Our Christmas Gift is the Presence of Jesus: Seed, Sower, the Everlasting Tree of Life. Part 1 - Introduction
The Gospel of Mark is the shortest, most compact gospel, but it packs a punch. I felt led to read it again, slowly, one chapter at a time. As I read, I asked Jesus, “Lord, what do you want me to see and understand”. He showed me many things, but when I got to Mark 4 and then Mark 5, I felt Him say, “Son, pay attention”. I want to share with you in the next 5 posts or so what I believe God showed me. I begin with Mark 4: 1 – the Parable of the Sower.
Context is important, especially when reading and studying Scripture. Here is some background on the Parable of the Sower:
It is the first parable that Jesus teaches in Matthew (Matthew 13), Mark (Mark 4), and Luke (Luke 8). It is not included in John. There are no parables in that gospel! Not only is it the first, but Jesus tells His disciples (and us) if they don’t understand this parable, “How then will you understand any parable” (Mark 4: 13). Jesus is telling them and us that this parable is foundational to understanding everything He teaches. So, it is the first of many, but in a sense, it is the most important because without an understanding of this one, His listeners, including His disciples, will miss the basic message about the Kingdom of God Jesus is trying to tell them in all the others.
We know that Jesus’ message is the gospel. What many forget or didn’t know is that, for Jesus, it is the gospel in the Kingdom of God (e.g., Luke 4: 43). Everything Jesus said and did pointed to the Kingdom of God. On the day that Jesus taught this parable to a large crowd along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, He was travelling from one town and village proclaiming “the good news of the Kingdom of God” (Luke 8: 1). When Jesus was explaining the meaning of the parable to the disciples, He told them, “The secret of the Kingdom of God has been given to you” (Mark 4: 11).
While this parable is about the Kingdom of God, it is also about the human heart and how humans receive this new, really unheard of, thing called the Kingdom of God. The parable tells us the Kingdom of God is ‘sown’ into the heart that is prepared to receive it! The Kingdom of God is the rule and reign of Jesus in our heart; the Kingdom of God most fundamentally is Jesus – the incarnate Word of God, planted in the human heart.
For this reason, the parable has its roots in the preaching of John the Baptist. Mark begins his gospel with these words about John from Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3: “Listen! I am sending my messenger ahead of you and he will prepare Your way! He (John) is a thunderous voice of one who shouts in the wilderness: “Prepare your hearts for the coming of the Lord, Yahweh, and clear a straight path inside your hearts for Him” (Mark 1: 2, 3 TPT). John was calling on people to prepare their hearts to receive the seed that the sower Jesus describes in the Parable of the Sower. The prophets of Israel will find their culmination in John the Baptist and the fulfillment of their prophesies in Jesus Christ, their Messiah.
How were they to prepare their hearts? Mark tells us, “John came, baptizing in the desert region (where the soil is dry and hard, with very little life) and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside went out to Him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River” (Mark 1: 4, 5 NIV).
Matthew also writes about John the Baptist, who prepared people to hear Jesus’ Kingdom message, “In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Matthew 3: 1, 2 NIV). This is how these verses are translated in The Passion Translation, “It was at this time that John the Baptizer began to preach in the desert of Judah. His message was this: “The realm of heaven’s Kingdom is about to appear – so you’d better keep turning away from evil and turn back to God!”. In other words, “prepare your hearts, get ready. You are not going to believe what is about to happen”.
John lived in the wilderness with clothing made from camel hair, with a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey. He had stripped down to bare necessities. His lifestyle was part of his message – ‘strip down’, ‘strip away’ create space in your hearts – change, live life in exactly the opposite way culture (then and now) invites you to.
John preached repentance – metanoia in Greek, coupled with confession. Metanoia or repentance means what we think it means, but it also – at least to those John was preaching to and later Jesus taught – meant much more. It also means to “expand or open (meta-) the eyes of your heart or the interior self (-noia)”.
After preaching, John baptized or immersed people in the Jordan. Immersion in that time symbolized “a total change, and something new coming forth. It symbolized being cleansed and prepared for this new life and new reality.”
John is preparing the way for Jesus, telling the people, “strip away those things that are binding you to the kingdom of the world, open the eyes of your heart, and make room in your heart for a new, divine reality that you will soon encounter”.
If John sang Christmas carols his favorite might be ‘Joy to the World’ – “Joy to the word, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King. Let every heart prepare Him room, and heaven and nature sing.”
John is preparing the people’s heart to hear the message of the Kingdom of God that Jesus will teach with the Parable of the Sower, and to receive the seed that Jesus will sow into them.
Jesus affirmed and connected with John’s message about the human heart and the coming Kingdom when a few verses later Mark writes, “After John was put in prison (his work completed), Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come, the Kingdom of God is near. Repent (metanoia) and believe the Good News!” (Mark 1: 14, 15 NIV). Jesus might have added, “The good news that I am about to share with those who will listen to Me”. What is the good news? The Kingdom of God has come near, because Jesus, the anointed Son of God, is on the scene.
Advent means ‘coming’ in Latin. Advent is the period of four Sundays before Christmas, a time when we prepare our hearts to receive Jesus or remember and give thanks for Christ being birthed in us. I want to use this time to strip away the fear, anxiety, anger, frustration, and disappointment I have lived with over the last year. I want Jesus to remake me in His image this Christmas season. I want to be reminded I have a powerful Savior, who is not just mine, but the Savior of the world. “Jesus, I want you to sow yourself into me in a new, fresh way; prepare me and make a straight path within my heart to receive You. No matter what happens in 2021, I am yours and I know You are mine.”
Merry Christmas,
John