DAY TWENTY-THREE – Monday, March 15, 2021
Mark 4:1-20
Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’
When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that
‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”
And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
The fourth chapter of Mark is a crucial answer to a problem that has surfaced from the preceding chapter. In the third chapter there were some surprising challenges against Jesus. Not only were the Pharisees trying to destroy Jesus (3:6), but members of Jesus’ own family thought Jesus was out of his mind (3:21). The scribes said that Jesus casts out demons by the prince of demons and is possessed by Beelzebul (3:22). Why are the religious leaders rejecting Jesus? Who is going to follow Jesus if people think he is crazy and are trying to destroy him? What is going on? Mark is going to record a series of parables in this fourth chapter to explain what is happening and why no one should be surprised by this response.
The Parable of the Sower (4:1-9)Notice that the first verse shows that crowds are flocking to Jesus. In chapter 3, the same crowds were crushing in on Jesus (3:9) and this is again happening now. The crowd is so large that Jesus must step into a boat to speak to them, while the crowd remains on the shore. Jesus has previously said that he came to teach (1:38) and he will, indeed, take that opportunity here. But notice exactly how Jesus taught. “And he was teaching them many things in parables” - (4:2). So, Jesus asks everyone to listen and to understand. Then Jesus tells a parable in verses 3-8. After telling the parable, Jesus calls for people to listen and consider what he just told them (3:9). Notice that Jesus does not explain the parable to the crushing crowd. Jesus just tells the parable. This circumstance brings out some questions.
Why Parables? (4:10-12)In verse 10 when the disciples are alone with Jesus, they ask him about the parables. It seems so strange to tell a story and then leave without explanation. What is Jesus doing? Why is Jesus telling parables? Look at Jesus’ answer in verse 11.
“To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’” (Mark 4:11–12)
We need to consider Jesus’ answer carefully. Is Jesus saying I am only letting you (the 12 apostles) know the secret of the kingdom and no one else? Or is Jesus saying something different? Further, is Jesus saying that he teaches with the purpose of blinding so that the people will not understand? To help us better comprehend what Jesus is saying in verse 11, we need to understand the Scripture he quotes to prove what he is doing which is in verse 12. Notice that Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10 to illuminate his teaching method. Thus, we need to go back to Isaiah 6 so that we can appreciate what Jesus is doing.
The first five chapters of Isaiah reveal a condemnation against Judah for their sinfulness and their failure to bear fruit for God. God describes the judgements that will come against the nation for their rebellion. Isaiah 6 records the call of Isaiah. Isaiah has a vision of the throne room of God. In this scene God commissions Isaiah to be his prophet, sent to the nation after he atones for his uncleanness (6:5-7). Look here at Isaiah 6:8-10.
“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.” And he said, ‘Go, and say to this people: ’Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.’ (Isaiah 6:8–10)
This may initially appear to be the strangest commission ever. Go preach to the people and tell them to keep on hearing, but not understand and keep on seeing without perceiving. As Isaiah is preaching to the people, what will happen is that the people’s hearts will grow dull, their ears will become heavy, and their eyes will be blinded. If that wasn’t the case, they would be able to see, hear, and understand and turn to be healed. But that is not going to happen. Isaiah asks how long this situation is going to be sustained (6:11) and God answers that it will continue until his judgement falls upon the nation. This is the message of this passage in the days of Isaiah. Now think about this a moment. Is this the effect God wants? Of course not. God is not sending Isaiah to make sure that Judah will be condemned. Rather, God sends Isaiah to warn and preach to the people, but already knowing that the effect of the preaching will be that the people will be all the more hardened and experience greater blindness. This is the effect of God’s foreknowledge of what humans will choose to do as a result of their exercise of free will, also to be seen in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel as well as within the heart of Pharaoh in the face of the miraculous plagues brought about by Moses.
We then see Jesus is giving this very same message to the disciples. Why does Jesus tell parables? Jesus uses parables because nothing has changed in his own day from in the days of Isaiah. God’s message will either impel one to discern what God really wishes to convey, or people will turn their hearts away – often because their secular concerns seem more immediate. The purpose of parables was to challenge the heart to listen and to consider. Why was the secret of the kingdom being revealed specifically to the disciples? They are receiving the secret because they approach Jesus in acknowledgement of his kingship. The crowd is not ready to recognize the coming of the kingdom. This is the same point as illustrated in the Isaiah passage noted earlier, which foreshadows what Jesus is saying to his disciples. Jesus speaks in parables to see who is going to go deeper into what Jesus really means - and who will hear the words but walk away with closed ears and hard hearts. Jesus is asking who will be willing to be taught by God. Who will discern what the Lord is actually saying? Who will be blinded by the message and have their hearts become dull? Thus, Jesus starts and then ends the parable with a plea to listen. Who has ears to hear and will hear?
