The Framework around the Parable of the Sower
David W Palmer
And he taught them many things by parables, and said to them in his teaching, “Listen. Look …” (Mark 4:2–3 DKJV)
Jesus is the greatest teacher, with the greatest content, using the best teaching method, ever. Yet, some people think they can teach and explain God’s system better with their own [finite, fickle, flawed] reasoning. For example, under the guise of sound logic, we often hear objections like …
“If God is good, why doesn’t he …?”
“If God is so powerful, why doesn’t he …?”
But God is a genius; and through his unlimited intelligence, he has designed a system—his kingdom, its processes and operations—the way that infinite love, wisdom, and power knows is best. Our job is not to try to improve it, critique it, or suggest ways it would run better; but our role is to understand it, believe it, and cooperate with him in it. So the day Jesus taught the parables of Mark 4 and Matthew 13 was the most revealing day in all of human history. God finally and clearly explained how his system works; he provided an answer to all the questions.
Jesus expounded the most crucial information ever given, expressed to humans using love’s wisest teaching technique—parables. In particular, he began with the parable of the “sower,” which concluded with this statement:
(Mark 4:13 ESV) And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?”
So this parabolic explanation contains the key for unlocking all of the other parables. In other words, the main ingredient to all of Jesus’s explanations about how God works with humans is to be found in the parable of the sower. He said that if we don’t understand this fundamental simile, we wouldn’t get the rest. All the mystery of God’s dealing with the universe begins to open up to us with the unlocking of this simple story.
Why did Jesus use parables that day? Obviously, this is the very best thing that God could use. I honestly believe that he created seeds, sowing, and soil in preparation for this explanation. Jesus didn’t merely seize onto the first thing he could see to formulate an illustration. Our Lord didn’t perchance glance at the field while teaching, and have a picture pop into his head. Moreover, he didn’t use parables as a way to explain his teaching to “simple” country folk, or for the exclusive use of Sunday school teachers. He used it because it is the best and most ingenious way to enable us to understand and operate in his kingdom.
However, before we look closely at the teaching of this fundamental parable, we notice that Jesus prefaced it, punctuated it, and followed it with some revealing statements and directives. What’s more, the Holy Spirit gives us an interesting scene to picture as part of unraveling the mystery of God’s kingdom. These portions of Scripture give us the framework of Jesus’s teaching on the day God explained himself. We need to see what they reveal, before we attempt to understand the parable itself:
(Mark 4:22 ISV) “Nothing is hidden except for the purpose of having it revealed, and nothing is secret except for the purpose of having it come to light.”
This statement forms part of the frame that brackets the end of Jesus’s principal parable. What does it mean?
God’s objective was not to keep the secreted things hidden from us, but hidden for us. Bankers lock our money in vaults to protect it from theft. They are not doing this to keep us from our money, but to keep thieves from it. In a similar way, God needed a system to allow his own people to access his power and kingdom, while at the same time keeping his enemies out. He wants us to understand him; he wants us to access his power, love, and provision. Yet, he had to design a procedure that prevents his adversaries from accessing it too.
Jesus prefaced, punctuated, and concluded his teaching on this all-important parable with some rather bewildering phrases. Yet their content holds the key to understanding why he uses parables, and how we are to interact with them:
(Mark 4:3 EMTV) “Listen! Behold (look) …”
(Mark 4:24 EMTV) “…Watch what you hear.”
In the original language, the first phrase is made up of two words. “Listen.” “Look.” The second phrase is similar, “watch” what you “hear.” Jesus frames his teaching with the amazing instruction to both listen to and look at what he says in between.
Parables are designed to give both auditory and visual information; you can both hear and see them.
At the end of the public declaration of this pivotal parable, Jesus adds to the framework with another intriguing phrase:
(Mark 4:9 EMTV) And He said, “He that has ears to hear, let him hear!”
Clearly, Jesus is indicating that important responsibility falls to us to extract what God is communicating in this parable:
(Proverbs 25:2 KJV) It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter.
