Mark 4 commentary

MARK 4 COMMENTARY
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
The Parable of the Sower
1 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The
crowd that gathered around him was so large
that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the
lake, while all the people were along the shore at
the water’s edge.
GILL, "And he began again to teach by the sea side,.... He went out of the
house where he was at Capernaum, the same day he had the above discourse with the
Scribes and Pharisees, and on which his mother and: brethren came to speak with
him; and from thence he went where he had been before, and taught the people;
namely, to the sea side, the shore of the sea of Galilee, or Tiberias:
and there was gathered unto him a great multitude; which followed him
from the house, and from other parts of the city, and perhaps from the adjacent
places:
so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; in the ship at sea, at some
little distance from the shore; the sea of Tiberias being rather a lake, and within land,
had no tide, and so was still and quiet:
and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land; stood on the land, all
along the sea shore; See Gill on Mat_13:1, Mat_13:2.
HENRY, "
The foregoing chapter began with Christ's entering into the synagogue (Mar_4:1);
this chapter begins with Christ's teaching again by the sea side. Thus he changed his
method, that if possible all might be reached and wrought upon. To gratify the nice
and more genteel sort of people that had seats, chief seats, in the synagogue, and did
not care for hearing a sermon any where else, he did not preach always by the sea
side, but, having liberty, went often into the synagogue, and taught there; yet, to
gratify the poor, the mob, that could not get room in the synagogue, he did not
always preach there, but began again to teach by the sea side, where they could
come within hearing. Thus are we debtors both to the wise and to the unwise, Rom_
1:14.
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Here seems to be a new convenience found out, which had not been used before,
though he had before preached by the sea side (Mar_2:13), and that was - his
standing in a ship, while his hearers stood upon the land; and that inland sea of
Tiberias having no tide, there was no ebbing and flowing of the waters to disturb
them. Methinks Christ's carrying his doctrine into a ship, and preaching it thence,
was a presage of his sending the gospel to the isles of the Gentiles, and the shipping
off of the kingdom of God (that rich cargo) from the Jewish nation, to be sent to a
people that would bring forth more of the fruits of it. Now observe here,
JAMIESON, "Mar_4:1-34. Parable of the sower - Reason for teaching in
parables - Parables of the seed growing we know not how, and of the mustard seed.
( = Mat_13:1-23, Mat_13:31, Mat_13:32; Luk_8:4-18).
And he began again to teach by the seaside: and there was gathered
unto him a great multitude — or, according to another well-supported reading,
“a mighty” or “immense multitude.”
so that he entered into a ship — rather, “the ship,” meaning the one
mentioned in Mar_3:9. (See on Mat_12:15).
and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the
land — crowded on the seashore to listen to Him. (See on Mat_13:1, Mat_13:2.)
COFFMAN, "Jesus took his message to the seashore and the open sky and
delivered the parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-9), explained it (Mark 4:10-20), and
gave a number of sentence sermons (Mark 4:21-25). He then gave the parable of
the seed growing secretly (Mark 4:26-29), and that of the mustard seed (Mark
4:30-34). The chapter is concluded by the narrative of his calming the great
storm (Mark 4:35-41).
And again he began to teach by the sea side and there is gathered unto him a
very great multitude, so that he entered into a boat, and sat in the sea; and all the
multitude were by the sea on the land. (Mark 4:1)
Jesus' innovative method of making a boat the pulpit in an auditorium of land
and sea must have been regarded by many of the religious class as sensationalism
and stunting; but, as Barclay said, "It would be well if his church was equally
wise and equally adventurous."[1]
A very great multitude ... is literally "a greatest multitude,"[2] stressing the
superlative size of the immense throng which attended the preaching of the
Master.
[1] William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press,
1956). p. 81.
[2] W. N. Clarke, Commentary on the Gospel of Mark (Valley F
PULPIT, "And again he began to teach by the seaside. This return to the seaside
is mentioned by St. Mark only. From this time our Lord's teaching began to be
more public. The room and the little courtyard no longer sufficed for the
multitudes that came to him. The Authorized Version says that "a great
multitude was gathered unto him." The Greek adjective, according to the most
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approved reading, is πλεῖστος the superlative of πολὺς, and should be rendered
"a very great" multitude. They bad probably been waiting for him in the
neighborhood of Capernaum. He entered into a boat—probably the boat
mentioned at Mark 3:9—and sat in the sea, i.e. in the boat afloat on the water, so
as to be relieved of the pressure of the vast multitude ( πλεῖστος ὄχλος) gathered
on the shore.
PULPIT, "Mark 4:1-20
Spiritual sowing.
It is a picturesque and memorable sight. Multitudes of people, of all classes and
from every part of the land, have assembled on the western shore of the Galilean
lake, where Jesus is daily occupied in teaching and in healing. To protect himself
from the pressure of the crowd, and the better to command his audience, Jesus
steps into a boat, and pushes off a few yards from the beach. There, with the fair
landscape before him, corn-fields covering the slopes, the birds of the air above,
winging their flight over the still waters,—the great Teacher addresses the
people. His language is figurative, drawn from the processes of nature and the
employments of husbandry, probably at the very moment apparent to his eye.
How natural that, at this moment and in this scene, our Lord should introduce a
new style of teaching, should enter upon a new phase of ministry! The parable,
as a vehicle for spiritual truth, had indeed been employed by Jewish teachers
and prophets; but it was our Lord himself who carried this style of spiritual
instruction to perfection.
I. THE sower. Every man, and especially every teacher, is a sower—intellectual,
moral, or both. Christ is emphatically the Sower. He was such in his ministry on
earth; in his death, when the corn of wheat fell into the ground and died, he was
both the Sower and the Seed; in the gospel dispensation he continues to be the
Divine Sower. His apostles and all his ministers have been sowing through the
long centuries, or rather he has been sowing by their hands. How wise, liberal,
diligent, unwearied, is Christ in this beneficent work!
II. THE SEED. This is the Word of God. All truth is spiritual seed; the truth
relating to God—his will and grace—is "the seed of the kingdom." Like the seed,
the gospel is comparatively small and insignificant; it has within it inherent
vitality, a living germ; it is seemingly thrown away and hidden; its nature is to
grow and to increase and multiply; it is tender and depends upon the treatment
it meets with whether it lives or dies.
III. THE sore. The human heart is adapted to receive and to cherish the spiritual
seed. But as on the surface of the earth some ground is fertile and some is barren,
some ground is adapted to one crop and other ground to a crop of different kind,
so it is in the spiritual husbandry. Whilst all hearts are created to receive the
heavenly seed, and only fulfill their end when they bear spiritual fruit, we cannot
but recognize the marvellous diversity of soil into which the gospel is deposited.
Yet we must not so interpret the parable as to countenance the doctrine of
fatalism.
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IV. THE sowing. Was the sower in the parable guided, in the manner and
measure of his sowing, by the likelihood or otherwise that the land would prove
fruitful? No; neither should the gospel sower reckon probabilities: his Master
did not. The sower should be liberal and indiscriminate, should "sow beside all
waters," should remember that he "knows not which shall prosper, this or that."
It is for him to do his work diligently and faithfully, and leave results to God; e.g.
the mother and the child, the teacher and the class, the master and the pupil or
apprentice, the preacher and the congregation, the author and the reader.
V. THE GROWTH. This is not universal; for, as the parable reminds us, it
comes to pass, both in the natural and the spiritual sowing, that in some cases the
seed disappears and comes to nought. Yet the redemption of Christ proclaimed,
and the grace of the Holy Spirit vouchsafed, co-operate oftentimes to most
blessed results, even as in nature seed and soil, showers and sunshine, produce a
vigorous growth.
VI. THE HARVEST. What is the end of sowing and tilling, of culture and toil? It
is fruit. And, in the spiritual kingdom, what is the aim and recompense of the
Divine and of all human sowers? It is fruit—of holiness, obedience, love, joy,
peace, eternal life. It shall not be wanting. "My word shall not return unto me
void;" "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy;" "They shall bring their sheaves
with them;" it may be "after many days." There is a harvest in time, and a
richer, riper harvest in eternity.
PRACTICAL LESSONS.
1. One of encouragement for all gospel sowers; they are doing the Master's work,
they are following the Master's example, they are assured of the Master's
support.
2. One of admonition to all to whom the Word is preached. Take heed what and
how you hear. The seed is heavenly; is the soil kindly, prepared, grateful,
fruitful?
BARCLAY 1-2, "TEACHING IN PARABLES (Mark 4:1-2)
4:1-2 Jesus began again to teach by the lakeside. A very great crowd collected to
hear him, so great that he had to go on board a boat and sit in it on the lake. The
whole crowd was on the land facing the lake. He began to teach them many
things in parables, and in his teaching he began to say to them, "Listen! Look!
The sower went out to sow."
In this section we see Jesus making a new departure. He was no longer teaching
in the synagogue; he was teaching by the lakeside. He had made the orthodox
approach to the people; now he had to take unusual methods.
We do well to note that Jesus was prepared to use new methods. He was willing
to take religious preaching and teaching out of its conventional setting in the
synagogue into the open air and among the crowds of ordinary men and women.
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John Wesley was for many years a faithful and orthodox servant of the Church
of England. Down in Bristol his friend George Whitefield was preaching to the
miners, to as many as twenty thousand of them at a time, in the open air; and his
hearers were being converted by the hundred. He sent for John Wesley. Wesley
said, "I love a commodious room, a soft cushion, a handsome pulpit." This whole
business of open air preaching rather offended him. He said himself, "I could
scarcely reconcile myself at first to this strange way--having been all my life (till
very lately) so tenacious of every point relating to decency and order, that I
should have thought the saving of souls almost a sin if it had not been done in a
church." But Wesley saw that field preaching won souls and said, "I cannot
argue against a matter of fact."
There must have been many amongst the orthodox Jews who regarded this new
departure as stunting and sensationalism; but Jesus was wise enough to know
when new methods were necessary and adventurous enough to use them. It
would be well if his church was equally wise and equally adventurous.
