Seed and Soil

Hello, you're listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

This epiphany in Lent, we're back in the Gospels,

specifically the Gospel of Mark. We are seeing

the revelation of God in Jesus. Mark is showing

us the true King becomes a servant for us. He

says right at the heart, the Son of Man came

not to be served, but to serve and to give his

life as a ransom for many. And Mark is nearly

always asking his audience, what do you make

of that? So, what do you make of this good news?

We'd love to meet you and we hope you'll consider

coming and joining with us each Sunday morning

at 10 a .m. in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg.

You can find us online at SecondCityChurch .org

and on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. We hope

you enjoy this sermon. God bless. We pray that

you would bear much fruit in us, that we would

receive your word. Throw your seed upon us, God.

And would we be those who desire to understand

and to bear the fruit of the kingdom of God.

Amen. the Gospel of Mark and we're starting chapter

four as you just heard and We're getting to some

of Jesus parables And this is actually one of

the longer teachings in mark mark doesn't have

the same kind of long teachings that say John

or Certainly Matthew even Luke Luke has quite

a few longer parables mark doesn't have as many

of those mark is kind of a fast gospel But this

morning we actually have a rather long section

for mark on a parable And before we get into

that, I want to tell you a parable that I was

told in seminary in my Gospels course by Dan

Doriani. And he began his lecture on the parables

with this. In the mountainous regions of northern

Italy, there was a monastery which overlooked

a small alpine village. Every day a monk winded

his way down the mountain path to St. Mass at

the village church. One cold fall day. He noticed

the bird lying in the path nearly expired from

the cold. He looked at the bird and then without

hesitation he put it inside his habit next to

his warm body. By the time he was to enter the

church the bird warmed by the monk's body and

clothes had begun to wiggle about and he knew

that it wouldn't be right to take this bird into

the church with him and so he sort of scanned

the piazza that he found himself in and he saw

cow pie warm steaming gelatinous cow pie and

so rather carefully he took this bird and gently

but firmly he pushed it in to the cow pie of

course what happened is that the bird continued

to be revived by this warmth this steaming warmth

And the bird began to chirp. The bird began to

sing. Have new life. Well, unfortunately, at

that same moment, there was a fox that was going

along the wall of this little village, the wall

that surrounded this little village. And the

fox looked down and he heard and he saw this

bird. He jumped down into the piazza. He went

over and he snatched the bird out of the cow

pie. Here are the lessons of the parable. At

least the initial points of this story. One,

the one who puts you into it is not necessarily

your enemy. Two, the one who gets you out of

it is not necessarily your friend. Three, when

you find yourself up to your beak in the stuff,

It's best to keep your mouth shut. There are

lots of good parables. And a lot of times, actually,

parables function like jokes, don't they? Or

a good riddle. They kind of make you have to

think and pay attention and follow. And oftentimes,

they actually are very humorous because the end

is not always what you think and the meaning

is not always sort of what you initially think

the meaning may be. We have to kind of slow down

and give our attention to them. Sometimes we

really don't know even what the ending is. Think

about the famous parable of the prodigal son

with me if you know that story. We actually don't

really know the ending. Part of the point is

will the old brother come into the party? We

don't know what happens. That's part of its point.

Some people define a parable as an earthly story

with a heavenly meaning. Maybe you've heard that.

But parables are really interesting. Sometimes

we have these long parables like the parable

of the prodigal son, and sometimes Jesus' parables

are just a sentence or two. But this parable

that we have this morning for us, I will say

is a foundational parable, kind of a paradigmatic

parable. Jesus actually says this in verse 13.

He says, do you not understand this parable?

How then will you understand all of the other

parables? You know, this is the one that you

kind of need to get in order to sort of get the

others. The story here is the main story of what

I'm doing in teaching parables. Interestingly,

actually Mark in verse 2 there, he says, and

he was teaching them many things in parables.

