The Bible, The Word, The Seed – Part 2

Continuing our focus on the seed sown on soil with thorns in the Parable of the Sower; we saw in the previous post that all three evangelists record worry and a desire for riches as thorns choking the seed, choking the Word of God in our lives. Mark and Luke each add another element to the picture of thorns, first Mark:

“And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful”, Mark 4:18-19 (emphasis added).

The clutter of weeds can kill a fruit-bearing plant, the clutter of things can kill fruit in the Christian life. If I plant bean seeds in my garden but do not keep the rows weeded the weeds may soon cover the rows, blocking light from the beans, absorbing moisture, growing tall, to the point where a passerby would have no idea that someone planted bean seeds in the area, a garden would no longer be a garden.

We can only have so many things in our lives, we can only use our time in so many ways. The West, with its consumer culture, has the mantra – consume, consume, consume. Like a dog grown fat by being fed too many treats, our lives have grown fat with consumption. The shopping malls serve us treats, television and other media feed us treats, restaurants spend millions to entice us to consume their treats – consumption chokes out the Word of God, not giving it room to breathe, to germinate, to grow, to develop. We think we deserve to be consumers, that we deserve more, that we deserve bigger and better…and we convince ourselves that surely God will understand why we have no time for Him and His Word and for the welfare of others…we’ve convinced ourselves that God understands that we need to consume and that it is perfectly understandable that we don’t have time for His Word.

Entertainment stifles the seed sown; we justify hours upon hours of weekly diversion while the Bible sits unopened and unknown. We are like disembodied spirits flitting in and out of television channels, games, special events, activities that we just “have to do”…and all the while the thorns grow, sinking their roots into the ground, choking the Word of God.

Jesus says that desires for other things choke the Word. Do we desire His Word? Do we desire the Seed that He has sown? If so, what does that desire look like? Would an observer see that desire? Do friends and family members see that desire? How does our desire for the Word of God compare with our desires for other things? Where is the proof of our desire for God and His Word in our lives?

And lest active professing Christians become complacent, we’re talking about a desire for God’s Word, not church activities, not a desire for popular Christian books, not a desire for speakers who make us feel good, who motivate us, who have large followings or boutique unusual teachings – we are talking about our desire for a personal encounter with the Word of God, the Bible, and the God who lives and speaks to us through His Word. If you found yourself in a land with no Bibles and you had no Bible, would you be able to take the people of that land from Genesis to Revelation? If you’ve been a Christian for any length of time and the answer is “no”, then why not? Functionally literate people who read the Bible, and then read it again, and then read it again ought to be able to go anywhere in the world and share the Biblical narrative with others – that is, after all, our calling and commission in Christ. We are called to be disciples.

Is the desire for other things choking the Word of God in your life?

For me, I know that I must weed my garden everyday…I must desire the good plants so much that I’ll weed come rain or shine, whether I feel like it or not.

What about you?

To be continued…