This new departure needed a new method; and the new method Jesus chose was
to speak to the people in parables. A parable is literally something thrown beside
something else; that is to say, it is basically a comparison. It is an earthly story
with a heavenly meaning. Something on earth is compared with something in
heaven, that the heavenly truth may be better grasped in light of the earthly
illustration. Why did Jesus choose this method? And why did it become so
characteristic of him that he is known forever as the master of the parable?
(i) First and foremost, Jesus chose the parabolic method simply to make people
listen. He was not now dealing with an assembly of people in a synagogue who
were more or less bound to remain there until the end of the service. He was
dealing with a crowd in the open air who were quite free to walk away at any
time. Therefore, the first essential was to interest them. Unless their interest was
aroused they would simply drift away. Sir Philip Sidney speaks of the poet's
secret: "With a tale forsooth he cometh unto you, with a tale that holdeth
children from play and old men from the chimney-corner." The surest way to
awaken men's interest is to tell them stories and Jesus knew that.
(ii) Further, when Jesus used the parabolic method he was using something with
which Jewish teachers and audiences were entirely familiar. There are parables
in the Old Testament of which the most famous is the story of the one ewe lamb
that Nathan told to David when he had treacherously eliminated Uriah and
taken possession of Bathsheba (2 Samuel 12:1-7). The Rabbis habitually used
parables in their teaching. It was said of Rabbi Meir that he spoke one-third in
legal decisions; one-third in exposition; and one-third in parables.
Here are two examples of Rabbinic parables. The first is the work of Rabbi
Judah the Prince (e. A.D. 190). Antoninus, the Roman Emperor, asked him how
there could be punishment in the world beyond, for since body and soul after
their separation could not have committed sin they could blame each other for
the sins committed upon earth. The Rabbi answered in a parable:
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A certain king had a beautiful garden in which was excellent
fruit; and over it he appointed two watchmen, one blind and one
lame. The lame man said to the blind man, "I see exquisite
fruit in the garden. Carry me thither that I may get it and we
will eat it together." The blind man consented and both ate of
the fruit. After some days the Lord of the garden came and
asked the watchmen concerning the fruit. Then the lame man
said, "As I have no legs I could not go to it, so it is not my
fault." And the blind man said, "I could not even see it so it
is not my fault." What did the Lord of the garden do? He made
the blind man carry the lame and thus passed judgment on them
both. So God will replace the souls in their bodies and will
punish both together for their sins.
When Rabbi Chiyya's son Abin died at the early age of twenty-eight, Rabbi Zera
delivered the funeral oration, which he put in the form of a parable:
A king had a vineyard for which he engaged many labourers,
one of whom was specially apt and skilful. What did the king
do? He took this labourer from his work, and walked through the
garden conversing with him. When the labourers came for their
hire in the evening the skilful labourer appeared among them
and received a full day's wages from the king. The other
labourers were very angry at this, and said, "We have toiled
the whole day, while this man has worked but two hours. Why
does the king give him the full hire even as unto us?" The king
said to them, "Why are you angry? Through his skill he has done
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more in the two hours than you have done all day." So it is
with Rabbi Abin ben Chiyya. In the twenty-eight years of his
life he has learned more than others learn in a hundred years.
Hence he has fulfilled his life work, and is entitled to be
called to Paradise earlier than others from his work on earth;
nor will he miss aught of his reward.
When Jesus used the parabolic method of teaching, he was using a method with
which the Jews were familiar and which they could understand.
(iii) Still further, when Jesus used the parabolic method of teaching he was
making the abstract idea concrete. Few people can grasp abstract ideas. Most
people think in pictures. We could talk about beauty for long enough and no one
would be any the wiser; but, if we can point to a person and say, "That is a
beautiful person," beauty becomes clear. We could talk about goodness for long
enough and fail to arrive at a definition of it; but every one recognizes a good
deed when he sees one. There is a sense in which every word must become flesh;
every idea must be actualized in a person. When the New Testament talks about
faith it takes the example of Abraham so that the idea of faith becomes flesh in
the person of Abraham. Jesus was a wise teacher. He knew that it was useless to
expect simple minds to cope with abstract ideas; and so he put the abstract ideas
into concrete stories; he showed them in action; he made them into persons, so
that men might grasp and understand them.
(iv) Lastly, the great virtue of the parable is that it compels a man to think for
himself. It does not do his thinking for him. It compels him to make his own
deduction and to discover the truth for himself. The worst way to help a child is
to do his work for him. It does not help him at all to do his sums, write his essay,
work out his problems, compose his Latin prose. It does help greatly to give him
the necessary help to do it for himself. That is what Jesus was aiming at. Truth
has always a double impact when it is a personal discovery. Jesus did not wish to
save men the mental sweat of thinking; he wished to make them think. He did
not wish to make their minds lazy; he wished to make them active. He did not
wish to take the responsibility from them; he wished to lay the responsibility on
them. So he used the parabolic method, not to do men's thinking for them, but to
encourage them to do their own thinking. He presented them with truth which, if
they would make the right effort in the right frame of mind, they could discover
for themselves, and therefore possess it in a way that made it really and truly
theirs.
PULPIT, "Mark 4:1
Divine teaching from the fisherman's boat.
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Matthew gives us, in the thirteenth chapter of his Gospel, a series of seven
parables, which correspond with the three which Mark records here. They all
illustrate the nature and the progress of the kingdom of God which Christ sought
to establish. The parable of the sower describes the founding of the kingdom,
and the various difficulties with which it would meet; the parable of the seed
growing secretly teaches us that its progress would be natural, unostentatious,
and certain; while the parable of the mustard seed declares that in its final
consummation it would have wide-reaching influence. The second of these is
peculiar to Mark. We propose to consider, not the parables themselves, but the
circumstances under which they were uttered, which also suggest and illustrate
truths concerning the kingdom. Our Lord's teaching from the fisherman's boat
suggests the following thoughts:—
I. THAT HOSTILITY MAY CHANGE OUR METHOD, BUT MUST NOT BE
ALLOWED TO PREVENT OUR WORK. The Pharisees had become openly
antagonistic to our Lord. Their spies followed him everywhere. Their
controversial champions argued with him and misrepresented him in the
synagogues. This hostility drove the Lord from the sanctuaries of his people. He
would not suffer his Father's house to be desecrated by such tactics. Accordingly,
he no longer, as a rule, was found in the synagogues, but in the fields and streets,
in the homes of the people, or in the fishing-boats that rocked on the Sea of
Galilee. He thus acted on the principle he laid down for his disciples when he
said to them, "If they persecute you in one city, flee to another." And that
principle still holds good, and may have the widest application. St. Paul acted on
it when he adapted himself, under varying circumstances, to the conditions of his
hearers. If he addressed the people of Lystra, he did not argue from the Old
Testament, of which they knew nothing, but pointed to the mountains and fields,
and spoke of the God who gave them "fruitful seasons." If he was surrounded by
Athenians in their beautiful city, he referred to the temples which crowned the
Acropolis, and to the statues which adorned the Agora. If he was in the
synagogue at Antioch, in Pisidia, he argued from the sacred Scriptures, the
authority of which his hearers acknowledged. He became "all things to all men,
if by any means he might win some;" and in this he followed in the footsteps of
the great Teacher, who, when refused a fair hearing in the synagogue, preached
beside the open sea. Thus, with the utmost flexibility and freedom, Christian
workers should alter their methods to meet the changing circumstances in which
they find themselves; never for a moment losing sight of the object they have set
before themselves, but seeking to attain that by the most suitable means. This
may be applied to those who preach or teach, whether amongst the sceptical or
the indifferent, among the children or the cultured.
II. THAT THERE IS NO PLACE WHERE GOD'S WORK MAY NOT BE
DONE. The change in method, indicated by the text, did not trouble our Lord as
it would have troubled any one to whom place and mode seem everything in
worship. All the earth was holy in his eyes. The heavenly Father was near him
everywhere. The rippling of the sea or the rustling of the corn would be more
grateful to him than the murmured repetitions of formal prayers by the
mechanical and unspiritual worshippers in the synagogue. Apart from
persecution, he would often have chosen, from preference, such a sphere of work
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as this, as indeed he did when he preached the sermon on the mount. Read his
teaching to the woman of Samaria (John 4:20, John 4:21), and see how
acceptable to God is spiritual worship wherever it may be offered. Study the
parable that immediately follows our text, and you will notice that the sower
threw out his seed broadcast upon all kinds of soil. Our Lord would preach in a
Pharisee's house, or on a mountain, or from a boat, as readily as in a synagogue
or in the temple; for "Holiness to the Lord" (Zechariah 14:20) was written
everywhere, and he accounted "nothing common or unclean" (Acts 10:15). Too
often Christian workers select their little sphere for service, and strictly confine
themselves to it, contented that multitudes should be left untouched who might
easily be brought under their influence. The true sower is willing to scatter his
seed broadcast.
III. THAT THE MODE OF OUR LORD'S TEACHING MADE HIS
UTTERANCES MORE WIDELY ACCEPTABLE. This was not only true of his
own day, but of ours. Publicans, lepers, and outcasts, excluded from the
synagogue, could hear him on the beach; and all "the common people heard him
gladly," for he spake "as one having authority, and not as the scribes." It is well
for us also that it was so. There is wonderfully little local colouring about his
words; a marvellous freedom from such theological technicalities as the rabbis
were wont to use; and his teaching, therefore, comes home to us as it never would
have done if couched in the phraseology currently used for the interpretation of
the Law. His utterances are fragrant with the fresh air, and they ring with a
pleasant freedom, for which we cannot be too thankful; for what might have
been Jewish is human, and the words of him who called himself, not "the Son of
David," but the "Son of man," are so simple and natural, that there is not a
fisherman on our coasts, not a merchant in our streets, not a housewife in our
homes, not a sower in our fields, who may not know something of the meaning
and beauty of the doctrine of the great Teacher who has come from God.
IV. THAT OUR LORD'S POSITION IN THE FISHING-BOAT IS A SIGN OF
THE TRANSIENT NATURE OF ABUSED PRIVILEGES. Christ in the boat
has often been regarded as an emblem of Christ in his Church. From both he
preaches to the world. The Church, in comparison with the world it seeks to
influence, is small, as the boat with the few in it was small compared with the
crowds listening upon the beach; and her comparative poverty may be
represented by that fisherman's barque, which had about it, we may be sure, no
costly adornment. But small and poor as the Church may seem, and the Christ
who is in it, she is free as the Master was, who could in a moment leave those
who were hostile or unreceptive, and pass over to the other side (Luke 8:37).
