and Luke, “And those beside the path are those who have heard, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they may not believe and be saved.”

[14] Luke, “they believe for a while, and in the time of temptation, fall away.”

[15] Matthew, “the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, or Luke, “and as they go on their way they are choked with the worries and riches and pleasures of this life.”

[16] Luke, “and it brings no fruit to maturity.”

[17] Matthew, “hearing and understanding.”

[18] Luke, “And the seed that fell in the good soil, these are they who heard the word with an honest and good heart, and hold fast to it, and they bear fruit with perseverance.”