We can often have a false idea - that we need to make God’s teachings as ‘watered down’ and as simple as possible, so that people will come to the Lord. But that is not the way Jesus functioned. Jesus did not want to make it ‘easy’. He offered God’s word and then he looked to see who would come to him to learn more. He wanted to see who had questions - who would go deeper into his words? Who really wanted to know the answers? Indeed, the problem is not with the speaker, but rather is with those whose willful stubbornness of heart prevent them from seeing and understanding.
The Parable Explained (4:13-20)We need this background in order to perceive the meaning of the parable, as Jesus then explains it. In reading Mark 4:13-20, notice in verse 13 that Jesus indicates this parable is to be particularly pivotal. If one does not understand this parable, one will not understand any of the other parables. The reason why is that this parable shows how to hear the word of God and how not to hear the word of God. So whenever the word of God is proclaimed, a spiritual warfare occurs in the hearts of every person present. Indeed, notice the variety of reactions to the proclamation of God’s word in the subject parable. We see here how different hearts respond.
First, we see the completely unresponsive heart. In verse 15, some hear and forget. There is no chance for the word to work on the heart. The word is gone as soon as it leaves Jesus’ mouth. God’s word is literally not received. There is nothing wrong with the seed and there is nothing wrong with the sower. What is wrong is the soil. This is a soil that just will not receive the seed. This pictures a completely unresponsive heart.
Second, we see a shallow heart in verses 16-17. The recipients are enthusiastic but very short term. Notice they receive the word with joy immediately, but then there is simply no root to enable the word to flourish. They endure for a little while only, then difficulties come and they fall away. They allow the concerns of life to cause the word of God not to root in their hearts. This heart is not ready for the challenge of following Jesus. The heart is not ready to sacrifice and to endure. These are the hearts that will neither sacrifice nor give, in order to follow Jesus.
Third, we see a worldly heart in verses 18-19. They already have too much else on their minds and hearts. The word is choked out by their worldly concerns and desires. Everything else in life and in the world gets in the way of fruitfulness. The plant may live, but it does not bear fruit. This soil starts out by saying yes to God, but then God is not placed before the cares and desires of the world.
Finally, we come to the good soil in verse 20. It is only this good soil that brings about a fruitful harvest. Again, we must notice that the differences do not come from the seed nor the sower. The various responses to Jesus and the kingdom do not mean that there is something wrong with Jesus. Neither do they indicate that there is something wrong with his message. Jesus quotes Isaiah to show that this is exactly what the true proclamation of the word engenders: some reject, some accept but do not endure, some accept but are fruitless, and some accept and bear fruit. What makes the difference? What made the difference is the heart of the person who heard the word.
Thus, the key to the parable is actually in verses 10-12. Understanding God and his kingdom is found in our response to Jesus. Those who are actually following Jesus and who do the will of God (3:34-35) become God’s family and become the insiders to whom the mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed. Jesus is telling parables because they are like spiritual tests intended to separate those who will come to Jesus to understand from those who will walk away still blind. Unbelief then becomes confirmed in a person’s heart because that person stubbornly refuses to come to Jesus to learn and understand the real meaning of the parable.
The Message and Our Response
To bring this parable back into the context of Mark 3. Jesus is proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and people think Jesus is crazy and desire to kill him. Jesus is saying that the kingdom flourishes and grows even in the midst of great opposition. We need to hear this important lesson. The kingdom is not defeated in the midst of sustained opposition. Indeed, the kingdom will truly flourish and grow in the face of opposition and rebellion against it. We must not allow ourselves to be discouraged by this world or by its resistance to the coming of the kingdom. So, we cannot permit ourselves to be shaken if we are living as Christians in a hostile environment. Jesus sows the seed in that hostile environment. The rightly disposed heart is what is required in order to respond.
Fruitfulness only comes from a receptive heart that allows the seed to take root and to grow. The issue is the status of one’s heart – and nothing else. Fruitfulness comes from a heart disposed to listen.