There are yet to be found amongst us the impenitent and foolhardy, to whom he
will have to say, "Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my
hand, and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would
none of my reproof: I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your
fear cometh.'—A.R.
LIGHTFOOT, "[He began to teach.] That is, he taught; by a phrase very usual
to these holy writers, because very usual to the nation: Rabh Canah began to be
tedious in his prayer; that is, he was tedious. That scholar began to weep; that is
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he wept. "The ox began to low"; that is, he lowed. "When the tyrant's letter was
brought to the Rabbins, they began to weep"; that is, they wept.
This our evangelist useth also another word, and that numberless times almost:
the others also use it, but not so frequently; namely, the word presently; which
answereth to the word out of hand, most common among the Talmudists. We
meet with it in this our evangelist seven or eight times in the first chapter, and
elsewhere very frequently: and that not seldom according to the custom of the
idiom, more than out of the necessity of the thing signified
BI, "And He began again to teach by the seaside.
Christ teaching
I. The place where Christ taught.
1. By the seaside. Opposed to a prevailing notion. This example at present
imitated.
2. In a ship. The spread of the gospel prefigured.
II. Those who formed His audience.
1. The general crowd.
2. The apostles and disciples.
III. The manner in which Christ taught.
1. He taught the multitudes in parables. Remarkable for simplicity when
understood. Very apt and likely to be misunderstood.
2. He explained His parables to His disciples, but this was accompanied by
reproof.
IV. The reason He taught the multitude in parables.
1. As a fulfilment of prophecy (Psa_78:2; Mat_13:34-35).
2. In consequence of the moral state of the Jewish nation (Isa_6:9-10; Mat_
13:14-15, and elsewhere).
3. Originally, and as quoted, describes a particular moral state, in which-The
Word is not understood, not felt, does not convert, is not heard. This state is
ascribed to themselves, to the prophet, to God (Mat_13:14-15; Isa_6:9-10; Joh_
12:40). Learn: That the ungodly see and hear without understanding; that in
order that a people be left in darkness, it is not necessary that the gospel be
removed; that when a faithful ministry is sent to a people, it is not always for
their conversion; that the means of converting are also the means of hardening.
V. The reason Christ taught His disciples more directly.
1. A knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom was a gift to them.
2. Instruction was the mode of conveying it. (Expository Discourses.)
By parables.
The use and abuse of allegorical instruction
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Lay down some rules to assist in the interpretation of parables.
1. The first and principal one I shall mention is, the carefully attending to the
occasion of them. No one, for instance, can be at a loss to explain the parable of
the prodigal son, who considers that our Lord had been discoursing with
publicans and sinners, and that the proud and self-righteous Pharisees had taken
offence at His conduct. With this key we are let into the true secret of this
beautiful parable, and cannot mistake in our comment upon it. Understanding
thus from the occasion of the parable what is the grand truth or duty meant to be
inculcated.
2. Our attention should be steadily fixed to that object. If we suffer ourselves to
be diverted from it by dwelling too minutely upon the circumstances of the
parable, the end proposed by Him who spake it will be defeated, and the whole
involved in obscurity. For it is much the same here as in considering a fine
painting; a comprehensive view of the whole will have a happy and striking effect,
but that effect will not be felt if the eye is held to detached parts of the picture
without regarding the relation they bear to the rest. Were a man to spend a whole
hour on the circumstances of the ring and the robe in the parable just referred to,
or on the two mites in that of the good Samaritan, it is highly probable both he
and his hearers by the time they got to the close of the discourse, would lose all
idea of our Saviour’s more immediate intent in both those instructive parables.
3. That great caution should be observed in our reasoning from the parables to
the peculiar doctrines of Christianity.
(1) An intemperate use of figures tends to sensualise the mind and deprave
the taste. Sensible objects engross the attention of mankind, and have an
undue influence on their appetites and passions. They walk by sight, not by
faith.
(2) The misapplication of figures, whereby false ideas are given the hearer of
the things they are made to stand for. It is easy to conceive how men’s notions
of the other world, invisible spirits, and the blessed God Himself, may in this
way be perverted. A licentious imagination has given rise to tenets the most
absurd and impious. To this the idolatry of the pagan world may be traced up
as its proper source (Rom_1:21-28).
(3) The reasoning injudiciously from types and figures, begets a kind of faith
that is precarious and ineffectual. We have clear and positive proofs of the
facts the gospel relates, and the important doctrines that are founded
thereon. But if, instead of examining these proofs to the bottom, and
reasoning with men upon them, we content ourselves with mere analogical
evidence, and rest the issue of the question in debate upon fanciful and
imaginary grounds, our faith will be continually wavering, and produce no
substantial and abiding fruits. An enthusiast, struck with appearances,
instantly yields his assent to a proposition, without considering at all the
evidence. But as soon as his passions cool, and the false glare upon his
imagination subsides, his faith dies away, and the fruit expected from it
proves utterly abortive. (S. Stennett, D. D.)
2 He taught them many things by parables, and
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in his teaching said:
CLARKE, "He taught them many things by parables - See every part of this
parable of the sower explained on Mat_13:1 (note), etc.
GILL, "And he taught them many things by parables,.... As he sat in the ship,
and they stood on shore;
and said unto them in his doctrine; as he was teaching them, and delivering
unto them the doctrine he had received from his Father: though the Jews say (c), that
"the Israelites will have no need ‫משיח‬ ‫מלך‬ ‫של‬ ‫,לתלמודו‬ "of the doctrine of the king
Messiah, in the time to come"; because it is said, "unto him shall the Gentiles seek",
and not the Israelites.''
But it appears from hence, and many other places, that the Israelites both stood in
need of his doctrine, and sought after it; and very excellent it was; the doctrine of
God, and of the grace of God; and was spoken with authority, and in such a manner
as never man spake, and which he delivered to his apostles; and which, if ministers
bring not with them, should not be bid God speed.
HENRY, "I. The way of teaching that Christ used with the multitude (Mar_4:2);
He taught them many things, but it was by parables or similitudes, which would
tempt them to hear; for people love to be spoken to in their own language, and
careless hearers will catch at a plain comparison borrowed from common things, and
will retain and repeat that, when they have lost, or perhaps never took, the truth
which it was designed to explain and illustrate: but unless they would take pains to
search into it, it would but amuse them; seeing they would see, and not perceive
(Mar_4:12); and so, while it gratified their curiosity, it was the punishment of their
stupidity; they wilfully shut their eyes against the light, and therefore justly did
Christ put it into the dark lantern of a parable, which had a bright side toward those
who applied it to themselves, and were willing to be guided by it; but to those who
were only willing for a season to play with it, it only gave a flash of light now and
then, but sent them away in the dark. It is just with God to say of those that will not
see, that they shall not see, and to hide from their eyes, who only look about them
with a great deal of carelessness, and never look before them with any concern upon
the things that belong to their peace.
JAMIESON, "And he taught them many things by parables, and said
unto them in his doctrine — or “teaching.”
COFFMAN, "Practically all of this chapter deals with parables. The Hebrews
had but a single word for several English words, including both PARABLE and
PROVERB. "A parable is a truth presented by a similitude, being of necessity
figurative"; but a proverb may be "figurative, but not necessarily."[3] The
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reason for Jesus' resort to the method of teaching by parables is complex: (1) He
did so in order to fulfill prophecy. (2) He did so to confound the spies of the
Pharisees. (3) He thus challenged his disciples to greater spiritual discernment.
(4) The Hebrew people were familiar with that method. (5) It made his teachings
easier to remember. (6) The parables were interesting in the highest degree. (7)
They contained the dynamic teaching of Jesus in language which was unsuitable
to the court-charges the Pharisees were anxious to make against him. In short,
he, by this method, taught those who wished to know the truth and confounded
those who sought to oppose him. In the literature of all the world, there is
nothing to compare with the parables of Jesus.
ENDNOTE:
[3] E. Bickersteth. The Pulpit Commentary (Grand Rapids: William B.
Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1962), Vol. 16, p. 156.
PULPIT, "He taught them many things in parables. This was a new system of
teaching. For some months he had taught directly. But as he found that this
direct teaching was met in some quarters with unbelief and scorn, he abandoned
it for the less direct method of the parable. The parable ( παραβολή) is
etymologically the setting forth of one thing by the side of another, so that the
one may be compared with the other. The parable is the truth presented by a
similitude. It differs from the proverb inasmuch as it is necessarily figurative.
The proverb may be figurative, but it need not of necessity be figurative. The
parable is often an expanded proverb, and the proverb a condensed parable.
There is but one Hebrew word for the two English words "parable" and
"proverb," which may account for their being frequently interchanged. The
proverb (Latin) is a common sentiment generally accepted. The parable (Greek)
is something put by the side of something else. Theologically, it is something in
the world of nature which finds its counterpart in the world of spirit. The
parable attracts attention, and so becomes valuable as a test of character. It
reveals the seekers after truth, those who love the light. It withdraws the light
from those who love darkness. And said unto them in his doctrine ( ἐν τῇ διδαχῇ
αὐτοῦ); literally, in his teaching, namely, that particular mode of teaching which
he bad just introduced; "he taught them" ( ἐδίδασκεν). He said, "in his
teaching" ( ἐν τῇ διδαχῇ αὐτοῦ).
3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.
GILL, "Hearken, behold, there went out a sower to sow. By whom is meant
Jesus Christ, who came forth from God as a teacher, and went out into the land of
Judea to preach the Gospel, which is sowing spiritual things among men; and this
may be also applicable to any faithful minister of the word.
HENRY, "II. The way of expounding that he used with his disciples; When he
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was alone by himself, not only the twelve, but others that were about him with the
twelve, took the opportunity to ask him the meaning of the parables, Mar_4:10. They
found it good to be about Christ; the nearer him the better; good to be with the
twelve, to be conversant with those that are intimate with him. And he told them
what a distinguishing favour it was to them, that they were made acquainted with the
mystery of the kingdom of God, Mar_4:11. The secret of the Lord was with them.