Plural. But then he highlights this one. Now

he's going to give us some other ones. We'll

look at some of those next week. But it says,

though, he's saying this is the big one, that

if you want to understand what Jesus is doing

in parables, pay attention here. And I think

these two questions for us, do you not understand

this parable? Do you not understand this word,

these parables, from me? How will you not understand

all the other characters? I think this kind of

gets at this point that Jesus is making here,

and that has to do with this interaction between

the seed and the soil, okay? Sometimes it's very

simple. Seed and soil. Well, let's consider the

seed first, okay? So, Jesus has another large

crowd gathered before him, and we know this is

not the first time. I mean, we've just been in

this gospel for a couple short months, and we've

already seen this happen. But a large crowd gathers

around Jesus so much so that he gets out into

a boat and he kind of pushes off from the shore

where all the crowd had gathered around. Actually,

if you just look in chapter three, literally

what we saw last week in verse nine, it actually

says this, and he told his disciples to have

a boat ready for him because of the crowd. So

this was a dynamic that Jesus was maybe already

accustomed to even early on in his ministry.

But one thing that's kind of interesting is that

they're actually along the Sea of Galilee to

the south, and actually to the southwest of Capernaum,

Capernaum being along the sea there, there's

actually a natural amphitheater that comes sort

of off the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and it

slopes gently up, you know, along this hillside.

The bay there in the Sea of Galilee is actually

today known as the Bay of Peripers. And it has

been studied, Israeli scientists have verified

that given a certain location of a speaker in

that bay of parables, a speaker could easily,

without modern amplification, speak to a few

thousand people just speaking. fuse out in a

boat like this. And so you can kind of picture

this is what Jesus is doing. He's got this huge

crowd that's gathered together, and it makes

sense wherever you'd be doing that. He'd come

up, go out to the boat, and he'd speak. You know,

the water would maybe work to reverberate the

sound. And so he's teaching this large crowd,

and Mark specifically highlights that he's teaching

this parable for us. And on the face of it, I

want to say this parable is like pretty simple.

My guess is if you've been around with Christians

for a while, you've been in the church for a

while, you've probably engaged with this parable.

It's a fairly simple parable, but there's also

some really odd things. There's some odd things

for our ears, and then there's some odd things

for the original audience. So the parable tells

us of the sower who's sowing a seed. And literally,

you can just picture this man having a bag of

seed and kind of throwing it out. And I think

additionally, it just seems odd to us because

the first place that he sows it, it says is along

a path. That's what our translation says, but

some translations will say it's a road. And we

think, why would you do that? course keep in

mind that you know they're not driving cars around

their paths and their roads aren't paved i mean

this path literally might go right through somebody's

field that actually happened too like the path

would just go right through somebody's field

so he's sewing it and he's thinking maybe i'll

reclaim this path it's not terribly odd to them

even though it actually sounds very odd to us

um the other thing i think that seems rather

odd is that uh He doesn't till up his land. There's

no mention of that. And that's such a significant

thing for us. It's more about kind of the act

of doing it first before you throw out all the

seed into all these different places. You would

just, for us, we'd like, we'll just throw it

on the part that is tilled up. But actually that

didn't work that way. Oftentimes you'd actually

throw out the seed. And this wasn't just for

Israel. This was sort of an ancient practice.

Throw out the seed and then you would till it

into the ground. So picture like this. I know

some of you have had great gardens at least in

your day. Maybe you do now and you've grown like

a bell pepper or something like that and You

didn't pick them all because you had so many

I feel like I should be using zucchini because

zucchini is always the one that goes so crazy

that you've got to like What do I do with this

huge thing? but you know you leave some of it

in your garden and then then you know it dies

and then there's some seed that kind of sits

there and You didn't plant the bell pepper the

zucchini, but bam there they are Right? So you

kind of understand it, you know, that kind of

thing. You throw it out and you don't till it

up until after the fact. So it's a little bit

strange for us to engage with this parable. There's

a distance between us and the parable that might

seem kind of odd to us in this seed that's sown.

But there's something, so those things might

seem odd to us, but there's something really

odd to the original audience here. It's deeply

strange to the original audience. And the strange

thing for the original audience is the yield

of this seed. So you all know, right, that we

live in a Monsanto world. You know, we put fertilizer

all over our crops. And a lot of times you can

only buy certain seeds that have been genetically

modified to produce massive amounts of crops.

And it's actually very hard to get some old seeds.

