parable

January 20, 27 A.D.  –  The Bad News First, then the Good —   The Year of the Lord’s Favor #68

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , ,

Week 49 —Fruitless
Matthew 20:1-16, Luke 13:1-9 

Jesus is still teaching in the area east of the Jordan, and in our passage today, someone interrupted him to tell him some bad news.

Luke 13:1-6   There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.  And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?   No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.   Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?   No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

Sometimes, you read something in the Bible and ask yourself, “Why is that in there?”

But you can’t get away from it — the news is full of stories of natural disasters of fire and flood or news of senseless beatings and horrible murders by evil people.  The people in Jesus’ day didn’t have to deal with our 24-hour news networks or a phone that interrupted their day with ‘breaking news.’  But bad news has always traveled fast.  In this passage, someone tells Jesus about Pontius Pilate ordering his soldiers to attack some Jews from Galilee.  

How do you react to bad news?  How does Jesus respond?

We don’t know precisely what the situation was about this slaughter of these people.  Apparently, Pilate ordered his soldiers to kill some people from Galilee while they were performing sacrifices, so this would have happened in the Temple courtyard.  We don’t have any other confirmation of this account, but the historian Josephus records several incidents in which Pilate put down potential rebellions with overwhelming force.  Let me tell you just a couple.  Jerusalem was growing in population and faced a water shortage.  Pilate had an aqueduct constructed to bring water into Jerusalem, but he took money from the temple treasury to build it.  Money that had been dedicated to God.  A large crowd of people gathered to protest the misappropriation of God’s money, and Pilate had his soldiers dress in Jewish clothing, blend in with the crowd, and, at his signal, begin beating them to death.  Josephus records a similar incident when Pilate brought Roman standards with the likeness of Caesar into Jerusalem, which the Jewish law did not allow.  Again, the people protested, and Pilate had many of them killed.  Pilate was finally removed from office by the emperor when he overreacted to another disturbance and slaughtered a group of Samaritans.  So, this account is certainly consistent with Pilate’s previous actions.  

But why did Luke include this story in his account of the gospel?

First, what was the person’s motive for bringing this account to Jesus?  How did they hope Jesus would react?  I can see the fellow now.  “Look, Jesus, Pilate killed all these people who were from where you grew up!  He slaughtered them while they were worshipping in the Temple!  Can you believe it?  He is so evil.”  He is certainly expecting Jesus to agree with him that Pilate is an evil man and deserves God’s wrath.  “See, the Roman Empire is evil.  Perhaps we should rebel.”

But how does Jesus reply? 

And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?

Remember that people in Jesus’ day believed that misfortune was due to sin.  If bad things happen to you, then it is likely that you have some sin you need to confess.  Some people still believe that today.  Obviously, these people have not read the Book of Job.  When the disciples see a man who was born blind in John 9, they ask Jesus a question.

John 9:1-3   As he passed by, he saw a man blind from birth.  And his disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  Jesus answered, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him. 

Jesus refutes the idea that misfortune is due to sin.  And he says God didn’t allow these Galieans to be killed by Pilate because they were sinners.

And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way?   No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Then he gives them another example:

Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem?   No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”

This is not at all the expected response. Jesus contradicts the current idea that misfortune is due to sin. He ignores the perfect opportunity to talk about how evil Pilate is. Instead of condemning Pilate or the Roman Empire, he calls on everyone standing there with him to repent of their sins, or they will perish.

You can’t watch 30 minutes of news without being horrified.  Just this week, a gang member of MS-13 got a plea deal to avoid maximum punishment for killing at least seven people, including two teenage girls who were beaten with baseball bats and machetes.  When you hear news like this, how do you respond?    You want those people to be punished.  You are sickened by the magnitude of their sin.  So why doesn’t Jesus jump on the anti-Pilate bandwagon?

It is easy to join everyone else in condemning someone for an evil act. But Jesus doesn’t go there. He has more important things to discuss. He realizes that he only has 12 weeks left to teach everything he needs to, for in three months, he will be killed.  He can’t waste any time.

These people want him to condemn Pilate.  Jesus will talk to Pilate on the day he is crucified.  But Pilate is not here now.  But there are people in front of him now that he can teach.  There is no sense in wasting time fussing about Pilate.  That doesn’t help Pilate or these people.  But it is a chance to tell the people before him that they also need repentance.   Jesus is still preaching the same message he started with.  The same message John the Baptist preached.  “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”  

Then Jesus tells us this parable:

Luke 13:6-9   And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none.   And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now, I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none.  Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’   And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also until I dig around it and put on manure.   Then, if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

Wait a minute, what does this have to do with what we were talking about?