That instructed them, which others were only amused with, and they were made to
increase in knowledge by every parable, and understood more of the way and method
in which Christ designed to set up his kingdom in the world, while others were
dismissed, never the wiser. Note, Those who know the mystery of the kingdom of
heaven, must acknowledge that it is given to them; they receive both the light and
the sight from Jesus Christ, who, after his resurrection, both opened the scriptures,
and opened the understanding, Luk_24:27, Luk_24:45.
In particular, we have here,
1. The parable of the sower, as we had it, Mat_13:3, etc. He begins (Mar_4:3), with,
Hearken, and concludes (Mar_4:9) with, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Note, The words of Christ demand attention, and those who speak from him, may
command it, and should stir it up; even that which as yet we do not thoroughly
understand, or not rightly, we must carefully attend to, believing it to be both
intelligible and weighty, that at length we may understand it; we shall find more in
Christ's sayings than at first there seemed to be.
2. The exposition of it to the disciples. Here is a question Christ put to them before
he expounded it, which we had not in Matthew (Mar_4:13); “Know ye not this
parable? Know ye not the meaning of it? How then will ye know all parables?” (1.)
“If ye know not this, which is so plain, how will ye understand other parables, which
will be more dark and obscure? If ye are gravelled and run aground with this, which
bespeaks so plainly the different success of the word preached upon those that hear
it, which ye yourselves may see easily, how will ye understand the parables which
hereafter will speak of the rejection of the Jews, and the calling of the Gentiles, which
is a thing ye have no idea of?” Note, This should quicken us both to prayer and pains
that we may get knowledge, that there are a great many things which we are
concerned to know; and if we understand not the plain truths of the gospel, how shall
we master those that are more difficult? Vita brevis, ars longa - Life is short, art is
long. If we have run with the footmen, and they have wearied us, and run us down,
then how shall we contend with horses? Jer_12:5. (2.) “If ye know not this, which is
intended for your direction in hearing the word, that ye may profit by it; how shall ye
profit by what ye are further to hear? This parable is to teach you to be attentive to
the word, and affected with it, that you may understand it. If ye receive not this, ye
will not know how to use the key by which ye must be let into all the rest.” If we
understand not the rules we are to observe in order to our profiting by the word, how
shall we profit by any other rule? Observe, Before Christ expounds the parable, [1.]
He shows them how sad their case was, who were not let into the meaning of the
doctrine of Christ; To you it is given, but not to them. Note, It will help us to put a
value upon the privileges we enjoy as disciples of Christ, to consider the deplorable
state of those who want such privileges, especially that they are out of the ordinary
way of conversion; lest they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven
them. Mar_4:12. Those only who are converted, have their sins forgiven them: and it
is the misery of unconverted souls, that they lie under unpardoned guilt. [2.] He
shows them what a shame it was, that they needed such particular explanations of
the word they heard, and did not apprehend it at first. Those that would improve in
knowledge, must be made sensible of their ignorance.
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JAMIESON, "Mar_4:3-9, Mar_4:13-20. Parable of the Sower.
Mar_4:3, Mar_4:14. The sower, the seed, and the soil.
Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow — What means this? See
on Mar_4:14.
SBC, "Waste.
The sower went out to sow, and, as he sowed, there was a great waste. Much precious
seed fell, to his right hand and to his left, on ground unprepared to receive it. Ground
hard as the nether millstone was one part of the surface on which the germ of food
and life fell. It lay there for a few moments, more or less, but it sank not in, it found
no receptive, no digestive, no assimilating power in the earth on which it lighted; it
was caught away and devoured, and the act of sowing was all that it ever knew of a
harvest.
I. The text teaches us to regard waste of all kinds as a great fault and sin. Wasted
food, wasted money, wasted health, wasted time, wasted opportunities of doing and
receiving good, these, in their several ways, are all sins against God and our own
souls.
II. Observe that, sinful as waste of any kind is in us, there is in nature, in providence,
in the spiritual world, a constant waste going on, suggesting much of anxious and
painful wonder. In nature, might we not almost say that for one thing used, ten are
wasted? for every seed brought to maturity in plant or tree, ten perish and are
defeated? for every human body preserved through the accidents and risks of life to
complete its term of earthly existence, ten fall prematurely into disease and decay,
and are abruptly cut off from that amount of enjoyment and of usefulness which
might seem, theoretically at least, to be the birthright and inheritance of all into
whose nostrils has once been breathed the creative breath of life? Would we could
stop here! would that we could ascribe only to that part of God’s operations which we
call nature, or at the utmost to that part of God’s operations which we call
providence, the manifestation of that principle of which we are speaking. But in the
spiritual world also—it is the saddest sight of all—we seem to see it in its fullest
development. How much of truth—precious life-giving truth—have we trifled away in
our short lifetimes! Let us awake to a better appreciation of the gift of the Word of
life, that we may at last hear unto profiting, and believe to the saving of our souls.
C. J. Vaughan, Memorials of Harrow Sundays, p. 304.
PULPIT, "Mark 4:3-8
Hearken ( ακούετε). This word is introduced in St. Mark's narrative only; and it
is very suitable to the warning at verse 9, "he hath ears to hear, let him hear. The
sower went forth to sow. The scope of this beautiful parable is this: Christ
teaches us that he is the Sower, that is, the great Preacher of the gospel among
men.
1. But not all who hear the gospel believe it and receive it; just as some of the
seed sown fell by the wayside, on the hard footpath, where it could not penetrate
the ground, but lay upon the surface, and so was picked up by the birds.
2. Again, not all who hear and believe persevere in the faith; some fall away; like
the seed sown on rocky ground, which springs up indeed, but for want of depth
15

of soil puts forth no root, and is soon scorched by the rising sun, and, being
without root, withers away.
3. But further, not all who show faith bring forth the fruit of good works; like
the seed sown among the thorns, which, growing up together with it, choked it
( συνέπνιξαν αὐτὸ); such is the meaning. St. Luke has the words ( συμφυεῖσαι αἱ
ἄκανθαι ἀπέπνιξαν), "the thorns grew up with it and choked it."
4. But, lastly, there are those who receive the gospel in the love of it, and bring
forth fruit, not, however, in equal measures, but some thirtyfold, some sixty,
some a hundred; and this on account of the greater influences of grace, or on
account of the more ready co-operation of the free-will of man with the sovereign
grace of God. The whole parable marks a gradation. In the first case the seed
produces nothing; in the second it produces only the blade; in the third it is near
the point of producing fruit, but fails to bring forth to perfection; in the fourth it
yields fruit, but in different measures.
COFFMAN, "THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER
The interpretation of the various things of this great parable will be undertaken
in connection with the Saviour's own explanation of it, beginning in Mark 4:14.
Hearken ... and Let him hear ... are, in a sense, the Lord's own double
exclamation points bracketing the parable first and last, and thus indicating its
very great importance.
Seeds ... (in Mark 4:8), being plural, and thus contrasting with "some" and
"other" seed mentioned in Mark 4:4 and Mark 4:7, is important, according to
Cranfield,[4] who saw in this an indication of a great harvest, the size of the
harvest, in his view, being the great message of the parable.
A fact of great significance is that Jesus our Lord saw in the entire world around
him the analogies between earthly and heavenly things. His mightiest teachings
were related to a farmer planting wheat, fishermen casting nets, the lamp, the
bed, the bushel, the candlestick, the hen and little chickens, the yoke, pruning
grape vines, patching old clothes, making bread, a son leaving home, a merchant
seeking pearls, a shepherd finding the lost sheep, searching for a lost coin,
lighting a lamp, sweeping the house, etc. "Earthly things must remind us of
heavenly. We must translate the book of nature into the book of grace."[5]
A proper understanding of this parable depends upon a knowledge of the
method of sowing grain which was used in Jesus' times, and which may still be
observed in the world today. The sower put a bag full of grain on his shoulder,
having first prepared his field; and then he strode forth scattering the seeds with
his hands, fanning them out in an arc before him as he walked. Naturally, such a
sowing is a jubilee for the birds. Also, any seeds falling upon a pathway, or into
thorn-infested ground, were unproductive. However, the farmer mentioned by
Jesus made a good crop.
16

[4] C. E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel according to St. Mark (Cambridge: The
University Press, 1966), p. 150.
[5] Thomas Taylor, On the Parable of the Sower, 1634.
BARCLAY, "FROM EARTH TO HEAVEN (Mark 4:3-9)
4:3-9 "Listen! Look! The sower went out to sow. As he was sowing, some seed fell
along the roadside; and the birds came and devoured it. Some fell upon rocky
ground where it did not have much earth; and it sprang up immediately, because
it had no depth of earth, but, when the sun rose, it was scorched, and it was
withered away, because it had no root. Some fell among thorns; and the thorns
crowded in on it until they choked the life out of it, and it did not yield any fruit.
And some fen on good ground; and, as it grew up and grew greater, it yielded
fruit and bore as much as thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold." And he
said, "Who has ears to hear, let him hear."
We leave the interpretation of this parable until we come to the interpretation
Mark gives us, and for the moment we consider it only as a specimen of Jesus'
parabolic teaching in action. The scene is the lakeside; Jesus is sitting in the boat
just off the shore. The shore shelves gently down to the water's edge, and makes
a natural amphitheatre for the crowd. Even as he talks Jesus sees a sower busy
sowing seed in the fields beside the lake. "Look!" he said, "The sower went out
to sow." Herein is the whole essence of the parabolic method.
(i) Jesus started from the here and now to get to the there and then. He started
from a thing that was happening at that moment on earth in order to lead men's
thoughts to heaven; he started from something which all men could see to get to
the things that are invisible; he started from something which all men knew to
get to something which they had never as yet realized. That was the very essence
of Jesus' teaching. He did not bewilder men by starting with things which were
strange and abstruse and involved; he started with the simplest things that even
a child could understand.