And so what we assume is that when you sow something,

you're gonna actually get a pretty substantial

crop out of it. But back then, actually, if you

sowed a seed, or actually if you even sowed some

corn, maybe you've seen pictures of old varieties

of corn, you wouldn't get some huge corn on the

cob like we think of. You would maybe get six,

eight, maybe 10 -fold from the seed you've sown,

okay? That would be a good yield. You sow one

seed and the head comes up and it produces 10

seeds on it. This is great. But Jesus here tells

us, some of the seed didn't just bear fruit,

but it bore fruit 30 -fold, 60 -fold, 100 -fold.

And people then would have been like, well, they

would actually, wow, give me that seed, or they

think this guy's crazy. What an absurdity. So

anyway, so here's the seed. As I explained kind

of what's happening and we could just stop and

we could say, okay, what do you think of this?

What do you think of this initial parable that

Jesus gives us? And one thing that you could

think is, you could say the takeaway is, isn't

this just like life? Sometimes you win, sometimes

you lose. You're just throwing stuff out there

and sometimes it goes well and sometimes it doesn't

go well. You know, sometimes you study for that

test for like five minutes. and you get everything

right and the extra credit. You're like, what?

It's amazing. And sometimes you study for that

test for like three hours and it doesn't go so

well. You're like, what is this? Yeah, so you

approach what Jesus says here and you're like,

oh, this is just like life. These seeds are just

kind of scattered here and scattered there. And

it all just feels a little random maybe. And

sometimes things go well, sometimes things don't

go well. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.

Sometimes the day goes well and sometimes it

doesn't. Maybe the lesson is you've got to at

least ask the girl out. Or you've got to at least

say yes in order to find out. It's just kind

of random. Just try something out. Throw it out

there. And maybe that's what some of the people

initially thought. They're like, oh, Jesus is

just talking about life. Interesting, Jesus.

Sometimes things seem really great. You make

a bunch of sales call. One day nobody buys anything

the next day ten does he got us in sort of like

a pep talk in a way And I'm sure actually on

some level when those people all these crowds

thousands of people probably came to hear Jesus

Some of them probably thought uh Good motivational

speaker stay in the game these kinds of takeaways

They went home and they were just kind of like

I don't know. And their friend was like, hey,

what'd you think of that Jesus guy that you went

to go see down at the parable bay? Probably wasn't

called that then. And they told their buddy like,

I don't know, he's interesting. Take it or leave

it. Maybe I'll go see him again. He gave us some

stuff that we already know. Okay, whatever. I

also bet there were some folk that were actually

a little bit mad about what he had said. I mean,

they had... they'd heard that this man Jesus

was you know proclaiming the good news of the

kingdom of God and he was doing things like healing

people and they were like man I had traveled

days to come see you and you're just telling

me like stay in the game or something like that

you know I'm no doubt I bet there were some people

that were actually a little bit furious that

day this is all you're giving us what a waste

of time and energy they thought But of course

there were some that were really interesting.

There's something more here. There's something

that this guy is telling me, and I don't quite

get it. And I want to. The possibility of bearing

so much fruit? What is it? What's going on here?

Kind of interestingly, if you do have your Bibles

open still, verse 10 says, and when he was alone,

now, you know. Alone in the in the context so

when it wasn't the huge crowd Those around him

with the 12 asked him about the purpose So there's

at least 12 and there's a handful of others around

him, but it's not a lot But they're the ones

that are saying wait a second Jesus You've got

something going on here, and we really want to

hear from you So right here in actually our own

story it seems as though the parable is playing

itself out Seed that's sown and some of it seems

to produce very little and some seems to produce

so much. That's partly the point, of course.

The seed and the soil, as I mentioned before,

they go hand -in -hand in this story. So we got

to consider the soil here. Again, this is somewhat

self -explanatory and yet we'll see there's more

going on here than initially meets the eye. So

when Jesus explains this parable about this seed

being sown on this different kind of terrain,

the path and the rocky soil and the soil with

the thorns and the fertile soil, when he explains

it, it's this soil that gets the most attention.