Jesus tells us we need to evaluate which soil we have cultivated in our heart. If we are not bearing fruit for the Lord, then Jesus’ answer is that our hearts are not open. If we are not growing and enjoying the Lord more and more each day, then there is something wrong that Jesus wants for us to discern. Do you have a heart that is not fully responsive to the word? You need to let the seed of God’s word truly take root in your heart.
Perhaps we have received the word but we are not prepared for the trials and difficulties that come from serving the Lord. Might you have stopped listening attentively because life is hard? Jesus is very plain that to be his follower, we must carry the cross in this world (Matthew 16:24). We have to make sacrifices as a crucial part of our Christian life. We have to deny ourselves the transitory and sometimes potentially harmful distractions of the society in which we find ourselves. We will be met with resistance – even rejection - for followingg the Lord. Do you have a heart whose soil is only going to serve the Lord when things are easy, comfortable, and predictable? Carefully examine your heart to ensure that your root is not shallow. You don’t want to miss out on the gift of having a vibrant relationship with God that will carry you through the days.
Possibly some have received the word but there is no fruit because they are too preoccupied with their secular activities. They have stopped listening with attention because the affairs of this life keep them from hearing. We can be just too caught up with this world and its concerns. We can become overly involved with the day-to-day banalities of this earthly existence. We may find that we are worried with the cares of the world around us. We may be pursuing this world’s goods to the exclusion of those treasures that will never perish. We may even find that we are also not experiencing the expected joy of the true Christian life because this world seems to be relentlessly choking it out of us.
How can we tell if we are good soil? Jesus uses the picture of bearing fruit.. Why was Jesus teaching in parables? What Jesus wanted to see was who would come to him and ask questions, genuinely looking for answers. Jesus wanted to know who would really come to him, go deeper and draw closer. This is how we are shown whether we have good soil in our heart. Do you find that you desire more of God? Are you willing to let the Holy Spirit do a new work in you?
We cannot change our past but we can radically transform our future through that matchless treasure which is the grace of God. In the Lord’s Prayer, we say we want to see the coming of the kingdom even here on earth by the doing of God’s will. If you have a heart that is ready to receive the word of God and to bear fruit for the kingdom, then, ‘... Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’ (2 Corinthians 6:2b).
Sean Madsen
Mark 4:1-20
Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’
When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that
‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,
and may indeed listen, but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”
And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
The fourth chapter of Mark is a crucial answer to a problem that has surfaced from the preceding chapter. In the third chapter there were some surprising challenges against Jesus. Not only were the Pharisees trying to destroy Jesus (3:6), but members of Jesus’ own family thought Jesus was out of his mind (3:21). The scribes said that Jesus casts out demons by the prince of demons and is possessed by Beelzebul (3:22). Why are the religious leaders rejecting Jesus? Who is going to follow Jesus if people think he is crazy and are trying to destroy him? What is going on? Mark is going to record a series of parables in this fourth chapter to explain what is happening and why no one should be surprised by this response.
The Parable of the Sower (4:1-9)Notice that the first verse shows that crowds are flocking to Jesus. In chapter 3, the same crowds were crushing in on Jesus (3:9) and this is again happening now. The crowd is so large that Jesus must step into a boat to speak to them, while the crowd remains on the shore. Jesus has previously said that he came to teach (1:38) and he will, indeed, take that opportunity here. But notice exactly how Jesus taught. “And he was teaching them many things in parables” - (4:2). So, Jesus asks everyone to listen and to understand. Then Jesus tells a parable in verses 3-8. After telling the parable, Jesus calls for people to listen and consider what he just told them (3:9). Notice that Jesus does not explain the parable to the crushing crowd. Jesus just tells the parable. This circumstance brings out some questions.
Why Parables? (4:10-12)In verse 10 when the disciples are alone with Jesus, they ask him about the parables. It seems so strange to tell a story and then leave without explanation. What is Jesus doing? Why is Jesus telling parables? Look at Jesus’ answer in verse 11.
“To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’” (Mark 4:11–12)
We need to consider Jesus’ answer carefully. Is Jesus saying I am only letting you (the 12 apostles) know the secret of the kingdom and no one else? Or is Jesus saying something different? Further, is Jesus saying that he teaches with the purpose of blinding so that the people will not understand? To help us better comprehend what Jesus is saying in verse 11, we need to understand the Scripture he quotes to prove what he is doing which is in verse 12. Notice that Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9-10 to illuminate his teaching method. Thus, we need to go back to Isaiah 6 so that we can appreciate what Jesus is doing.