(ii) By so doing Jesus showed that he believed that there was a real kinship
between earth and heaven. Jesus would not have agreed that "earth was a desert
drear." He believed that in the ordinary, common, everyday things of life men
could see God. As William Temple put it: "Jesus taught men to see the operation
of God in the regular and the normal--in the rising of the sun and the falling of
the rain and the growth of the plant." Long ago Paul had the same idea when he
said that the visible world is designed to make known the invisible things of God
(Romans 1:20). For Jesus this world was not a lost and evil place; it was the
garment of the living God. Sir Christopher Wren lies buried in St. Paul's
Cathedral, the great church that his own genius planned and built. On his
tombstone there is a simple Latin inscription which means, "If you wish to see
his monument, look around you." Jesus would have said, "If you wish to see
God, look around you." Jesus finds in the common things of life a countless
source of signs which lead men to God if they will only read them aright.
(iii) The very essence of the parables is that they were spontaneous, extempore
17

and unrehearsed. Jesus looks round, seeking a point of contact with the crowd.
He sees the sower and on the spur of the moment that sower becomes his text.
The parables were not stories wrought out in the quiet of a study; they were not
carefully thought out and polished and rehearsed. Their supreme greatness is
that Jesus composed these immortal short stories on the spur of the moment.
They were produced by the demand of the occasion and in the cut and thrust of
debate.
C. J. Cadoux said of the parables: "A parable is art harnessed for service and
conflict.... Here we find the reason why the parable is so rare. It requires a
considerable degree of art, but art exercised under hard conditions. In the three
typical parables of the Bible the speaker takes his life in his hands. Jotham
( 9:8-15) spoke his parable of the trees to the men of Shechem and then fled for
his life. Nathan (2 Samuel 12:1-7), with the parable of the ewe-lamb, told an
oriental despot of his sin. Jesus in the Parable of the Wicked Husbandmen used
his own death sentence as a weapon for his cause.... In its most characteristic use
the parable is a weapon of controversy, not shaped like a sonnet in undisturbed
concentration but improvised in conflict to meet the unpremeditated situation. In
its highest use it shows the sensitiveness of the poet, the penetration, rapidity and
resourcefulness of the protagonist, and the courage that allows such a mind to
work unimpeded by the turmoil and danger of mortal conflict."
When we bear in mind that the parables of Jesus were flashed out extempore,
their wonder is increased a hundredfold.
(iv) That brings us to a point we must always remember in our attempts to
interpret the parables. They were, in the first instance, not meant to be read but
to be heard. That is to say, in the first instance, no one could sit down and study
them phrase by phrase and word by word. They were spoken not to be studied at
length and at leisure, but to produce an immediate impression and reaction. That
is to say, the parables must never be treated as allegories. In an allegory every
part and action and detail of the story has an inner significance. The Pilgrim's
Progress and the Faerie Queene are allegories; in them every event and person
and detail has a symbolic meaning. Clearly an allegory is something to be read
and studied and examined; but a parable is something which was heard once and
once only. Therefore what we must look for in a parable is not a situation in
which every detail stands for something but a situation in which one great idea
leaps out and shines like a flash of lightning. It is always wrong to attempt to
make every detail of a parable mean something. It is always right to say: "What
one idea would flash into a man's mind when he heard this story for the first
time?"
BI, "Hearken; behold, there went out a sower to sow.
Parable of the sower
This parable is both a solemn lesson and warning, and also a description of what is
actually taking place in the world. There are calls to lead a holy life perpetually going
on; there are either sudden rejections or gradual forgettings of those calls. Such calls
may differ in degree, and strength, and strikingness of the impression, but they are
18

all calls; a truth is distinctly embraced by the mind of the person at the time: he sees
that something is true which he had not realized to be true before, and had only held
in word. That person can never afterwards say he did not know or was not made fully
aware of Christian truth; or that it was always brought before him in such a way that
he could not recognize it. He has been made to see it, and to recognize it. The point
with which this parable deals is the various kinds of treatment accorded by different
people to these calls. Let us look at the several classes.
I. The unscrupulous. By a bold, proud, sometimes even sudden and impulsive act of
sin, they cast out of their hearts something which incommodes and annoys them, and
threatens to interfere with their plan of enjoyment. These are they who have made up
their minds to get on in life, and they refuse to let anything interfere with the
realization of this desire. Judas. Ananias and Sapphira. I do not say that a man may
not recover spiritually after having inflicted such a blow upon himself, but it is a
dreadful act, which provokes the righteous justice of God, and that worst of
punishments, a hardened heart.
II. The light-minded and careless. These could receive the Word, because that merely
implies the capacity of being acted upon by solemn and powerful representations of
the truth; which they might be, lust as they might be impressed by some striking
scene or incident. But, being without energy of their own to take hold of the Word
and extract its powers, they soon fall away. To begin a thing, and to go on with it, are
two totally different affairs. The commencement is in its own nature something fresh;
but to go on with an undertaking is to do things over and over again, when all the
freshness has disappeared, and no incentive remains but the sense of duty. This is
the true test, and under it how many fail! Upon how many do we count for
continuing their profession under different circumstances? Is there not a regular
expectation formed in us, when we estimate the manifestations which men make,
that they will not last; that they have their time, like the seasons or periods of
weather, and that they will end as naturally as they have begun? Can there be a
greater contrast to the abiding faithfulness of the gospel pattern?
III. The worldly. These are not light-minded men altogether; they are serious as
regards this world, calculating, exercising forecast, attentive, persevering; but it is
solely in relation to this world that they maintain this gravity and seriousness. They
do not give a place in their thoughts to another world. What a common mistake with
regard to religion this is! Our Lord says, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon;” and
yet it would almost appear as if one-half of mankind had determined to prove Him a
liar, and to show that that is possible which He declared was not. Each one thinks
that in his own particular case there will be a complete agreement in these two great
aims and undertakings, the earthly and the spiritual; that others may have missed
this union, but that they will fix upon it. They enter upon their course in life with a
swing. Feeling no hesitation about themselves, they plunge into the thick of the
struggle for the world’s possessions, they are carried away with the ardour of the
pursuit, and they do not imagine at all that they are injuring or suppressing the
religious principle in them. They think that can maintain itself, and therefore they
never think of looking after it, to see how it is faring. And so the stream carries them
along, being interested in the objects of the world, content with supposition and
doing nothing about religion; until that which has thriven by practice has completely
driven out the principle which has had no exercise, and the result is a simple man of
the world.
IV. Opposed to all these is the treatment given to the word by the honest and good
heart. Not sinning against light; not abandoning what it has undertaken; not
captivated by worldly pomp and show: it is faithful to God; it knows the excellence of
religion; it is able to count the cost, and make the sacrifice which is necessary for the
19

great end in view. Have we this? We cannot be certain of it until we have continued
and persevered to the end. Those who have begun well may boldly cast away the
Spirit, or they may fall away from grace because they have no root, or they may be
swallowed up by the cares and aims of worldly life. We know not what we are till we
have been tried to that extent which God thinks fit. But so far as we have striven, we
may feel a comfortable sense that we do possess that heart; and certainly, if we have
not striven, we cannot give ourselves any such hope. Let us strive to enter in at the
strait gate, and to be found among the faithful. (J. B. Mozley, D. D.)
The effect of Divine truth as conditioned by the state of men’s hearts
The title with which we are familiar is almost a misnomer. It is not the sower who is
most prominent, for the seed of the Word is a more important factor; nor yet is the
seed, for it is the four kinds of soil into which it shall fall that determines the seed’s
future. If preachers and teachers are drawing lessons from the parable, then it may
be well called the Parable of the Sower; but if the hearers of the Word are getting
their lessons from it, they will find the greater part of the parable telling of the soil
and the false growths therein that may render the Word unfruitful. Jesus, standing
by the seashore, and surveying the motley company before Him, gives us a prophecy
of the future of His truth among men. It cannot win an easy triumph. The seed is
God’s own, but it does not create its own soil. It drops on what is at hand, and is to be
scattered broadcast, to meet varied fortunes. (E. N. Packard.)
The sower
I. The function of the sower, not destructive but constructive; not to root up or
remove, but to plant.
II. The loneliness of the sower. A sower. The reaper may work amidst a company, but
the sower is always alone. Thousands reap the fruit of what one man sows.
III. The season when he goes forth to sow. No foliage, no verdure, sky cloudy, and air
cold.
IV. Sowing is a sorrowful process. He goes forth weeping. He must part with a
certain amount of present good, in order to obtain a larger amount of future good.
V. The nature of the seed which he sows. The word of truth must be the word of life.
(Hugh Macmillan.)
The sower
I. The sower.
1. Unity of purpose. His work was seed sowing, not soil culture.
2. Variety of results.
II. The seed.
1. Its origin. Every seed was originated by Christ. But there is a sense in which
every man originates his own seed. This he does when he is true to his
individuality.
2. Its vitality.
20

3. Its growth. Man can sow, God alone can quicken.
4. Its identity. The seed is the same in all ages and climes.
III. The soil.
1. Hardness-“Some seeds fell by the wayside,” etc
2. Shallowness-“And some fell upon stony places,” etc.
3. Preoccupancy-“And some fell among thorns,” etc.
4. Richness-“Other fell into good ground,” etc.
This soil contained all the qualities essential to fruitfulness. Moisture, depth,
cleanness, and quality. (A. G. Churchill.)
The leading ideas of the parable explained
These are-the sower, the seed, the ground, and the effect of casting the seed into it.
I. By the sower is meant our Saviour Himself, and all those whose office it is to
instruct men in the truth and duties of religion. The business of the husbandman is,
of all others, most important and necessary, requires much skill and attention, is
painful and laborious, and yet not without pleasure and profit. A man of this
profession ought to be well versed in agriculture, to understand the difference of
soils, the various methods of cultivating the ground, the seed proper to be sown, the
seasons for every kind of work, and in short how to avail himself of all circumstances
that arise for the improvement of his farm. He should be patient of fatigue, inured to
disappointment, and unwearied in his exertions. Every day will have its proper
business. Now he will manure his ground, then plough it; now cast the seed into it,
then harrow it; incessantly watch and weed it; and after many anxious cares, and, if a
man of piety, many prayers to heaven, he will earnestly expect the approaching
harvest. The time come, with a joyful eye he will behold the ears fully ripe bending to
the hands of the reapers, put in the sickle, collect the sheaves, and bring home the
precious grain to his garner. Hence we may frame an idea of the character and duty
of a Christian minister. He ought to be well-skilled in Divine knowledge, to have a
competent acquaintance with the world and the human heart, etc. Of these sowers
some have been more skilful, and successful, and laborious than others. Among them
the Apostle Paul holds a distinguished rank. But the most skilful and painful of all
sowers was our Lord Jesus Christ.