So he says, some of the seed is sown on the path

and the birds come and grab it. He says, it's

like Satan. There's actually working against

something's working against the seed bearing

fruit and so just comes it's like The other it

has no time at all You know, there's no kind

of percolating. There's no germination that's

taking place. No real interest in the things

of God No desire really to engage with Jesus

and then there's the kind of so that's like this

rocky ground the Word of God Seems to grab a

hold In fact, it actually says, you know, with

joy, there's this initial burst, this flame that

goes up. But then when the winds of trial and

persecution come, when they always come, when

life seems to get too hard, they think, you know

what, maybe this isn't what I thought. Maybe

this isn't what I'd been promised. I'd been promised

health and wealth and now I've got trial and

persecution. Forget about it. And then there's

some seed that's sown among thorns, and these

people also hear the word of God. And again,

this does not just go in one ear and out the

other, like that which is sown on the path. And

this time it's also not the trial and the persecution

that harm the growth, but this time it's actually

sort of the good things in life. It's the deceitfulness

of riches and the desire for other things. Not

just trial and persecution, but sometimes our

attention is taken away from Jesus by even the

good things of this world that then cause the

word to be choked and life in Christ to die and

no fruit to be born. And then finally he says

there is another type. There's a type of soil

in which my seed sinks deep down and when that

happens The fruit is something like you would

never expect. Something beyond your imagining.

Some people get on board. Some people stay far

off. Some people they hear and they forget right

away. Some are enthusiastic. But for a little

while. Some just have too much on their minds.

Too many things on their minds. So many bad things.

So many good things. But the seed does not sink

down. And yet some become unbelievably fruitful.

And of course, just right there, there's a huge

lesson for us. There's a huge encouragement for

us, right? To be those who desire to be fruitful

soil, to be receptive soil. There's a lesson

in this, to pursue the work of God in such a

way that we might bear fruit, right? To receive

it. To let it soak again. to let it germinate

and to be cautious of those trials and persecutions

and those good things in life that get in the

way. There's a good lesson in all that. It's

a significant part of the lesson. But there is

also something else going on here that's very

important and there's like something deeper that's

happening here. So I told you that there were

three points to the initial parable right that

my professor Dan Doriani told us. at Covenant

Seminary. But what if I told you in the context

in which he heard that? Because he also told

us this. He told us that that story was told

by a Christian scholar, an older seasoned Christian

scholar, who is addressing a group of younger

and older Christian scholars who were almost

all teaching at large public universities. And

when you hear that, Well, the context almost

changes the meaning of it. Not completely changes

the meaning, but it actually sort of helps you

understand why he might be saying it. And partly

why you might think you'd be saying in that context

is, hey, if you want to actually survive in this

kind of setting, if you want to make it long

term, if you want to live to the next day, you

better keep your mouth shut and your head down.

It kind of changes the context itself makes you

go wait a second here There's something else

going on telling us telling it in this time in

this place context always matters immensely So

in the gospel mark mark does this literary device

that we've talked about before it's called an

inclusio It's like a mini chiasm chiasm. We saw

a lot in Genesis where you go a B C D C D C B

A right and it makes us like be shaped and the

point is often right in the middle. An occlusio

is kind of like an envelope that's wrapping around

the main thing. Or you could think of it like

a sandwich. So you have like a piece of bread

on one side, a piece of bread on the other side,

and then you got the main thing in the middle.

And mostly, you know, we define things by what's

in the middle, right? We say it's a ham sandwich.

We say it's a turkey sandwich, or we say it's

a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, right? This

is not too tricky. It's an occlusio. And Mark

does this a lot. And actually he's doing this

right here. He tells us the parable, and then

more or less he tells it again, even though he's

explaining it. And right there in the middle

is sort of the main thing that's happening. The

main thing that's going on in this narrative

here in Mark chapter four is this middle part,

which is 10 through 12. Let me read them again

for you. And when he was alone, those around

him with the 12, 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 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

