This morning I read the parable of the sower from Mark 4:1-20. I’ve written before about this parable, specifically on the three things Jesus illuminates as those which “choke the word, making it unfruitful.” As I read this morning, though, I was struck by a simple thing: Jesus gives us a three-phase process of discipleship in this compact story.
Jesus describes the fourth soil, the one that produces the abundance harvest, as those people who “hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop.” Hearing, receiving, and producing are the three phases Jesus seems to be illuminating here. But there are all kinds of ways we can interrupt and abort this process. That’s what the other soils are showing us.
If we think back through the other soils, we’ll notice that each one aborts the process at some point along the way. The seed sown on the path doesn’t really even get to the hearing phase. The seed sown on rocky soil hears the word, but doesn’t properly receive it; they have no root, so when hardship comes, they fall away quickly like a plant wilting in the hot sun. The seed sown among thorns hears the word, receives it and so grows good roots, but the thorns around the plant make it unfruitful, interrupting the last phase of the process. They have heard and received, but aren’t producing fruit.
I don’t think it’s stretching the truth to say that most North American Christians are “third soil” people. They have truly heard and received the good news. They have grown some roots and don’t fall away when the going gets rough. They attend church services and small groups and try their best to bless and serve others, but at the end of the day they aren’t producing fruit. That is, there is no multiplication-factor to their lives. They aren’t making disciples and thus aren’t “producing a crop,” which is what a sown seed is called to do.
So what to do? Pull up the thorns that are choking the word. As I wrote in my previous post on this parable:
The implication is that you can be a Christian your whole life and never produce the kind of fruit you were made for if you don’t deal with the “thorns” Jesus mentions. All the potential to produce a massive harvest of fruit is there, inherent in the seed that has grown up into a plant. The “natural” thing for the plant to do is produce a crop thirty, sixty, or a hundred times what was sown, but it will not happen as long as the thorns are allowed to co-exist with the gospel plant.
In my previous post, I went into some detail about the thorns that Jesus outlines in this parable, so I won’t belabor them here. I just wanted to point out the three-phase process of discipleship I saw in the parable.
I’d love to hear from you on this:
Do you think that Jesus is laying out a discipleship process here? What are some ways that we abort or interrupt this process in our lives? In the lives of those we disciple?
I bet most times, if not every time, when Jesus was teaching he was teaching about the process of discipleship. I need to read scripture this way and how you've explained it here about this parable. Thanks for sharing this!
I agree that most Christians are in the "thrid soil" group not knowing how to produce fruit because all they've ever been taught is how to consume. Consumerism is the major barrier to producing fruit.
Great post, thanks.
Thanks for the comment, Ryan. I agree with you about consumerism. We are "discipled" into it from a very young age and it is a nefarious force that undermines discipleship.
Fantastic post; thanks. A real thought-provoker. I guess the way we remain 3rd soil people is by allowing the "worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things [to] come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful".
In our context, the "worries of this life" are about homes, saving for retirement, job security, giving the kids a fulfilling childhood and good education. The deceitfulness of wealth translates into a sense of 'making it', of security, of being our own masters. The desires for other things… well, is that about wanting to be friends with God and at home in the world too? Live the (American) dream…. and have the kingdom of God too!
But woe is me! I am not very fruitful. Too many attractive weeds. Come, Lord Jesus… save a wretch like me…
Great thoughts, Richard. I think that's exactly right: pull up the hindering weeds so God's kingdom can do what it does "naturally."
I can certainly appreciate this insight, Ben. And I think it is half the story, the other side of the coin. The important thing that always gets me is Yeshua's title for the parable, The Parable of the Sower. So, it's not a parable about the seed or the soil, per se, but about the Sower.
In which GOD is the Sower and Yeshua would be the seed sown, of course.
So although I do think there is this powerful and somewhat sublime 'process' of discipleship put forth – is it possible that we too often isolate this process away from seasons of life; do we separate them, should we separate them, how do they interact, etc.?
I guess it just gets a bit messier when it is revealed that the Seed has already been sown into the world – good and bad soil both. The soil itself can do nothing to make itself any better or worse. It's just soil. And, after all, the seed, in fact, springs up even in rocky soil, which should give us rocky soils hope. I don't know, I digress here I suppose.
But it is an interesting pairing that you present between pulling up the weeds, for example, and this idea of the soil not being the center or the primary subject of the story.
Anyways, always enjoy your thoughts and challenges, Ben!
Thanks for that counter-perspective, Justin. I do think it is true that Jesus is the one sown, being as he is "the Word." And while I don't think the three phases are necessarily central to Jesus' point, I do think he also gave us the parable to encourage us that our job as the Body of Christ is the same as His: to sow the word and look for a harvest, but not to get too worked up if only 25% of the people produce a crop!
Ben
You write…
“North American Christians are “third soil” people.” …
“They aren’t making disciples and thus aren’t “producing a crop”
Then you ask…
“Do you think that Jesus is laying out a discipleship process here?”
Maybe some of the reasons North American Christians are NOT producing a crop is
because of what so-called church leadership recognizes as a "disciple of Christ" and
how they teach them to make "disciples of Christ."
Don’t know if you ever checked or not – but…
“Discipleship” “Discipling” “Discipleship Training” are NOT found in the Bible.
Neither are the words “The Great Commission” or todays understanding of…
Mat 28:19:20 NKJV
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
**teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you**
Seems NOT many today – teach others to “observe” in them
those things that Jesus taught “His Disciples” to do.
Makes an interesting study – reading the red in the Bible.
And noting those things Jesus taught “His Disciples.”
IMO – Most teach – Commandments of men, Doctrines of men,
Philosophies of men, Precepts of men, Precepts of denominations, that become
“Traditions of men” which nullify “The Word of God.” Mark 7:13.
And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold:
them also I must bring, and they shall “hear My voice; “
and there shall be “ONE” fold, and “ONE” shepherd.
John 10:16
One Fold – One Shepherd – One Voice
{{{{{{ Jesus }}}}}}
I know that for many of the people I talk to, they don't really know how to make disciples because they themselves have never been "discipled." They haven't been led through the process of learning to obey everything Jesus said, so of course they don't know how to do that for others.
But there are bright spots emerging! Like the fourth soil that DID produce a crop, I am seeing more and more people become disciples of Jesus and starting to make disciples of Jesus.
Your comment reminds me that in order to make disciples we first must BE disciples. Thanks!