II. The seed sown, which our Saviour explains of “the Word of the Kingdom,” or as
St. Luke has it, “the Word of God.” The husbandman will be careful to sow his
ground with good seed. He goeth forth bearing precious seed. By “the Word of the
Kingdom” is meant the gospel. Let us apply it-
1. To personal religion. In the heart of every real Christian a kingdom is
established. Now the seed sown in the hearts of men is the Word of this kingdom,
or that Divine instruction which relates to the foundation, erection, principles,
maxims, laws, immunities, government, present happiness, and future glory of
this kingdom: all which we have contained in our Bibles. It is the doctrine of
Christ. Again, let us apply the idea of a kingdom.
2. To the Christian dispensation, or the whole visible church. In this sense it is
used by John the Baptist, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven,” that is, the
gospel dispensation, “is at hand.” All who profess the doctrine, and submit to the
institutions of Christ, compose one body of which He is the head, one kingdom of
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which He is the sovereign-“a kingdom which,” He himself tells us, “is not of this
world.” Now the gospel is the seed of this kingdom, as it gives us the laws by
which it is to be regulated, of worship, ordinances, discipline, protection, increase
and final glory. Once more, the term kingdom is to be understood also.
3. Of heaven, and all the happiness and glory to be enjoyed there. The gospel is
the Word of this kingdom, as it has assured us upon the most certain grounds of
its reality, and given us the amplest description of its glories our present
imperfect faculties are capable of receiving.
III. To consider the ground into which the seed is east, by which our Saviour intends
the soul of man, that is, the understanding, judgment, memory, will, and affections.
The ground, I mean the earth on which we tread, is now in a different state from
what it was in the beginning, the curse of God having been denounced upon it. In like
manner, the soul of man, in consequence of the apostacy of our first parents, is
enervated, polluted, and depraved. It shall suffice at present to observe, that as there
is a variety in the soil of different countries, and as the ground in some places is less
favourable for cultivation than in others, so it is in regard of the soul. There is a
difference in the strength, vigour, and extent of men’s natural faculties; nor can it be
denied that the moral powers of the soul are corrupted in some, through sinful
indulgences, to a greater degree than in others. As to mental abilities, who is not
struck with the prodigious disparity observable among mankind in this respect? Here
we see one of a clear understanding, a lively imagination, a sound judgment, a
retentive memory, and there another, remarkably deficient in each of these
excellences, if not wholly destitute of them all. These are gifts distributed among
mankind in various portions. But none possess them in that perfection they were
enjoyed by our first ancestors in their primeval state. The ground must be first made
good, and then it will be fruitful.
IV. Consider the general process of this business, as it is either expressly described
or plainly intimated in the parable. The ground, first manured and made good, is laid
open by the plough, the seed is cast into it, the earth is thrown over it, in the bosom
of the earth it remains awhile, at length, mingling with it, it gradually expands,
shoots up through the clods, rises into the stalk and then the ear, so ripens, and at
the appointed time brings forth fruit. Such is the wonderful process of vegetation.
Nor can we advert thus generally to these particulars, without taking into view at
once the exertions of the husbandman, the mutual operation of the seed and the
earth on each other, and the seasonable influence of the sun and the rain, under the
direction and benediction of Divine providence. So, in regard of the great business of
religion, the hearts of men are first disposed to listen to the instructions of God’s
Word; these instructions are then, like the seed, received into the understanding,
will, and affections; and after a while, having had their due operation there, bring
forth, in various degrees, the acceptable fruits of love and obedience. And how
natural, in this case, as in the former, while we are considering the rise and progress
of religion in the soul, to advert, agreeable to the figure in the parable, to the happy
concurrence of a Divine influence, with the great truths of the gospel, dispensed by
ministers, and with the reasonings of the mind and heart about them. To shut out all
idea here of such influence would be as absurd as to exclude the influence of the
atmosphere and sun from any concern in culture and vegetation. Let the
husbandman lay what manure he will on barren ground, it can produce no change in
the temperature of it, unless it thoroughly penetrates it, and kindly mingles with it;
and this it cannot do without the assistance of the falling dew and rain, and the genial
heat of the sun. In like manner, all attempts, however proper in themselves, to
change the hearts of men, and to dispose them to a cordial reception of Divine truths,
will be vain without the concurrence of Almighty grace, Reflections:
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1. How honourable, important, and laborious is the employment of ministers.
2. What a great blessing is the Word of God.
3. What cause have we for deep humiliation before God, when we reflect on the
miserable depravity of human nature.
4. How great are our obligations to Divine grace for the renewing influences of
the Holy Spirit. Let not the regard which the sower pays to Divine providence,
reproach out inattention and insensibility to the more noble and salutary
influences of Divine grace. (S. Stennett, D. D.)
The four kinds of soil
The growth of the seed depends always on the quality of the soil. The stress of the
story lies not on the character of the sower, or even on the quality of the seed, but on
the nature of the soil. The character of the hearer determines the effect of the Word
upon him. We should cultivate the habit of profitable hearing. It is well that our
students should be instructed how to preach, but it is equally important that the
people should be taught how to hear; for if it be true, as is sometimes cynically said,
that good preaching is one of the lost arts, it is to be feared that good hearing also has
too largely disappeared; and, wherever the fault may have begun, the two act and re-
act on each other. A good hearer makes a lively preacher, just as really as a poor
preacher makes a dull hearer; and eloquence is not all in the speaker. To use Mr.
Gladstone’s illustration, he gets from his bearers in vapour that which he returns to
them in flood, and a receptive and responsive audience adds fervour and intensity to
his utterance. Eloquent hearing, therefore, is absolutely indispensable to effective
preaching; and so it is quite as necessary that listeners should be taught to hear, as it
is that preachers should be taught what and how to speak.
1. Taking, then, first, the things to be guarded against, we find foremost among
these the danger of preventing the truth from getting any entrance into the soul
at all. The seed that fell upon the pathway lay on the outside of the soil. The
ground had been so hardened by the tread of many feet, that the grain could not
get into it. The soul may be sermon-hardened as well as sin-hardened. But
another thing which makes a foot walk over the soul is evil habit.
2. But a second danger to be avoided is that of shallow impulsiveness. So the man
of shallow nature makes a great show at first. He is all enthusiasm. He “never
heard such a sermon in all his life.” He seems greatly moved, and for a time it
looks as if he were really converted; but it does not last. It is but an ague fever,
which is succeeded by a freezing chill; and by and by some new excitement
follows, to give place in its turn to another alternation into cold neglect. He lacks
depth of character, for he has nothing but rock beneath the surface. He seems to
have much feeling, indeed, and his religion is all emotional; but, in reality, he has
no proper feeling. It is all superficial. That which is only feeling, will not even be
feeling long. Now, the fault in all this lies in a lack of thoughtfulness, or a
neglecting to “count the cost.” The man of depth looks before he leaps. He will
not commit himself until he has carefully examined all that is involved; but when
he does thus commit himself, he does so irrevocably. He who signs a document
without reading it will be very likely to repudiate it when any trouble comes of it;
but the man who knew what he was doing when he appended his name to it, if he
be a true man, will stand to his bond at all hazards. Now, the merely impulsive,
shallow, flippant hearer acts without deliberation, signs his bond without reading
it, and is therefore easily discouraged. When he is called to suffer anything
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unpleasant for his confession, he breaks down. He had not calculated on such a
contingency. He enlisted only for the review, and not for the battle; and so, on the
first alarm of war, he disappears from the ranks. He did not stop to consider all
that his enlistment involved; he was allured only by the uniform, and the gay
accessories of military life: but, when it came to fighting, he deserted. The
enthusiastic convert is often preferred to the calm and apparently unimpassioned
disciple. The growth in the one seems so much more rapid than in the other, that
he is put far above him. But when affliction or persecution arises, what a
revelation it makes! for then the enthusiasm of the one goes out, and that of the
other comes out.
3. But we must look to the kind of thing to be guarded against, which we may call
the preoccupation of the heart by other objects than the word heard by the man.
II. The qualities to be cultivated by gospel hearers, as these are indicated in the
Saviour’s explanation of the seed which fell into good soil.
1. Attention: they hear.
2. Meditation: they keep.
3. Obedience: they bring forth fruit with patience. (W. M. Taylor, D. D.)
Eastern cornfields
Our grain fields are level, and covered with the crop from hedge to hedge. But theirs
were broken patches, not unlike the little croft you may see before a Highland
cottage. It is not fenced; the footpath to the moor, the well, or the village runs
through it; the soil is wavy, and dotted with rocky hillocks; bushes of thorn and
thistle are in the corner. As the crofter sows his little plot, some seeds fall on the
footpath and its hardened margins, some on the rocky knolls, and some among the
thorns, as well as on the best soil. Such uneven seed fields stretched then along the
Lake of Galilee, sloping suddenly up from the shore. The soil was deep at the water’s
edge, but grew shallower near the foot of the little hills. Very likely Christ’s hearers
were then standing upon or within sight of such a field. (J. Wells.)
Life in the seed
Dry and dead as it seems, let a seed be planted with a stone flashing diamond, or
burning ruby; and while that in the richest soil remains a stone, this awakes and,
bursting its husky shell, rises from the ground to adorn the earth with beauty,
perfume the air with fragrance, or enrich men with its fruit. Such life there is in all,
but especially in gospel, truth. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Force in the seed
Buried in the ground a seed does not remain inert-lie there in a living tomb. It forces
its way upward, and with a power quite remarkable in a soft, green, feeble blade,
pushes aside the dull clods that cover it. Wafted by winds or dropped by passing bird
into the fissure of a crag, from weak beginnings the acorn grows into an oak-growing
till, by the forth-putting of a silent but continuous force, it heaves the stony table
from its bed, rending the rock in pieces. But what so worthy to be called the power as
well as the wisdom of God as that Word which, lodged in the mind, and accompanied
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by the Divine blessing, fed by showers from heaven, rends hearts, harder than the
rocks, in pieces? (T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Propagation in the seed
A single grain of corn would, were the produce of each season sown again, so spread
from field to field, from country to country, from continent to continent, as in the
course of a few years to cover the whole surface of the earth with one wide harvest,
employing all the sickles, filling all the barns, and feeding all the mouths in the world.