We have horrible news about an evil politician murdering innocents and an awful accident in which a building fell on people, and then Jesus tells us we need to repent or we will perish.  Then he jumps to a story about a fig tree not bearing fruit.    Are you having trouble following this conversation?

It makes sense if you realize that repentance and bearing fruit are closely related in Jesus’ mind.  Don’t miss this critical connection.   It goes back to John the Baptist.   John’s message became Jesus’ message: 

Matthew 3:1-2     In those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

And the second part of John’s message:

Matthew 3:8   Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

John said that the decision to repent was not enough.  You had to bring fruits worthy of repentance.  By this, he meant living in a way that demonstrates a change of heart and a decision to turn away from sin. It’s a way of showing that you have repented of your sins and are living a life consistent with that repentance.   This is an idea we see all through the prophets.  Repentance must be associated with a change in the way you live.  Repentance must be accompanied by fruit.

Jesus tells them to repent, which means they must bear fruit worthy of their repentance. Now, do you see why he tells this story?  The fig tree is not bearing fruit as it should. What do we do?  What should God do with these people who say they have repented but have not changed how they live?

In this parable, we see a debate between mercy and judgment.  Both are attributes of God’s character.  He is a God of justice and judgment.  He is also a God of mercy.  Here, those attributes meet.  

This fig tree should be bearing fruit, but it is not.  It is a waste of the owner’s resources.  But the vinedresser, who had planted and cared for the tree for these years, asks for mercy.   Mercy is granted, even to the point of showing the tree special care with fertilizer and soil preparation.  But note that mercy has a limit.  Justice must come.  Judgment must come.  In a year, if the tree is not fruitful, it will be taken away.   Jesus must convince these people before him that they have to repent and bear fruit worthy of repentance.  Their life must change.  God is granting them mercy, giving them another year to bear fruit, but mercy has a limit.

Now, I want to contrast that with another parable Jesus tells in John 15 about producing fruit.

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser.  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit.  Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.   Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.   I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me, you can do nothing.   If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.   If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  By this, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.  As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love.   If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.   These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

You have heard this before.  But there are a whole lot of branches and fruit and abiding and not abiding there.   If you slow down, pay attention, and read the words, it may bother you a bit…..It bothered me a lot.  Let’s take a close look at this parable.  First, it is a stated allegory. Jesus is the vine, and the Father is the vinedresser, the gardener.1. People are the branches on the vine. Now that we know the players let’s see what happens to whom.

The branches represent people divided into two groups: those who abide in Jesus and those who do not.  To ‘abide’ means ‘to live in.’  If you abide in Jesus, He is your source of life; you get your life from him, so you stay connected to him.  You get 100% of your nourishment from him. If you tear off a branch from a plant, will it produce fruit?  If taken off the plant, the branch can never bear fruit; it will wither and die.  Remember, the branches are people who either remain in Jesus and live or who are cut off from Jesus and die.

So now, let’s examine the branches that stay, those who abide in Jesus and are not torn off.    

Some produce fruit, and some do not.  What does the Gardener (God the Father) do to those who produce fruit?  He prunes them.  He removes those things in them that make them less fruitful.

Do you have a garden?  If you grow tomato plants, you are familiar with the idea of suckers.  Tomato suckers are small shoots or leaves that grow from the junction of a tomato plant’s stem and branch.   Gardeners debate removing these.  But a plant has only so much energy to grow.  If you leave the suckers, they will grow into another branch, and you will have a bushier plant.  But the energy used to grow more branches will not be used to grow tomatoes, so you get a bushier plant with fewer tomatoes.  

Pruning is cutting off the parts of a plant that make it less productive, sometimes the old parts to stimulate new growth.  You always prune during the dormant season.  I will never forget when we hired someone to help with our yard.  There was a wonderful camellia bush that we loved, and this particular year, it had tons of buds on it… until our hired person decided it was time to prune it.  You never prune a plant in that stage.  He cut every bud off.  Not only were there no blooms that year, but it was several years until the bush recovered enough to produce them again.   When the plant is dormant and not doing anything, you prune it.  I think that applies to us also.  If we become dormant in our Christian walk, we need pruning and removal of those things that make us less fruitful…. but let’s move on.