Speaking of “ears” and hearing at the end of the parable, corresponds to the first half of his opening phrase, “listen.” The second part of Jesus’s sandwiching instruction is to “look.” Let’s obey this by looking at a picture described in the text to see what it reveals:
(Mark 4:10–13 EMTV) But when He was by himself, those around Him together with the twelve asked Him about the parable. {11} And He said to them, “Unto you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come to be spoken in parables, {12} so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.’” {13} And He said to them, “Do you not know this parable? How then will you know all the parables?”
This scene holds a crucial key for understanding God and how his system works. If we can grasp it, we can access his blessing, healing, provision, etc.
Thankfully, this scenario is not difficult to picture: the public teaching is finished; the crowds are dispersing. Many of the listeners to the public presentation have pressing responsibilities, worrying situations, social gatherings, or other priorities to attend to. They hurry off.
However, as the excitement of the public meeting is dying down, a small group of Jesus’s devoted followers have no higher priority, no more important place to be, than to gather around Jesus.
In this picture, we are already beginning to see God explaining himself. You see, in the above passage, Jesus said something highly motivational to this small group: “Unto you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come to be spoken in parables, so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.’”
In this greatest of all teachings, Jesus said, “Unto you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God.” I want to know unto whom? Who are the people who receive understanding of the mysteries that have eluded humanity for centuries? And how do I become one of them?
We need to search no further than this scene to discover the answer. Jesus said it to “those around him with the twelve.” In other words, he disclosed the secrets of God’s kingdom to those who came back to sit at his feet after the public teaching—those who returned to ask him to explain the teaching to them personally. These are the ones to whom “it has been given to know the mysteries of God’s kingdom.” I want to be one of the people who have these mysteries given to me.
Now I am beginning to see how to do it. All I have to do is come back to Jesus after the public teaching and ask him to explain it to me. (This is simply how God locks others out of his revelation: to sit at Jesus’s feet and converse with him, one needs humility, honesty, love for God, and agreement with his character. Those who will not “face up” to truth—about God, their sin, etc.—simply will not come. These are the ones who disqualify themselves from God’s kingdom and his heavenly eternity: “But to those who are outside, all things come to be spoken in parables, so that ‘Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them’” (Mark 4:11–12 EMTV).)
In his conversation with them, Jesus went on to say, “Do you not know this parable? How then will you know all the parables?” By making this statement, Jesus is saying that this allegory is the key to all his other kingdom explanations. Seeing that God has chosen this “parabolic” method for explaining himself to us, we need to focus on understanding this parable as our beginning point, or highest priority.
Jesus completed the framework around this central parable and its explanation with the following amazing statement:
(Mark 4:24–25 EMTV) Then He said to them, “Watch what you hear. By what measure you measure, it will be measured out to you; and more will be added to you who hear. {25} For whoever has, more will be given to him; and the one who does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”
Jesus’s opening [framework] statement was: “listen, look.” And here, he finishes the frame by saying, “watch what you hear.” This is essential for understanding God, the universe, his kingdom, and our role in it; this is the key that unlocks the most obstinate door in all human history: Jesus wants us to sit at his feet, ask him to explain, and then to “watch what we hear.”
Today, I encourage you to take time in the Scripture. Don’t only read it and/or listen to it; let it revolve in your mind. Go over it repeatedly until you can picture what it is saying. The Holy Spirit will work with that picture and begin to reveal more and more to you. Suddenly, you will “see” things you haven’t seen before. By revelation dropping into your spirit from the Holy Spirit, you will unexpectedly know things that you could not have otherwise known. Your understanding will begin to grow; other Bible verses, passages, or sections of God’s word will begin to connect in.
Soon, you will feel bubbling life whelming up from your spirit; God’s faith will be transferred to your heart; you will be excited about what you are seeing, and you will want to tell someone. This is the overflow. As you pour it out, you will be doing Jesus-style ministry.
Wow, it is an exciting life. May God lead you as you begin today. Even if you are doing chores, or otherwise busy, you may still have the brain space to meditate on a passage the Holy Spirit is faithfully highlighting for you. Stay with him, keep your mind focused on it, and soon the light will come flooding in.