The first five chapters of Isaiah reveal a condemnation against Judah for their sinfulness and their failure to bear fruit for God. God describes the judgements that will come against the nation for their rebellion. Isaiah 6 records the call of Isaiah. Isaiah has a vision of the throne room of God. In this scene God commissions Isaiah to be his prophet, sent to the nation after he atones for his uncleanness (6:5-7). Look here at Isaiah 6:8-10.
“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here I am! Send me.” And he said, ‘Go, and say to this people: ’Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.’ (Isaiah 6:8–10)
This may initially appear to be the strangest commission ever. Go preach to the people and tell them to keep on hearing, but not understand and keep on seeing without perceiving. As Isaiah is preaching to the people, what will happen is that the people’s hearts will grow dull, their ears will become heavy, and their eyes will be blinded. If that wasn’t the case, they would be able to see, hear, and understand and turn to be healed. But that is not going to happen. Isaiah asks how long this situation is going to be sustained (6:11) and God answers that it will continue until his judgement falls upon the nation. This is the message of this passage in the days of Isaiah. Now think about this a moment. Is this the effect God wants? Of course not. God is not sending Isaiah to make sure that Judah will be condemned. Rather, God sends Isaiah to warn and preach to the people, but already knowing that the effect of the preaching will be that the people will be all the more hardened and experience greater blindness. This is the effect of God’s foreknowledge of what humans will choose to do as a result of their exercise of free will, also to be seen in the prophecies of Jeremiah and Ezekiel as well as within the heart of Pharaoh in the face of the miraculous plagues brought about by Moses.
We then see Jesus is giving this very same message to the disciples. Why does Jesus tell parables? Jesus uses parables because nothing has changed in his own day from in the days of Isaiah. God’s message will either impel one to discern what God really wishes to convey, or people will turn their hearts away – often because their secular concerns seem more immediate. The purpose of parables was to challenge the heart to listen and to consider. Why was the secret of the kingdom being revealed specifically to the disciples? They are receiving the secret because they approach Jesus in acknowledgement of his kingship. The crowd is not ready to recognize the coming of the kingdom. This is the same point as illustrated in the Isaiah passage noted earlier, which foreshadows what Jesus is saying to his disciples. Jesus speaks in parables to see who is going to go deeper into what Jesus really means - and who will hear the words but walk away with closed ears and hard hearts. Jesus is asking who will be willing to be taught by God. Who will discern what the Lord is actually saying? Who will be blinded by the message and have their hearts become dull? Thus, Jesus starts and then ends the parable with a plea to listen. Who has ears to hear and will hear?
We can often have a false idea - that we need to make God’s teachings as ‘watered down’ and as simple as possible, so that people will come to the Lord. But that is not the way Jesus functioned. Jesus did not want to make it ‘easy’. He offered God’s word and then he looked to see who would come to him to learn more. He wanted to see who had questions - who would go deeper into his words? Who really wanted to know the answers? Indeed, the problem is not with the speaker, but rather is with those whose willful stubbornness of heart prevent them from seeing and understanding.
The Parable Explained (4:13-20)We need this background in order to perceive the meaning of the parable, as Jesus then explains it. In reading Mark 4:13-20, notice in verse 13 that Jesus indicates this parable is to be particularly pivotal. If one does not understand this parable, one will not understand any of the other parables. The reason why is that this parable shows how to hear the word of God and how not to hear the word of God. So whenever the word of God is proclaimed, a spiritual warfare occurs in the hearts of every person present. Indeed, notice the variety of reactions to the proclamation of God’s word in the subject parable. We see here how different hearts respond.
First, we see the completely unresponsive heart. In verse 15, some hear and forget. There is no chance for the word to work on the heart. The word is gone as soon as it leaves Jesus’ mouth. God’s word is literally not received. There is nothing wrong with the seed and there is nothing wrong with the sower. What is wrong is the soil. This is a soil that just will not receive the seed. This pictures a completely unresponsive heart.
Second, we see a shallow heart in verses 16-17. The recipients are enthusiastic but very short term. Notice they receive the word with joy immediately, but then there is simply no root to enable the word to flourish. They endure for a little while only, then difficulties come and they fall away. They allow the concerns of life to cause the word of God not to root in their hearts. This heart is not ready for the challenge of following Jesus. The heart is not ready to sacrifice and to endure. These are the hearts that will neither sacrifice nor give, in order to follow Jesus.
