Parable of the Farmer Scattering Seed

Meditations of the Gospel of Mark

August 12, 2020

Parable of the Farmer Scattering Seed

And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Mark 4:20

Read: Mark 4:1-20

I was in a restaurant with an aviation theme adjacent to the runways of the Ft. Lauderdale airport. Included in each booth was a set of headphones which allowed the patrons to listen to the airport Control Tower communicating with the airplanes. My two friends each took turns listening then handed the headphones to me saying, “You will be disappointed because they aren’t working. Everything is garbled and we can’t understand anything.”

I put on the headphones and heard, “Cesena 24 Tango clear for takeoff runway 9, maintain runway heading. Air Canada 386 taxi in position and hold runway 9.”

Why did I hear clearly and my friends only heard gibberish? I am a pilot, and I have training and experience in airport communications. I knew how to listen to this particular form of communication.

Parables are like that. Jesus used symbols, and at times he used an ‘insiders’ vocabulary. Why? The truth was too revolutionary. The people of Israel wanted a Messiah who would deliver the whole country, all at once, from the oppression of Rome. If Jesus was that kind of Messiah, the Roman government would do all they could to stop him. If he wasn’t that kind of Messiah, the people would rebel against him.

The parable of the sower reveals that the Messiah wasn’t going to set the nation of Israel free. The parable reveals the sower (God) is setting individuals free, one at a time. The parable reveals ¾ of the people do not receive the liberating message of God. God’s plan of redemption did not meet the expectations of the people. So Jesus moves slowly, giving the people an opportunity to grow in their faith so that they would trust God with their future.

My Takeaway: Yes, ¾ of the seeds seem to have been lost. Even so, the Generous Sower, sows His seeds everywhere because,

“He does not want anyone to be destroyed, but wants everyone to repent.”

(2 Peter 3:9)

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Copyright © 2020 by Alex M. Knight

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

• Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

• The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.