Reflective Bible Study

As we continue moving through the gospels looking at the parables Jesus shared, we come to what might be the most famous parable Jesus ever shared, and while carrying the title of most famous parable, this might also be the most important parable in the entire gospel record. This parable is the only parable that I can think of where both the parable and Jesus’ explanation of the details of this parable are included in Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

If you are familiar with the gospels, or if you have been listening to this podcast for some time, I’m pretty sure you have heard this parable. However, just in case you haven’t read the gospels, or you have no clue what I am talking about, or if you need a quick reminder about the details of this parable, let’s read it together.

Let’s read this parable from Mark’s gospel, where it can be found in chapter 4, and let’s use the New International Version of the Bible to read it. Starting in verse 1, Mark tells us that:

¹ 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 on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

It is at this point in the passage that the parable ends. Jesus then begins talking about something else that isn’t included in the gospels. Or perhaps, Jesus shared some of the other parables we will be looking at in the upcoming weeks.

If it wasn’t for the disciples coming to Jesus a little later and asking Jesus to explain this parable, we might be just as confused about this parable as we are about some of the others Jesus shared.

Like Matthew, Mark, and Luke all include this parable, they all include Jesus’ explanation. Instead of speculating what the details of this parable represents, as I have heard others who don’t know the gospels do, let’s read Jesus’ explanation of His own parable, because there is no better explanation than Jesus’ when it comes to helping us understand what He taught.

Picking back up in verse 13, Mark tells us:

¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? ¹⁴ The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵ Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶ Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸ Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰ Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

In this explanation, we discover that different people react differently to hearing God’s word. In Jesus’ illustration, there are four possible reactions.

But before really focusing on the reactions, I want to point out Jesus’ own words when He sets this parable up to be a foundation for all of His parables. When the disciples ask Jesus to explain this parable to them, Jesus replied by saying in verse 13, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?”

While I don’t know if the disciples understood the parable before this point, but wanted clarification on some points, or whether they were completely clueless about why a farmer would so indiscriminately scatter seed in places where it wouldn’t grow well, we can thank them for asking for an explanation. While Jesus challenges them on their lack of understanding, He also shares the clear meaning of this parable.

In this parable, the farmer spreads God’s word. People on the path discount, ignore, or forget what was shared. People in the rocky places like what they heard but they don’t know how to apply it, nor do they have a foundation. When external challenges come, like the sun beating down, they give up God’s word and wilt away. People in the thorn bushes let God’s word take root, but they are challenged internally by deceit, worry, desires, and other things. These people let life’s problems strangle their relationship with God.

The last group of seed gets good soil, is able to take root, is not choked out by thorns, and is productive. While it would be easy to focus on why the farmer seemed to waste seed on not-ultimately-productive types of soil, let’s instead focus on the good soil.

Jesus writes about those in the fourth group in verse 20, saying: “Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

I’ve read this verse a number of times, but a phrase jumped off the page at me this time. Those in this group “produce a crop”. In the subtle details of this parable, the goal of a seed is to make more seeds and to spread these seeds in order to produce a crop.

Like the parable we looked at in our previous episode, where the goal is being fruitful, we see a connection to this parable because the seed on good soil produces the fruit of a crop, and it does so in an exponential way.

Fruit trees and plants in general always produce more than one fruit or seed. Every plant produces significantly more chances of replicating itself than just once. Every plant is designed to realize that many of the seeds won’t become more plants. In the case of our current parable, the crop that is produced is fruitful, with some of the seeds replicating themselves up to a hundred times.

When we are being fruitful, we shouldn’t worry about how fruitful we are being. Those who are thirty times as productive are as rewarded as the ones who are one hundred times. Our level of fruitfulness isn’t as important as the simple truth that we must be fruitful.

However, in this parable, we get to chose where our seed lands. When God’s word comes into our life, will we choose to have a heart that is hard like a path, is weak like the rocky soil, is distracted and worried like the thorny soil, or will we open our hearts to God’s word, and multiply the message He has given to us by sharing it with others?

This parable lets us choose our response. Let’s choose to open our hearts to God and grow into being spiritually fruitful people!

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

Continue seeking God first and placing Him first in your life. Be sure to intentionally open your heart to God and let Him grow you into being the fruitful person He created you to be.

In order to do this, intentionally pray and study the Bible for yourself to grow your personal relationship with God. While it is okay to learn and grow from listening to pastors, speakers, authors, or even podcasters, never let your spiritual growth be filtered by others. Always be personally studying the Bible and testing what you read and hear with the truth included in the Bible’s pages, because while culture changes, the safest place to be anchored is the truth of God’s word.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or deviate away from where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!

