We’re going to discover that just about every
time we encounter Mark’s gospel there is going to be something that’s going to
trip us up. Even the biblical experts
can’t make sense of it most of the time if they’re honest. Today we read a collection of parables from
Jesus. Or maybe we should call them
riddles since the word can be translated either way. Jesus gives the riddle in public but often
doesn’t give its answer, or a way to interpret it. Then in private Jesus gives the answer to the
disciples. Fortunately we get to be an
insider too and hear the answer.
Why does he do this? Loosely quoting from Isaiah 6 he says, “To
you has been given the secret to the kingdom of God, but for those outside,
everything comes in riddles; in order that, ‘they may indeed look, but not
perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn
again and be forgiven.’”
What?!? Is Jesus deliberately teaching in a way that
excludes people? Is God damning people
and hardening their hearts so that he has all the more reason to do it? No, of course not. That would be counter to everything Jesus
embodied. But that is just the kind of
question biblical scholars wrestle with in Mark’s gospel.
Actually it gets at a bigger
question. Mark isn’t the only gospel
that has Jesus quoting from Isaiah. It
also shows up in the gospel of John, in Acts, and in Paul’s letter to the
Romans. Always the question is why don’t
people accept the loving Word of God as it comes to them?
I think Jesus is getting at a deep
issue within people. Why don’t people
respond to the pure and simple truth?
Why can’t people believe that God loves them and then live that
out? I think we’d all like to say of
ourselves that if you give us pure and simple information for our own good
we’ll follow it. Sometimes we may
approach the Bible’s teachings and say, “Forget all this complex nonsense. Keep it simple.”
Yes, that would be nice. Or would it?
How many times has a doctor sat down with a patient and said, “Your
blood sugar is too high. You have Type 2
Diabetes. You can control it but you
have to lose weight, eat less sugars and carbohydrates, and exercise
more.” Or, “Your blood pressure is too
high. You’ll have to severely cut your
sodium intake.”
Or my favorite I heard from a speaker
whose name I’ve long since forgotten. In
a different lecture he had asked the crowd how many people had major bypass
surgery. And then he asked them how many
people had changed their lifestyles because of the surgery. Few had, and one guy raised a donut in his
hand and said, “You mean like not eating these!?”
The sad truth is that we don’t respond
to the simple pure truth. People believe
what they want to believe. They ignore
what they want to ignore. You’ve
probably heard sayings like, “Don’t bother me with the facts.”
Generally people will believe any
truth that is convenient and beneficial for them. They will reject anything and everything that
has a deep cost. That goes for religion,
politics, economics, science, or quality of life.
We all remember and love to hear the
things that make us feel good about ourselves and our way of life. We reject and forget that which challenges
us.
Why does Jesus preach in riddles? Why do so many of the Bible’s authors use
complex patterns and strategies and contradictions? Why does Jesus use stories rather than
straight facts? Because maybe, just
maybe, they will stick with us longer.
Maybe, just maybe, we’ll remember them later.
I wish I were a better story teller,
because people remember stories and images better than facts. When I tell a story in a sermon or relate an
antidote far more people remember it than the facts I preach.
May we all have the insight to hear
God’s truth, and believe it, and live it; whether it be a convenient truth or
an inconvenient one for our lives. Jesus
promises good things for those who can hear God’s truth. He doesn’t mean just in eternal life, he
means for this life too.
Let’s turn to the parable of the
sower. It’s a detailed parable, or
riddle. It’s a familiar one and it’s
very vivid. Even if you’ve never
scattered seed in a field or even grass seed in your lawn, you can get the
picture. You also get the absurdity of
it.
If you’re seeding a new lawn you would
not scatter the seed so crazily that it flies out onto the street or the
sidewalk. That’s pure waste. And if there is a series weed problem
somewhere, or too many rocks, or whatever the case may be, you’re probably not
going to waste seed on those areas.
Maybe you landscape it rather than seeding it. Or maybe you dig out the rocks or put in
another layer of soil overtop them.
Whatever the case, even though grass seed isn’t overly expensive, you
still don’t waste it.
But the sower in the parable
does. And we know that sower represents
God. The seed is God’s love, God’s word,
and he scatters it wildly – on places no smart person would waste a valuable
commodity. I’ve never seen a person mow
the grass in the street outside their house.
A bit of grass may grow in a crack in the pavement, but not a lawn.
Jesus wants all his hearers to know
that God sows indiscriminately. God’s
goodness is for those who think they deserve it, and for those who people would
say don’t deserve it. God’s goodness
goes where it is likely to do some good, and it also goes where it will
probably do no good at all. The key is
that it goes there, because you never know.
When hiking in the Adirondacks it’s
not at all unusual to come across a tree growing from the crack between
rocks. Somehow it’s there. And often it’s even flourishing.
And flourish God’s goodness does! Jesus says that when it truly takes root and
produces the yield is incredible: thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. Even with all the advances of modern
agriculture, yields like that are almost impossible. I think corn is about the only mass grown crop
that can produce a hundredfold of what was planted. Usually thirty fold in other grain crops is
doing well. And you can forget it when
you get out of grains.
Consider our church’s garden
project. Last year we planted 150 pounds
of seed potatoes. It was a bad year, and
from those 150 pounds we harvested a little over 900 pounds of potatoes. It is said that a good potato yield is a tenfold
increase, so you get ten pounds of potatoes for every pound you plant. If it had been a good year we would have
harvested 1500 pounds of potatoes. But
can you imagine if we would sometime get a hundredfold increase in
potatoes? That 150 pounds of seed would
then be 15,000 pounds of potatoes! I
don’t know what the food cupboard would do with so many! I don’t think our harvesting equipment could
handle it, let alone our volunteers pick them all up!
Let’s not turn this into a prosperity
gospel though. Jesus has no teachings
where those who follow him are blessed by being healthy, wealthy, and
wise. Many people think that is what
being blessed by God means. But the
abundance of the kingdom is the abundance of the kingdom in God’s terms. Ideas of wealth and prosperity are our ideas,
not God’s. How many miserable rich and
prosperous people are there? A lot!
Let’s conclude by noting an evangelism
part about the abundance of the kingdom.
The fields yield an abundant harvest, the lamp is put on the bushel to
give light, the mustard seed grows into a large shrub providing shelter, and on
it goes. Notice how the abundance of the
kingdom has a purpose and direction that benefits more than just the
listener. Evangelism is not about
embarrassing yourself and your neighbors by inviting them to go to church with
you. Evangelism is a sharing of the
abundance. It is faith that is not
turned in upon its own consumption.
Rather it is turned outward so that the blessing continues.
People have a hard time believing the
truth. So our job is to not only speak
it, but to share it in such a way that others benefit from it. Provide: light, shelter, food, blessings to
others. That is effective
evangelism. That is growing the kingdom
in word and deed, and in language that many people will understand.
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