Third, we see a worldly heart in verses 18-19. They already have too much else on their minds and hearts. The word is choked out by their worldly concerns and desires. Everything else in life and in the world gets in the way of fruitfulness. The plant may live, but it does not bear fruit. This soil starts out by saying yes to God, but then God is not placed before the cares and desires of the world.
Finally, we come to the good soil in verse 20. It is only this good soil that brings about a fruitful harvest. Again, we must notice that the differences do not come from the seed nor the sower. The various responses to Jesus and the kingdom do not mean that there is something wrong with Jesus. Neither do they indicate that there is something wrong with his message. Jesus quotes Isaiah to show that this is exactly what the true proclamation of the word engenders: some reject, some accept but do not endure, some accept but are fruitless, and some accept and bear fruit. What makes the difference? What made the difference is the heart of the person who heard the word.
Thus, the key to the parable is actually in verses 10-12. Understanding God and his kingdom is found in our response to Jesus. Those who are actually following Jesus and who do the will of God (3:34-35) become God’s family and become the insiders to whom the mysteries of the kingdom of God are revealed. Jesus is telling parables because they are like spiritual tests intended to separate those who will come to Jesus to understand from those who will walk away still blind. Unbelief then becomes confirmed in a person’s heart because that person stubbornly refuses to come to Jesus to learn and understand the real meaning of the parable.
The Message and Our Response
To bring this parable back into the context of Mark 3. Jesus is proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and people think Jesus is crazy and desire to kill him. Jesus is saying that the kingdom flourishes and grows even in the midst of great opposition. We need to hear this important lesson. The kingdom is not defeated in the midst of sustained opposition. Indeed, the kingdom will truly flourish and grow in the face of opposition and rebellion against it. We must not allow ourselves to be discouraged by this world or by its resistance to the coming of the kingdom. So, we cannot permit ourselves to be shaken if we are living as Christians in a hostile environment. Jesus sows the seed in that hostile environment. The rightly disposed heart is what is required in order to respond.
Fruitfulness only comes from a receptive heart that allows the seed to take root and to grow. The issue is the status of one’s heart – and nothing else. Fruitfulness comes from a heart disposed to listen.
Jesus tells us we need to evaluate which soil we have cultivated in our heart. If we are not bearing fruit for the Lord, then Jesus’ answer is that our hearts are not open. If we are not growing and enjoying the Lord more and more each day, then there is something wrong that Jesus wants for us to discern. Do you have a heart that is not fully responsive to the word? You need to let the seed of God’s word truly take root in your heart.
Perhaps we have received the word but we are not prepared for the trials and difficulties that come from serving the Lord. Might you have stopped listening attentively because life is hard? Jesus is very plain that to be his follower, we must carry the cross in this world (Matthew 16:24). We have to make sacrifices as a crucial part of our Christian life. We have to deny ourselves the transitory and sometimes potentially harmful distractions of the society in which we find ourselves. We will be met with resistance – even rejection - for followingg the Lord. Do you have a heart whose soil is only going to serve the Lord when things are easy, comfortable, and predictable? Carefully examine your heart to ensure that your root is not shallow. You don’t want to miss out on the gift of having a vibrant relationship with God that will carry you through the days.
Possibly some have received the word but there is no fruit because they are too preoccupied with their secular activities. They have stopped listening with attention because the affairs of this life keep them from hearing. We can be just too caught up with this world and its concerns. We can become overly involved with the day-to-day banalities of this earthly existence. We may find that we are worried with the cares of the world around us. We may be pursuing this world’s goods to the exclusion of those treasures that will never perish. We may even find that we are also not experiencing the expected joy of the true Christian life because this world seems to be relentlessly choking it out of us.
How can we tell if we are good soil? Jesus uses the picture of bearing fruit.. Why was Jesus teaching in parables? What Jesus wanted to see was who would come to him and ask questions, genuinely looking for answers. Jesus wanted to know who would really come to him, go deeper and draw closer. This is how we are shown whether we have good soil in our heart. Do you find that you desire more of God? Are you willing to let the Holy Spirit do a new work in you?
We cannot change our past but we can radically transform our future through that matchless treasure which is the grace of God. In the Lord’s Prayer, we say we want to see the coming of the kingdom even here on earth by the doing of God’s will. If you have a heart that is ready to receive the word of God and to bear fruit for the kingdom, then, ‘... Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.’ (2 Corinthians 6:2b).
Sean Madsen