Coming immediately following Jesus’ miracle in our last episode, which happened on the Sabbath, and following the religious leaders learning it was Jesus who had healed the man and told him to pick up his mat on the Sabbath, we discover these religious leaders challenge Jesus about what He is doing. In this challenge, and specifically in how Jesus responds, we discover many amazing things about God, and about who Jesus truly is.

Since this is a longer passage, let’s dive into it and discover some amazing truths about Jesus from this passage and this conversation. Our passage is found in John’s gospel, chapter 5, and we will read it from the New International Version of the Bible. Starting in verse 16, John tells us that:

¹⁶ [So,] because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵ Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

Pausing briefly, I want to draw our attention onto the huge truth that God the Father is not the Judge. While God the Father could easily be the judge, He gave the authority to judge to Jesus. While Jesus had said earlier in His conversation with Nicodemus that He did not come to judge the world but to save it, the next time Jesus comes to this earth, it will be as King and Judge. Jesus’ first coming was to save the world, Jesus’ second coming will be to judge the world and redeem God’s people. God the Father has given Jesus the authority to judge.

However, that isn’t all. Let’s continue reading to discover what else Jesus tells us that is powerful. Picking back up in verse 28, Jesus continues saying:

²⁸ “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰ By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. ³² There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

³³ “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. ³⁵ John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

³⁶ “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, ³⁸ nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. ³⁹ You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

Let’s pause reading again briefly, because what we just finished reading is powerful, and I don’t want you to miss it.

In the first century culture, that was built on the Old Testament structure, in order for a testimony to be valid, it must be validated by additional witnesses. When two or more people gave testimony that was in line with each other, that testimony would be considered valid.

While some people have claimed that Jesus only spoke on His own, and that His single testimony is not valid, John has just recorded Jesus telling the religious leaders three additional witnesses that testify about Him.

The first witness, which should be the clearest, is John the Baptist. John the Baptist came testifying about Jesus, and he directly tells people Jesus is the Messiah on more than one occasion. However, Jesus tells these religious leaders that John the Baptist was given for their benefit, and Jesus doesn’t need to rest on John’s testimony.

The second witness Jesus gives is the witness of God the Father. When Jesus was baptized, God spoke from heaven affirming Jesus. When Jesus was transfigured on the mountain, God the Father spoke from heaven affirming Jesus. And, later in John’s gospel, while Jesus is teaching in the temple, God the Father speaks from heaven affirming Jesus. Rejecting Jesus’ second witness means rejecting God the Father.

The third witness Jesus gives is the witness of the Old Testament scriptures. When we look at the Old Testament, there are so many layers of prophecies foreshadowing Jesus that it is difficult to get away from them. From obvious prophecies about where Jesus would be born, to subtle symbolic prophecies like the lamb given as a sacrifice on the alter to pay for sins, the Old Testament speaks loudly about who Jesus truly is. Rejecting Jesus’ third witness means rejecting the Old Testament scriptures.

Unfortunately, today we have Christians who reject God the Father and there are Christians who reject the Old Testament. By rejecting Jesus, these Jewish leaders ultimately reject not just John the Baptist, but God the Father and the Old Testament scriptures as well. When we let our preconceived biases get in the way of God’s truth, we blind ourselves to what God wants to teach us.

However, Jesus isn’t finished. Picking back up in verse 41, Jesus tells these religious leaders:

⁴¹ “I do not accept glory from human beings, ⁴² but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵ “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. ⁴⁶ If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

In this passage, and in Jesus’ counter challenge to the religious leaders, we discover that Jesus only accepts glory from God. Jesus is not interested in glory from people.

It is also interesting to note that Jesus won’t accuse those who don’t believe in Him. Instead, he will let historical individuals who the people did believe in to accuse them. In the religious leaders’ case, their accuser is Moses, who did believe in Jesus, and who wrote about Him.

Ultimately in this passage, we discover that Jesus is God’s Son, that Jesus has multiple witnesses to testify to this, and that Jesus is more interested in doing God’s will and receiving God’s glory than on being accepted or praised by people. We are called to be like Jesus, to trust in the multiple witnesses of the Old and New Testament scriptures, and to focus on receiving glory from God and not praise from people.

As we come to the end of another podcast episode, here are the challenges I will leave you with:

As always, seek God first and place your hope, faith, trust, and belief in Jesus and what He accomplished for each of us on the cross. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, we discover how much God loves us and how much He wants to redeem us from this sin-filled world.

Also, always pray and study the Bible for yourself to learn, grow, and discover who God really is. While it is easy to rest on other people for your knowledge of the Bible, by doing so, you short-change yourself because you will only grow as much as those you pay attention to. God wants a personal relationship with you, and this relationship begins when we make it personal, without putting anyone else in the middle.

And as I end every set of challenges by saying in one way or another, never stop short of, back away from, chicken out of, or give up on where God wants to lead you to in your life with Him!