Chapter # 4 Paragraph # 3 Study # 3
March 17, 2020
Moss Bluff, Louisiana
(152)
1901 ASV
14 The sower sows the word.
15 These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
16 In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky [
places,] who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;
17 and they have no [
firm] root in themselves, but are [
only] temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.
18 And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,
19 but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20 And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
- I. The Word Falls Upon The Road.
- A. The initial expression of this reality in the words of the parable as given.
- 1. "It came to be by the process of sowing that, indeed, 'this' (The Word) fell alongside the way".
- a. In the action of broadcasting seed, the "sower" throws some seeds that do not fall upon his field, but, instead, they fall along the path that runs beside his field.
- b. This "path" might be any of the several kinds of "paths": there are simply 'trails' that have been produced by back and forth traffic as people go from here to there; and there are the opposite, "highways", which are more deliberately formed by large masses of traffic and deliberate care (removing stones and other obstacles so that there is no occasion of tripping or stumbling).
- c. The one constant is the back and forth traffic over time that packs the earth so that the seeds that fall upon it have no possibility of sprouting. The awesomely powerful seed is totally stymied (in respect to its identity and purpose as "seed") by its "fall" alongside the trampled earth.
- 2. "...and the birds came and totally consumed it".
- a. The "birds" are the opportunists whose hunger makes them flock to the exposed seed.
- b. The verb is emphatic: the seed was, as concerned its possibility of producing a plant, absolutely frustrated (this in spite of the oft quoted Isaiah 55:11).
- 1) The "seed" contains its own potentialities.
- 2) The "sowing" has its own purposes.
- 3) Neither the seed's possibilities, nor the sower's purposes, are fulfilled (kind of like the massive presence of pine pollen in the early spring, the vast majority of which, falls fruitlessly to a resting place that is not a "germ" needing fertilization).
- 4) This does not deny Isaiah 55:11; it merely reveals the fact that The Sower has more "results" in mind than a fruitful plant in a fertile soil.
- B. The explanation of this part of the parable by Jesus.
- 1. The "soil" of the hard-packed, high-trafficked, path/road is a metaphor for a certain type of "hearer" ("...and when they should hear...").
- a. Mark uses the word "road" as both a physical reality as well as a metaphor that moves the actual "road/path" into the realms of its reason for being (a basis for a journey -- a physical road, or an established method for accomplishing some goal -- a metaphor of methodology).
- b. In this parable, the major issues are "proclamation" (of The Word) by "sowers" (Jesus' chosen disciples) and "hearing" by "soils" (all who come under the sound of the proclamation).
- c. In the earlier explanation by Jesus of the divine intention that some who "hear" are, by that, enabled to receive the mystery of The Kingdom of The God, and others who also "hear" are deliberately kept from understanding the words they have heard, there is a part of the "truth" about the "Mystery": the sower's "sowing" is multi-purposed so that a fruitful harvest is not the whole point.
- 2. In this explanation, Jesus reveals "how" the prevention occurs.
- a. "Immediately" (Mark's "euqus").
- b. "The Satan"; The Adversary, of the sower and of the seed, is represented by "birds".
- 1) "Satan" is, by Mark, first presented in 1:13 where he attempts to oppose Jesus in the wilderness. Mark's unique description of Jesus' "tempter" as "Satan", rather than "the devil" (Matthew's and Luke's preference), inserts the thesis of "Opposition" into the narrative at the earliest point in regard to Jesus' pursuit of His "calling".
- 2) The other references by Mark to "Satan" (3:23; 3:26; 4:15; and 8:33) reveal some key facts.
- a) In 3:23, Jesus uses the word as a more specific term than the one used by the scribes from Jerusalem: they used the term "Beelzebul" as the name of what they called "the 'Archon' of the demons" to explain away Jesus' ability to cast out demons, but Jesus changed the terminology by calling this "Beelzebul" by the descriptive name "Satan".
- i. That "demons" have already been identified by Mark as "unclean spirits" (compare 1:32, 34, and 39 to 1:23-24) indicates that "Satan" has the power of total mental dominion by "possession" as well as the power of significant mental influence without "possession" (as in Peter's rebuke (8:33) of being a "Satanic" act).
- ii. Thus, we can assume Satan's ability to individually control the thought process in a person as well as the thought processes of those who "hear" the words of those under his dominion.
- b) In 3:26, Jesus follows up with His argument that their "explanation" is contrary to reason by declaring that Satan would not "rise up against himself" so as to underwrite the destruction of his own plans and effectiveness.
- c) In 8:33, Jesus decides to call Peter "Satan" after his thoughtless "rebuke" of Jesus because of its potential to undermine the other "disciples" (He only called him "Satan" after seeing that the other disciples were within hearing distance). At issue here is both Peter's denial of Jesus' "truth" and his vocal utterance uttered in the presence of the other disciples.
- d) Thus, "Satan's" methods are revealed (2 Corinthians 2:11) to be both "denial" and "vocal utterance" because of dominion over "thoughts" and "values".
- 3) Mark's/Jesus' "point" is that "Satan" has a vested interest in nullifying the impact of the "sowing of the seed". Mark gives no direct explanation of that "vested interest". Luke identifies at least a part of it: "...so that they will not believe and be saved". We must, however, not read Luke's words into Mark's; it is a mistake to assume that it was important to Mark that his readers understand "Satan's" purpose(s) just because Luke thought it important.
- 4) It is significant that Mark gave no specific indication as to "how" Satan removes "The Word" from "within" them (it was sown "into" them) other than by demonic possession or demonic influence.
- 5) There are no obvious textual/contextual indications as to why "birds" are the parable's "adversaries". Mark only refers to "birds" twice in his entire record and both of the references he does use are in two of the parables in this chapter (4:4 and 4:32). In both cases, "bird" are simply "large numbers of recipients of benefits made available".
- c. "Comes" (a present tense in the historical narrative; emphatic to the inner vision of the hearers which the words produce). There may be a subtle inference here that this activity is similar to Genesis 3 where Satan "comes" to the pair in the Garden and persuades them to "disbelieve" God's declaration regarding the danger of the fruit of the tree.
- d. This adversary "picks up" The Word. This word is found five times previously in the record of the man who was "picked up" by his friends and carried to Jesus (2:3, 9, 11, 12, and 21). This is Mark's next use of the word in his record.
- e. We have not been given the actual means by which this adversary accomplishes this (probably because there are many ways to do this: generating some attention diverting incident, injecting some oppositional thoughts, etc.). The "birds" are the "agents of opposition" in the parable, but they serve as a metaphor for a host of ways by which the adversary completely negates any residual presence of "The Word" in the people who heard it.
- 3. And, in this explanation, we are told that The Word had been sown (Perfect Passive) "into" them, notably not "upon" them. They had ears; they could hear; the sounds of the words were transmitted into their brains; but there everything that leads to "understanding" stopped. In like manner, they had eyes; they could see; the visions of their sight went into their brains; but that was as far as the process went. Somehow, the adversary was able to make the process fail at this point so that it was as if they had not seen or heard. This "happens" all day long of every day: the cry of wisdom is pervasively present (Proverbs 1:20), but men go about their pursuits as blind and deaf.
- a. The "method" of the adversary was introduced to us in Genesis 3, and developed in multiple texts from that point, to be an active presentation of "temptation" to contradict the words of The God so that men are pulled along by their own appetites to ignore those words (James 1:14).
- b. The consequences of this effective opposition are beyond comprehension in terms of the wrath it engenders.
