Ramblings From Mark: 4 (Parable of the Sower)

This parable has been one of my favorites for almost twenty years. It is a very simple parable with a seemingly simple message but it contains some very profound truths in it. I intend to spend my next few blogs discussing some of the things that stand out to me in this parable and how they have impacted me and my search  for hope.

Jesus begins with, "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed." This immediately brings to mind a question, and that question is, "What is the seed?" You don't really have to wonder for long what the seed is because Jesus tells us later as he explains this parable to his disciples. The seed is God's Word. When I read this it really rocks my world and is a big reason why I serve and love God today. God speaks! When I say that He speaks, I mean that He speaks to you personally. Jewish tradition says that God's Word is forever speaking from Mt. Sinai. The tradition exists because God spoke audibly form Mt Sinai in the days of Moses and they feel that His voice continues to this day. I like this thought for several reasons but that is not what I'm talking about here. God is speaking to you! He's speaking right now. He is always speaking to you. The coolest part about this is that He is saying something to you at the same time as he is saying something completely different to someone else. What God is saying to you  is a personal message for you. 

God speaks in different ways. The most common way that God speaks to us is through His Word. This is why the Bible is said to be living and active. By itself the Bible is just a book and if you read it and do not hear from God as you're reading, it will not be of much use to you. However, when you are reading the Bible and, all of a sudden, God highlights something you are reading it comes alive and has power to change your life. God's Word spoken to our heart really is like a seed that God plants there. If this work is nurtured and cared for, it will grow and eventually bear fruit in our lives. This fruit is life change. 


There is one final point that I would like to briefly share on this subject today and it  involves this concept of life change. We have all heard the question, "Can a leopard change it's spots?" It is common in our culture today to say that it is impossible to change who we are. This is at the same time both true and discouraging. Everyone has character flaws and bad habits that we wish we could change but the truth is that on our own we are powerless to change them. However, God's Word has the power to change us form the inside out. Jesus tells us that we don't need to understand how this works. We just need to plant His Word in our hearts, cultivate the "seed" of His word, and He will do the rest. This is the subject of the parable of the sower and the point that Jesus is making here. We will need to address the condition of the soil that you are planting in and I will do that in later posts (or you can read the parable for yourself Mark 4:1-20) but the point is that God's Word planted in the human heart has an incredible, unbelievable, miraculous, life changing power.