now I'll say this he's quoting from what we heard

Chuck read to us from Isaiah chapter 6 which

Isaiah 6 · chapter mention

is the message of Isaiah, which is a message

both of judgment and of grace, as most prophetic

messages were. And I think when we first hear

this and we think, wow, this is the point of

Mark, what Mark is doing. He's putting this thing

in the middle and he's saying, hey, this is the

interpretive sandwich right here. One of the

questions that you ask is you say, well, does

Jesus then want people to understand? It says,

lest they should turn and be forgiven. But again,

context is key here. And I want you to think

with me, let's just quickly think about what's

happened in the gospel of Mark. Mark began, he

said, this is the gospel of Jesus that I'm giving,

that I'm telling you. And then right in that

first chapter, what we learn is that Jesus was

going about Galilee, this St. Mary, and he was

proclaiming the gospel, the good news of the

kingdom of God. And as he was proclaiming that,

what we then learned as sort of these chapters,

these early chapters went on is he was doing

all kinds of good and healing and bringing about

this reality of God's reign in the world, bringing

things as they were meant to be, doing the things

that would sort of reestablish the reality of

who God is and how he's made his world. And so

he does stuff like he heals a person of unclean

spirit. And he heals the leper and he heals the

paralytic and he heals the man with the withered

hand and he's doing all this stuff. He's proclaiming

this good news, this gospel. He calls the 12th

to himself. Right, we saw this last week and

he sort of reestablishes this unification. And

all these things are what any Israelite would

have wanted in a way. They would have said, yeah,

we desire God's reign on earth. We desire the

goodness of other people. We want the forgiveness

of sins. You know, we want the reestablishment

of the people of God. What Jesus is doing in

the, you know, bringing the 12 disciples together.

And yet, what did we just see last week? Just

last week, we saw all these people actually saying

things like this. He's got a demon. He's a son

of Beosebol. He's unclean. He's crazy The very

people that you would think would say let's receive

him Let's hear his word. Let's receive what he

has to say or ask the people to say no in one

ear out the other or better yet I can't believe

that you're coming to me this way You're not

meeting my expectations of what the Messiah was

supposed to be. Let's do away with you It certainly

didn't want Somebody questioning their religious

practices the way Jesus questioned them. Challenging

their life the way Jesus challenged them. Instead

they wanted a king that would come and oust the

Romans. Show the power of Israel. King on the

throne. And so so many people came and they listened

to Jesus. Religious people, keep in mind, these

are the people of Israel that came. They listened

to Jesus and they went away and they said, I

don't think I want much to do with him. I don't

really think I want much to do with him. He's

out of his mind. He has an unclean spirit. He's

not interesting enough. He's just telling us

some good motivational speech. We can hear that

elsewhere. And part of what Jesus is saying is

that parables are actually a way of putting the

dividing line. Who's really in? Who's really

committed to understanding, to devoting themselves

to God among them, God teaching them? God giving

Himself for them. I mean, it's interesting. Jesus

has this amazing message, this good news of the

Kingdom of God. He does these amazing things

and He offers things like the forgiveness of

sins, no guilt, no shame. And He comes and He

actually touches people and He heals them. What

we have at this moment is actually Jesus has

done so much good and already only in chapter,

we have so many people saying, I actually don't

want anything of this. I don't want this. And

so part of what Jesus is doing from the beginning

with these parables is saying, who are you going

to be? Who are you going to be? Are you going

to actually receive me as I come to you? And

it's just interesting to think about this because

of course this is what happens today. I mean,

think about the message that we have. Think about

the message of Christianity. God who made all

things. The one who says that actually, you know,

the whole Bible begins with this idea that God

speaks and he makes people in his image, every

single person. This is a religion that says every

single person has dignity and worth and value.

And what a message for the world. Isn't that

something that everybody would say the world

needs this? With how often we just lambast others,

with rampant racism, all this stuff. Just one

idea. One idea alone that every single person

has made in the image of God and has intrinsic

value and worth. That is something that everybody

should, let's grab onto that. How about this

idea that actually, I think it's very freeing

to say, hey, everybody's a sinner. You know,

it's a humbling thing in a good way where we

don't just have to look down on other people,

right? Oh, look, I'm so good. Or look how other

people, man, I'm the only one that's like this.

There's something that's so freeing about these

messages of Christian faith. Or of course think

about this core idea that God who made all things

actually takes on flesh for us and Actually dies

for us that our sins would be gone and says hey

you are guilt free you're here All of your guilt

was taken away. That is a message that should

lift you up and I mean I feel like why wouldn't

somebody want that and yet so many people have

no desire for them? Right. That's true. So people

go that is crazy. That's silly. Okay, maybe a

good motivational speech Let me go home and just

do my own thing The same thing that was happening

in Jesus' day happens in our day. And Jesus is

saying, hey, I'm giving you this parable sandwich

with the meaning right in the middle because...

