Day 16: Our Spiritual Seeds

Read Mark 4-5

They who have eyes to read, let them read. :)

Later, when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples and with the others who were gathered around, they asked him what the parables meant. He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables for everything I say to outsiders, so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled: 'When they see what I do, they will learn nothing.  When they hear what I say, they will not understand. Otherwise, they will turn to me and be forgiven. -Mark 4:10-12 

To me, this excerpt is very confusing, because at first glance it seems as if Jesus is saying that he did not want people to understand so that they can be forgiven. But in actuality he is saying quite the opposite. “You” in this passage refer to the disciples; they knew the secrets of the Kingdom of God. The outsiders were the non-disciples, those who have not received the word yet. Jesus gave his teachings to the people in ways that they can understand and apply it to their daily life. And, the beauty of Jesus’ teachings were that his message is timeless, whether if we are listening to him then, in the middle ages or even now, we can still apply his lessons into our life. I love this method of teaching that Jesus uses because it’s not the usual, “listen and do what I say” type. No, Jesus lets us freely use our minds to unlock the meaning in his parables so that in the process of learning about the Kingdom of God, we may go one step further and understand his message. In that sense, God’s words never expires.

Mark 4 starts with a collection of parables, which he begins with the Parable of the Sower. To me, the Farmer is Jesus and the seeds are his words of the Kingdom of Heaven. The parable talks about the different places where the seeds land, some may be suitable enough for growth, but most of them are not.

The first place seeds fell were “along the path, and the birds came and ate it up”. The birds can symbolize sin, evil, and/or Satan. This can represent those who hear the word, but they are eaten up by sin and therefore do not accept the message of the Kingdom of God. The seeds were never planted in the soil, never had time to grow and prosper. Those who have fallen off the path have heard the word, heard about God’s love, but does not allow it to come into their hearts.

The next location was “rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.” This type of place is most of us I feel like, or at least me. We receive the word and like Jesus later says, we “at once receive it with joy”, but we do not have a strong foundation in the soil. We do not let the word take root in our soul to allow it to fully grow and prosper. (Interesting how soil and soul are very similar in spelling… hmm). So when trials and persecutions burn a way into our life, we are quick to fall and stray away from the word, Christian community and Jesus.

The third place was “among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.” The thorns represent the “worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things to come in and choke the word”. Many of us can also be put into this category, letting school, family, work, significant others come in the way. We become consumed by the worries of our routine life and either consciously or subconsciously place God’s word in the back burner. And after awhile these thorns of worries start to strangle us and prevent us from not only accepting the word of God, but also applying it and spreading the word to others. We are basically stunted in our spiritual growth and from the burden of our worries we do not live up to the potential that God had planned for us in our lives and in our faith.

The final place Jesus talks about is the optimal location. These “seeds fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, multiplying 30, 60, or even 100 times”. These are the people who accepted the word, let it take root in their soul, and share the word with others, 30, 60 or 100 times over. These are the disciples, the believers, the Christians who allowed God to come into their hearts and see the truth.

In this Lenten season, let us reflect on what type of environment our seed is growing in. Do we even have a seed? Or is our soil shallow? Or are we letting thorns come into our life preventing our seed to grow? I can say for sure that there is a seed in each and every one of us. We know the word; we have learned it in Sunday School, in DAY bibles studies, and in Sunday sermons. But what we do with that word depends on our lifestyle, our surroundings, and those we let ourselves surround. Let us foster an environment that allows our seed to grow so that when it blossoms, it will grow as high and strong as a mustard tree so that even those from a far can see how powerful it is to know the secrets of God’s Kingdom.

(So this is only one parable, but I HIGHLY encourage you guys to read the rest of Mark 4 because Jesus continues using seeds in his parables so you can make many more connections and he does some pretty neat stuff in 5!)

- Christina Kurien