Scripture
16The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 17But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 18The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, 19but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced.
Mark 4:16-19
Observation
Jesus loved to tell stories that packed a spiritual punch! In one of his most famous parables He told a story about the seed, the sower, and the soil. He was speaking to an agrarian society who could all relate with the mixed results of planting season. What they had observed in the natural Jesus was now using to reveal a supernatural truth. The sower was God, the seed was The Good News of Jesus, and the soil was the souls of people and how they responded to God’s Word. The only souls that were able to receive the salvation promised were those who heard, accepted by faith, and lived out what they believed no matter what. All the other seeds never had an opportunity to find root and bare fruit. Why? Jesus makes it clear that spiritual warfare is one reason. The Devil is actively involved in stealing away the message from those who hear it. However, the next two soils describe scenarios that aren’t directly connected to demonic attack but rather the everyday reality of worry, anxiety, suffering, busyness and sin choking out the seed before the transformation could begin. Could it be that when we preach a Gospel that doesn’t include the reality of suffering for our faith or dying to our own desires that we are setting people up to fall away from their faith? There’s no rose colored glasses here in this parable. Life gets harder, not easier, when we set our hearts to follow Jesus. Instead of hiding this fact, Jesus makes it clear over and over again that to take up our Cross and follow Him is going to be the most painful and most rewarding way to live.
Application
This reminds me of an article I came across recently by Mark Manson titled “The Most Important Question Of Your Life”. Mark is not a Christian as evidenced by his three-time #1 New York Times bestselling book The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F.” Yet, I think he pinpoints a truth that when applied spiritually could explain why so many never see the fullness and fruitfulness of Christ's salvation in their lives. Bottom line… it costs too much! Manson posits that the most important question of our lives is “What is the pain that you want to sustain?” He goes on to explain, “Who you are is defined by the values you are willing to struggle for. People who enjoy the struggles of a gym are the ones who get in good shape. People who enjoy long work weeks and the politics of the corporate ladder are the ones who move up it. People who enjoy the stresses and uncertainty of the starving artist life are ultimately the ones who live it and make it. This is not a call for willpower or “grit.” This is not another admonition of “no pain, no gain.”This is the most simple and basic component of life: our struggles determine our successes. So, my friend, choose your struggles wisely.” How much do we really want to follow Jesus? How much do we really want to know Him? This is not about earning our salvation but walking out our salvation. Jesus wanted us with Him so he endured the worst possible suffering on The Cross. Will we let the problems, persecutions, distractions, world’s successes, and sins be what we settle for? Instead, will we choose to let that seed of faith find deep root as the soil of our soil is enriched through suffering and spiritual discipline? Our flesh will always try to find an easier way or a some other alternative to the Cross, but this is the path we’ve been called to walk. It turns out that the path of least resistance is not the Narrow Path that leads to fruitfulness through faithfulness. The Kingdom Values will only be realized in our lives when we stop living for self-preservation and start modeling our lives after the suffering servant Jesus Christ.
Prayer
Jesus, You are calling me to the upside down life. You are calling me to take up my cross and follow You. You are calling me to lay down my agenda, my rights, my comforts, and my plans to follow You. What You ask me to lay down is trash in comparison to the treasure of knowing You. Yet, I still try to do both. I want to follow You unless it hurts. I want to follow You unless it costs me too much. I want to walk in Your authority, see demons flee, see bodies healed, see captives set free… but not if it inconveniences my schedule, requires me to stop feeding my flesh, calls me to live according to Your Word, or brings someone else success at a cost to my own. How much do I really want to know You? I want to say with Paul, “I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!” Phil. 3:10-11
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