Where are you gonna be? I mean, you could put

it this way too. What soil are you? Do you receive

the words of God? and one ear out the other.

Do you receive the word of God to say, ah, life

is too hard? Do you receive the word of God and

say, ah, there's other things that are shinier?

Do you receive the word of God, bear fruit? Jesus

doesn't actually interpret a lot of the parables

for us. You know that, right? A lot of them he

doesn't interpret. And he's telling us here,

that's actually part of the point. When you first

come to these verses that explain the reason

for parables, particularly verses 11 and 12,

oddly it also seems like there's some kind of

determinism going on. To you has been given,

which is sort of a divine passive in the Bible,

the has been given often refers to the idea that

God is the one giving it, right? To you has been

given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for

those outside, everything's in pairs. Almost

as though it's just like, hey, it's a you and

a them. And I'm just putting this dividing line

here. This is kind of hard determinism to play.

And I will say this, the Bible does speak most

certainly about the sovereignty of God and the

fact that the grace of God is only ever a gift.

But it's so inestimating that that there is put

right in the context of these people who have

come to Him And he's been saying, what's going

on with these parables? Right? And if that's

the kind of part that's right in the middle,

that's what Jesus and Mark is driving at was,

go to him. Go to him and say, Jesus, what are

you doing? Jesus, teach me. Jesus, bear fruit

in me. God is teaching us here about the necessity

of fertile receptive soil. And he's teaching

us also the power of the seed, but he's also

laying before us this question. How do you come

to him? What kind of soil are you? You come down

with a hard heart. Come to him desiring to be

taught, to grow and to change and to learn. I

didn't tell you the other context of this parable

that my professor told us about. And that was

that this guy, this older seasoned scholar who

told these younger scholars, they were working

in secular universities, these Christian scholars

that work in secular universities. He told them

this parable, but he actually told them also

where he first heard it. And he was first told

that parable. by the president of the university

where he worked to all of the first year students.

All the first year, sorry, not first year students,

first year professors. And when you heard it

in that context, it almost seemed to mean a totally

other thing. And that other thing that they were

hearing was, you better keep your mouth shut

and toe the line where you'll be eaten. It was

a threat. Here's what I'm suggesting to you in

all this. We actually need ears to hear Jesus

properly and to receive Him properly. And these

little verses that may seem dismissive, right?

They may indeed see but not perceive. They may

indeed hear but not understand unless they should

turn and be forgiven. We need to hear this as

this greater prophet Isaiah. Jesus coming and

offering both grace and the possibility of judgment.

But he's saying to those who have ears to hear,

let them hear and let them receive and let them

bear fruit. The question for the original audience,

the question for us is just simply this. Do you

have ears to hear? Do you receive the seed? And

then the promise is, if you do, you will bear

much fruit. Let me pray for us. Lord This parable

that is so familiar to so many of us and yet

has such a simple yet profound message Gotta

pray that we would have ears to hear gotta pray

that we wouldn't be those that simply hear and

quickly pass on from your words to us or simply

those who hear and think a Good moral speaker,

but those who sit with you like these few that

were gathered together with the 12 and desire

to learn from you. God, I pray that we would

be a church that desires to hear your word, that

it would sink deep within us and that it would

bear much fruit in our lives. God, I pray that

even the strange challenge that you give in this

setting, of the difficulty sometimes of hearing

you. God, if that would be a challenge that we

would rise to, that we would be desirous to actually

understand you, to let that seed soak in and

germinate and bear fruit. God, please do that

in us. Please bear this fruit in us. Give us

a great love for your holy word. We pray in Jesus'

name, amen. Thank you for listening to Second

City Sermons Podcast. We hope this sermon has

encouraged you to worship God and to celebrate

the gospel of Jesus. Please consider subscribing

to this podcast and joining us in person each

Sunday at 10 a .m. You can find us online at

SecondCityChurch .org and on Instagram, Facebook,

and YouTube. Thanks again for listening. God

bless.