(T. Guthrie, D. D.)
Varied soils
The wayside hearers do not take in the seed at all; the rocky ground hearers take in
the seed, but do not let it sink deep enough; the thorny ground hearers take it in, but
take in bad seeds also; the good-ground hearers take the seed into their deepest
heart, and take in nothing else. In these four sorts of soil you see the beginning and
end of spring, summer, and autumn. In the first, the seed does not spring; in the
second, it springs, but does not grow up; in the third, it grows up, but does not ripen;
in the fourth, it ripens perfectly. (J. Wells.)
The duty of the sower
A pastor or preacher is a workman hired and sent out to sow the field of God; that is,
to instruct souls in the truths of the gospel. This workman sins-
1. When, instead of going to the field, he absents himself from it; nothing being
more agreeable to nature and Divine law than for a servant to obey his master, for
a seedsman to be in the field for which he is hired, and whither he is sent to sow.
2. When he stays in the field, but does not sow.
3. When he changes his master’s seed, and sows bad instead of good.
4. When he affects to cast it on the highway, i.e., loves to preach only before
people of fashion and influence.
5. When he fixes on stony ground, from whence there is little hope of receiving
any fruit. If interest, inclination, the spirit of amusement, or self-satisfaction
determine a pastor to attend chiefly on such souls who seek not God, and whose
virtue has no depth, he has but little regard to his Master’s profit. He must not,
indeed, neglect any, but he ought not to base his preference on worldly motives.
6. When he is not careful to pick out the stones, and to pluck up the thorns. The
sower Complains of the barrenness of the field; and perhaps the field will
complain, at the tribunal of God, of the negligence of the sower, in not preparing
and cultivating it as he ought.
7. When he does not endeavour to make the seed in the good ground yield fruit in
proportion to its goodness. (Quesnel.)
In framing this parable, our Lord classified the hearers of the Word according to His
own experience as a preacher, basing His classification not so much upon generalities
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as upon well-remembered illustrations. It would not be difficult to exemplify this, by
specimens drawn from the records of His dealings with men (Bruce, e.g. has found
examples of each kind of hearer in St. Luk_12:11; Luk_21:13; Luk_9:57; Luk_
9:61-62, and in the case of Barnabas). It will suffice at present, however, to give point
to His descriptions, by recalling the divers effects produced by His claims to the
Messiahship.
1. There were men hardened by Jewish prejudice, and seared with worldliness,
who looked only for material advancement by the establishment of a new
kingdom, and yet flocked to hear His words, meek and lowly as He was. They
might possibly have been impressed, had not the Pharisaic enemies of the Cross,
the emissaries of Satan, stepped in with their specious arguments, and caught
away the seed before ever it found any lodgment in their hearts.
2. There were others of an emotional temperament, who were carried away in the
excitement aroused by His sudden popularity, who, when they witnessed the
wonderful works that He did, would have taken Him by force and made Him a
king; and yet, staggered by the first check their enthusiasm received, within
twenty-four hours “went away backward, and walked no more with Him.”
3. There was another class, more limited, no doubt, who saw in Him the beauty
they desired, and recognized His goodness; men, too, whom He loved in return
for all that was best in their lives; but who failed at last because their heart was
not whole. Underneath all this there was “a root of bitterness”-love of riches, or
pleasure, or even distracting cares of home; and though for a time these
blemishes showed no vitality, not springing up simultaneously with the crop of
new desires, yet by the vapidity and rankness of their growth they just spoiled the
life when it was on the eve of bearing fruit.
4. The last class was composed of those whose hearts the Baptist had prepared,
and the Lord had opened, who were “waiting for the consolation of Israel:” men
like Andrew, John, Nathanael, or women like the devout band who “ministered to
Him of their substance,” and in varying degrees of productiveness bore fruit in
their lives. (H. M. Luckock, D. D.)
Likeness between the Word and seed
God’s Word has all the hidden life of a seed. Take up a grain of wheat in your hand,
and ask yourself where its life lies. Not, surely, upon the surface; not in its inner
compartments as a distinct thing. Chemistry will give you every material element it
contains, and you will be as far as ever from knowing or seeing the very thing that
makes it a seed-that mysterious something we call its life. Within that little mass of
matter there lies a force which sun, rain, and soil shall call forth with voices it will
hear and obey. God hath given it a body, and to every seed his own body. The hidden
life and unwearied force of the wheat grain furnish analogies to the Word of God.
Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Word of Christ shall not pass away. This is
not because of any arbitrary fiat of Omnipotence, any mechanically conferred
sanctity, but because it is an eternal seed, to which God has given eternal form. But
this vitality is not lodged where we can see it. (E. N. Packard.)
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4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along
the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
CLARKE, "The fowls - Του ουρανου, of the air, is the common reading; but it
should be omitted, on the authority of nine uncial MSS., upwards of one hundred
others, and almost all the versions. Bengel and Griesbach have left it out of the text.
It seems to have been inserted in Mark, from Luk_8:5.
GILL, "And it came to pass, as he sowed,.... Whilst he was preaching the,
Gospel, casting about the precious seed of the word, he was laden with:
some fell by the way side; the common beaten path: the word was dispensed
among some men comparable to it, on whom it lighted, but made no impression;
there it lay, though not long, and was not inwardly received, and took no root, and
consequently was of no effect:
and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up; the devils, who have their
abode in the air, especially the prince of the posse of them; and the Syriac version
reads it in the singular number, "and the fowl came"; that ravenous bird of prey,
Satan, who goes about seeking what he may devour; and for this purpose attends
where the word is preached, to hinder its usefulness as much as in him lies.
JAMIESON, "Mar_4:4, Mar_4:15. First Case: The Wayside.
And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside — by the side
of the hard path through the field, where the soil was not broken up.
and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up — Not only could the seed
not get beneath the surface, but “it was trodden down” (Luk_8:5), and afterwards
picked up and devoured by the fowls. What means this? See on Mar_4:15.
CALVIN, "Mark 4:12.That seeing, they may see, and not perceive. Here it may
suffice to state briefly what has already been fully explained, that the doctrine is
not, strictly speaking, or by itself, or in its own nature, but by accident, the cause
of blindness. When persons of a weak sight come out into sunshine, their eyes
become dimmer than before, and that defect is in no way attributed to the sun,
but to their eyes. In like manner, when the word of God blinds and hardens the
reprobate, as this takes place through their own depravity, it belongs truly and
naturally to themselves, but is accidental, as respects the word.
Lest at any time they should be converted. This clause points out the advantage
that is gained by seeing and understanding It is, that men, having been converted
to God, are restored to his favor, and, being reconciled to him, enjoy prosperity
and happiness. The true end for which
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God desires that his word should be preached is, to reconcile men to himself by
renewing their minds and hearts. With respect to the reprobate, on the other
hand, Isaiah here declares that the stony hardness remains in them, so that they
do not obtain mercy, and that the word fails to produce its effect upon them, so
as to soften their minds to repentance.
LIGHTFOOT, "[And some fell.] According to what falls. The Gloss there,
"According to the measure which one sows." And there the Gemarists speak of
seed falling out of the hand: that is, that is cast out of the hand of the sower: and
of seed falling from the oxen: that is, "that which is scattered and sown" by the
sowing oxen. "For (as the Gloss speaks) sometimes they sow with the hand, and
sometimes they put the seed into a cart full of holes, and drive the oxen upon the
ploughed earth, and the seed falls through the holes."
PULPIT, "Mark 4:4, Mark 4:15
The Word stolen from the heart.
Young preachers, in the strength of their convictions and the ardor of their
benevolence, are often inspired with enthusiastic expectations concerning the
results of the preaching of the gospel. It seems to them that the Word has only to
be addressed to men's minds in order to meet with an eager, grateful, and
immediate acceptance. As their experience enlarges, and as they learn in how
many cases reason and conscience are silenced by the clamor of passion and
interest, or disregarded through the power of sinful habit or the influence of
sinful society, they turn to this parable, and learn how just was the view and how
tempered the expectations of the Divine Teacher and Saviour, as to the
acceptance with which his gospel should meet.
I. THE HEART HARDENED BY WORLDLINESS AND SIN IS NOT
RECEPTIVE OF THE WORD.
1. Wordly thoughts and cares preoccupy the mind, so that there is no response to
the appeals of the gospel. When the attention is absorbed by things seen and
temporal, spiritual realities appear imaginary and uninteresting. As there was no
room for the babe Jesus at the inn, so the nature which welcomes every passing
guest finds no place for the King and for his Word.
2. Sin shuts out the truth. There is no fellowship between light and darkness. The
sinner's heart is closed against the heavenly rays. What preacher could not, from
his own observation, offer many a living illustration of the saying, "Men love
darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil" ? To revert to the figure
of the text, sin loved and unrepented of treads down the heart into a hard,
impenetrable pathway, where no glebe breaks up, in frost, in shower, or in
sunshine, to give a welcome, a home, a cradle, to the germ of spiritual life.
3. Familiarity with truth unheeded hardens any nature against the gospel. Who
are the least hopeful in our congregations? Surely they are those who have, from
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habit or through influence, been attending the "means of grace" for many years,
to whom every statement, every appeal, every remonstrance, every warning, is an
old familiar sound, "a twice-told tale." The nature becomes not only indifferent,
but callous; there is no real heed, no living susceptibility, no response of faith
and joy.
II. THE ENEMY OF SOULS SNATCHES THE WORD FROM THE
HARDENED HEART. The condition of the sinner's soul is such as offers to
Satan an occasion for frustrating the benevolent designs of the Divine Sower.
