FollowingJesus.me

Mark 4:13-21

Many of us are familiar with Jesus’ parable here in Mark 4. Jesus tells the story of a farmer who goes out to sow some seeds. Some of the seeds are picked up by the birds, some only grow shallow roots and quickly waste away, some grow but are choked out by surrounding weeds, and some of the seeds grow well and produce a large crop.

What we all want to do is “produce a crop.” We want our life to be meaningful and to make a difference in this world. That’s what Jesus wants for us as well. With good intentions, we start a search for just the right seeds, the ones that will produce a big crop. We do not want to waste time or money on any of the lesser seeds. This makes logical sense and I see those in the church world around me doing just that.

A little later in this chapter, Jesus takes the time to explain the parable to his disciples. There, he makes it clear that the seed is “the word.” The seed represents God’s message (the church’s teachings, the gospel, etc.). Also from the parable, we know the goal (as it should be) is to produce a good crop “thirty, sixty, or even 100 times what was sown.”

Having spent the last several decades intimately involved in church leadership, I think our tendency has been to adjust our message to try to get the large response we want or believe Jesus wants.

We (churches) start with a message and, over time, if the expected “harvest” is not there, we adjust. We’ll hone the message, removing some of the sharp edges, adding some ingredients to make the seed “better” and taking away those things we think are making it unproductive. We know God loves and wants to reach people. If they aren’t coming to Him, we conclude, we must be doing or saying something wrong. Most churches have been going through this process for decades, they just haven’t found the right seed, yet.

This is top of mind today because of a conversation I had a few nights ago with a group of pastor friends. We talked about life, our families, food, bands, TV shows, and money — more specifically the church’s teaching or lack of teaching about money and giving. We had all had similar experiences with churches that simply did not teach about money. We all believe it is an important topic but, even among us, there was disagreement over what the teaching should be. One thing we did share was our common experience as to why the churches we have been involved in decided not to teach about money; the common denominator was an attempt to avoid stirring up people’s pain. In recent church history, there has been a lot of erroneous, even manipulative teaching around giving. This, along with the occasional public abuse of the money given (often for personal gain), has left many Christians reeling and left the world with a growing distaste for church/religion. In response, we stopped teaching about giving to God and money. Several of the churches we discussed now focus on doing social good and giving to meet social needs. The idea of giving as a regular, spiritual practice has become distasteful and has been removed from the seeds we are sowing. Our excuse – we don’t want to add to people’s pain and we don’t want anyone to be able to categorize us with those greedy manipulators.

The Pattern Repeats

As this or another teaching becomes socially unpopular or in reaction to another’s erroneous or manipulative teaching we adjust our message (seed) in hopes of a better crop. At best, we pick and choose biblical topics to teach while avoiding the ones that might turn people away. At worst, we make up our own teachings to help us get the results we are looking for.

The Parable of the SOWER

The thing is, this is NOT what the parable is about. Jesus explains the parable to his disciples in Mark 4:13-20. The parable is NOT the “Parable of the Seeds” but “The Parable of the Sower.” The farmer has only one kind of seed, “The farmer sows the word…” As “the word” is sown it falls on different kinds of soil or, as explained by Jesus, four different kinds of people. Jesus makes a couple of points here: 1. He desires a harvest and so should we and 2. Not everyone is going to react to “the word” in the same way. The parable is not about changing the word but about being aware of “the type of soil” (the people) where the message is being sown.

With Love and Compassion

We, ABSOLUTELY, have responsibility for how we share “the word.”

“Let your conversation always be full of grace, seasoned with salt.”

“Do everything as unto the Lord.”

“Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you.”

Anytime we sow we should do so in love and with compassion. However, we should not ignore portions of Jesus’ teaching because of how people might react. Jesus was killed for the things he taught – people did not react well. He stayed on mission/on message and loved people through all of it, even during his crucifixion. His seeds did produce (and are still producing) a large harvest. But the harvest only came to light after his death. Up to that point, the harvest did not look good BUT, Jesus did not adjust his message for a “better” result. I would argue that we shouldn’t either.

Part of the difficulty for us is that our message is imperfect. We often think we know what the Bible is saying or what “word” we should be sowing and often we are off. We should definitely seek God and change our message to match the message of Jesus, to match the “whole counsel of God”.

We should NEVER change it to make ourselves or our hearers more comfortable. We should never change our message to get a “better” response, even if it is to get a bigger harvest. Remember, we will reap what we sow and if our seed is not pure, our harvest will also not be pure.

Prayer:

Oh, Lord Jesus, help us today. First, help us to know you and to know your ways. As we share your Good News, help us to do it faithfully (and to live it faithfully. Help us to share with love and compassion knowing that you “are not willing that any should be lost.” Help us to share boldly knowing that our good news might not get the reaction we are hoping for. Help us to keep the message about you, Jesus. YOU are the good news. YOU are our hope and our Life. YOU are the Gospel.

Thank you, Jesus!