Had the seed fallen into good ground and been covered over, there would have
been no invitation or opportunity for the birds to snatch it away. So it is only the
worldly, sensual, or unbelieving nature that, so to speak, tempts the tempter
himself. By the birds it is usually understood that the great Teacher intends to
represent evil thoughts and imaginations and desires, such as possess the
unspiritual and unthinking. How true to the life is this account! How many
careless and unbelieving hearers of the gospel no sooner leave the church in
which they have listened to the Word, than common, foolish, selfish, sinful
thoughts take possession of their mind, and the Word is snatched away—is as
though it had not been! The necessary result is that there is no fruit. How can
there be fruit when the Word has not been mixed with faith in the heater's
heart? "Do you take care that it falls not on, but in, your souls." "Break up your
fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord."
PULPIT, "Mark 4:4-8
Human hearts tested by truth.
"The seed is the Word." Such is the interpretation given by the Lord himself, in
his exposition of the parable of the sower. In other words, the seed represents the
truth uttered by Christ and embodied in Christ, who is himself declared to be the
everlasting Word (John 1:1). This heavenly seed is the gift of God. It has life in
itself (John 5:26); it is the germ of life to the world; and, when it is received, it
brings forth those "fruits of the Spirit" of which St. Paul speaks. The mode in
which that seed is received is a test of character, and this is illustrated in the
words before us. The four kinds of soil upon which the sower cast his seed
represent four conditions of heart, which we propose to consider.
I. THE HARDENED HEART. Our Lord speaks of some seed falling by the
wayside; that is, on the trodden pathway running through the field, which is
impervious to anything which falls gently, as seed falls. Finding a lodgment
there, either the birds carry it away or else it is crushed by the foot of the
wayfarer. Just as the once soft soil becomes hard, so do our moral sensibilities
become blunted by the frequent passing over them of ordinary duties, and stilt
more of evil words and deeds. We often read in Scripture of the hardening of the
heart. Pharaoh is said to have " hardened his heart" because, after being stirred
to some thought by the earlier plagues in Egypt, he conquered feeling until he
became past feeling. Hence, after the most terrible of the plagues, he pursued
God's chosen people to his own destruction. The Israelites, too, hardened their
hearts in the wilderness. All the issues of this sin recorded in sacred history give
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a significant answer to the question of Job, "Who hath hardened himself against
God, and prospered?" This process still goes on, not least amongst regular
attendants on the means of grace. Address a gathering of outcasts, and though
you may hear a mocking laugh, you will more probably see the penitential tear
as you speak of the Saviour's death and of the Father's love; but speak of this to
those who have often heard the truth, and their calm impassivity will drive you
to despair, if it does not drive you to God. He who knows all but feels nothing is
represented by the wayside; for the truth preached to him is gone as swiftly from
his thoughts as though evil birds had carried it away.
II. THE SUPERFICIAL HEART is also graphically portrayed. The stony
ground is not ground besprinkled with stones, but rocky soil covered with a thin
layer of earth, such as might often be seen in the rocky abutments which ended
the terraces of cultivated soil on a hillside in Palestine. Seed falling there would
take root and grow, but would soon strike rock, and then withering would begin.
This represents those who "receive the Word with gladness." They are
interested, instructed, impressed; but they have no understanding of its spiritual
meaning or of Christ's requirements. They have no sense of sin, and no conflict
with it. Their knowledge and experience alike are shallow, and they have "no
root," because they have no depth of nature. Very significant is the phrase,
"They have no root in themselves;" for there is a want of individuality about
them. Their faith depends upon surrounding excitement and enthusiasm, and
they are wanting in the perseverance which can only arise from personal
conviction. Let temptation come to them, and they give up at once their poor
shreds of faith; let them go among sceptics, and soon their mockery will be the
loudest; let persecution arise, and straightway they stumble to their fall.
III. THE CROWDED HEART. "Some fell among thorns;" that is, in soil in
which thorns were springing up. The soil possibly was good, and therefore unlike
the last, but it was already full. Soon the thorns springing up choke the seed,
crowding it down, and so depriving it of air and sunshine that the withering stalk
can produce no fruit. Every one knows the meaning of this who has pondered the
words," Ye cannot serve God and mammon," or who understands the warning
against "the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches," and inordinate
desires after other earthly things. Here is such a one. He was once earnest in
work for God; he made time for the study of his Word; he was eager for the
quiet hour when he could speak to his Father in secret. But this is only a memory
to him now. And how came the woeful change? There has been no hour when he
has deliberately cut himself adrift from holy influence, nor can he recall any
special crisis in his history. But the cares of life, the plans he felt called upon to
make, thoughts concerning money and the best way to make it or to keep it,
obtruded themselves more and more, even on sacred times, till holy thoughts
were fairly crowded out. Thorns have sprung up, and they have choked the seed,
so that it has become unfruitful.
IV. THE HONEST HEART. The seed which fell into "good ground" not only
sprang up into strong stalk, but brought forth fruit in the golden harvest-time,
and over it the sower rejoiced. Our Lord often spoke of the conditions which are
essential to the fulfillment of this in the spiritual realm. For example, he said,
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"He that is of the truth heareth my voice;" and he bade his disciples become as
little children, that they might rejoice in him. Nathanael was a beautiful example
of what Jesus meant. When the truth is thus received, in the love of it, it guides
the thoughts, rules the affections, checks and controls the plans, and sanctifies
the whole being of the man. "Christ is formed" in his heart "the hope of glory."
Abiding in prayer, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he experiences a
quickening and a refreshment like that which the growing corn has when
enriched and blessed by showers and sunshine, and "the fruits of the Spirit"
appear in him, to the glory of God the Father. "Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit."—A.R.
BI 4-15, "Some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it
up.
Though men be outward hearers of the Word, and do also in some sort understand
what is taught, yet if their hearts be so hardened in sin and through Satan’s
temptations that they are not affected and moved by it, it can never profit them. As
seed sown upon a beaten path or highway cannot sink into the earth by reason of the
hardness of it, nor take root or fructify; so the doctrine of the Word being preached
to those whose hearts are hardened in sin cannot enter into them, and therefore
cannot profit them. If the seed of the Word be only sown in their outward ears and in
their minds; if it lie above ground, i.e., if it swim and float aloft in their brain and
understanding only, and do not enter and sink into their hearts; if their hearts be not
affected to love and embrace it, as well as their understandings enlightened by it, it
will never take root or bear fruit in them. (G. Petter.)
The character of inattentive hearers considered
1. These persons hear the Word. They are not deaf, and so utterly incapable of
hearing. Nor are they determined that they will not hear (Jer_22:21).
2. They are only occasional hearers of the Word. They are, in regard of the
assemblies where the gospel is preached, what the wayside is to the field where
the seed is sown, ground without the inclosure, Or whereon the seed falls as it
were accidentally or by chance. They come by constraint of conscience, or from
curiosity.
3. They are not at all prepared for hearing the Word. The ground is beaten, and
has received no cultivation.
4. That they hear in a heedless, desultory manner.
5. They remain grossly ignorant.
6. But some in this class do in a sense understand the Word, for the seed is said
to be sown in their hearts. They understand speculatively.
7. It makes no abiding impression on the heart.
8. Our Lord’s account of the manner in which these impressions are effaced-“the
fowls of the air came,” etc.
I. Who is this wicked one and why he is so called. From this short scriptural account
of Satan it appears with what propriety he is here, and in many other passages, styled
emphatically “the wicked one.” He is wicked himself in the highest degree, for as be
31

exceeds all others in subtilty and power, so also in impiety and sin; a spirit the most
proud, false, envious, turbulent, and malignant among all the various orders of fallen
spirits. He, too, is the author of all wickedness, the contriver and promoter of every
species of iniquity. Whence, the infinitely numerous evils that prevail in our world
are called “the works of the devil.” Such is the character of this first apostate arch-
angel, the grand, avowed enemy of God and man. And thus are we led to our second
inquiry-
II. What is meant by his “catching away the seed,” and how is this done? For no
more is meant by the influence which Satan is supposed in certain cases to exert over
the mind, than what is similar to the influence which wicked men are acknowledged
to have over others, to allure them by persuasions to sin, and to dissuade them by
menaces from their duty. It cannot force them into sin against the consent of their
will; or, in other words, so operate on their minds as to deprive them of that freedom
which is necessary to constitute them accountable creatures. This mighty adversary
watches his opportunity to prevent the salutary effect of the Word upon those that
hear it. And considering what is the character of the sort of hearers we are here
speaking of, it is not to be wondered at that he is permitted to catch away the seed
sown in their hearts, or that he succeeds in the attempt. For if their motives in
attending upon Divine service are base and unworthy, if they address themselves to
the duties of religion without any previous preparation, how righteous is it in God to
permit Satan to use every possible artifice to defeat the great and good ends to which
religious instructions are directed!
1. Satan uses his utmost endeavours to divert men’s attention from the Word
while they are hearing it.
2. Satan uses every art to excite and inflame men’s prejudices against the Word
they hear.
3. Another artifice Satan uses to counteract the influence of God’s Word on men’s
hearts is to prevent their recollecting is after they have heard it. (S. Stennett, D.
D.)
Wasted seed
We are taught to regard waste of all kinds as a great fault and sin. Wasted food,
wasted money, wasted health, wasted time, wasted instruction, wasted opportunities
of doing and receiving good; these, in their several ways, are all sins against God and
our own souls. While we are young we are punished for them; when we are older we
suffer for them; the consummation of them at last is the loss of the soul. But what I
wish you to observe is that, sinful as waste of any kind is in us, there is in nature, in
providence, in the spiritual world, a constant waste going on, suggesting much of
anxious and painful wonder. (C. J. Vaughan, D. D.)
The plough needed
Nothing is needed but to plough it up. God drives a deep share through many a
wayside heart, and the coulter of affliction breaks up many a spirit, that it may
afterwards yield “the peaceable fruit of righteousness.” And if He does that for you,
bless Him for His mercy; but do not wait, for you can get rid of all this insensibility
by the simple effort of your own will. (Dr. McLaren.)
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Mark 4 commentary

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Mark 4 commentary