So, there are two types of branches that abide in Jesus.  Those who do produce fruit and those who do not.  Those that bear fruit are pruned to produce more fruit.  What about those that do not produce fruit.?

John 15:2  Every branch in me [Jesus] that does not bear fruit he [The Father] takes away.

So let me put this on a flow chart for you:

Now you can see what bothers me about this parable.  Those who do abide in Christ but are not producing fruit get the same treatment as those who do not abide in Jesus.  They are both taken away.  That doesn’t seem to fit with the previous parable of the Fig tree.  The owner would have the tree dug up, but a grace period was given.  The tree would be shown extra care for a year.  If it then didn’t produce, then it would be removed.  There seems to be no grace or mercy in this vine parable.  If you see a fruitless branch, you take it away.  Are we missing something?

Let’s look at that verse more closely.  The “takes away” is translated from the Greek “airo”.   Strong’s Dictionary of the Bible has this entry for ‘airo’.  

142. airo, ah´-ee-ro; a primary root; to lift up; by implication, to take up or away; 

This Greek word is where we get the word “air,” which is also used in many English words, such as aerobatics, aerodynamics, and aeroplane (British spelling). All these words have the concept of “lifting up.”

So, the primary definition is to lift up.  The gardener ‘lifts up’ the unfruitful vine.  Does that make any sense to you?   Well, it didn’t to the translators, so instead of putting ‘lift up,’ they decided to use the secondary definition of ‘lift up and take away.’  These translators had never been to a small farm in the Middle East and saw how they grew grapes in Jesus’ day.

You know what modern vineyards look like. The vines are carefully set on elevated supports.   This makes them more fruitful and also easier to harvest. This is a grapevine from my trip to Jordan last year. Many farmers there still grow grapes as they did 2000 years ago, not on elevated trellises but on the ground.

There is one problem with growing grapes on the ground.  The vine tends to put down more roots where it touches the soil.  If the plant puts down roots, it is not spending its energy producing grapes but producing roots.  This makes the branch unproductive.  So when the gardener in Jordan sees this happening, he does exactly what they would have done in Jesus’ day.  They lift up the vine off the ground and put a rock under it.  Then, it will not produce roots but produce fruit.

John 15:2  Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he lifts up.

Remember, in the unfruitful fig tree parable, the owner would dig it up, but the vinedresser, who had cared for that plant for years, wanted to give it another chance.  He would show it special care and see if he can get it to produce.  There is grace.  There is mercy.  If we correctly translate the parable of the vine, we see the same care and mercy.  If the Father sees you are unfaithful, he doesn’t take you away; He lifts you up. 

This has implications for how we treat each other.  Someone leaves the fellowship; they stop coming to church and start putting down roots elsewhere.  The last thing we should do is cut them off or remove them.  We should lift them up.  Lift them up in prayer, lift them up with encouragement, and lift up their spirits with kindness and love.  When our friends stumble in their faith, we should lift them up.

God is looking for fruit.  John the Baptist said,  Repent and bring forth fruits worthy of repentance.  What are these fruits we should be producing?  The crowds before John the Baptist asked the same question.  

Luke 3:10-14   And the crowds asked him, “What then shall we do?” And he answered them, “Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise.”  Tax collectors also came to be baptized and said to him, “Teacher, what shall we do?”   And he said to them, “Collect no more than you are authorized to do.”   Soldiers also asked him, “And we, what shall we do?” And he said to them, “Do not extort money from anyone by threats or by false accusation, and be content with your wages.”

Share from your abundance.  Do the right thing.  If you are a child of God, then act like it.  Imitate your father.  Paul gave us a list to go along with this:

Galatians 5:22-23   But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control;

Jesus wants us to produce fruit, and he will show us grace if we fail to do so.  But as in the fig tree parable, a limit is imposed.  The fig tree has one more year to produce fruit.  If it didn’t, then it would be dug up.

Believing in Jesus and trusting in him is the starting point, not the ending point. If the privilege of being God’s people does not lead to productivity, it leads to judgment. 

Jesus realizes his time is short. He will be crucified in 12 weeks. So, every moment, he finds ways to teach, encourage people, spread the word of the kingdom, and live his life producing as much fruit as he can. 

I want to close by leaving you with a quote from an excellent book by John Piper that had a significant impact on me.  The book is titled “Don’t Waste Your Life,” I first read it 30 years ago, but it is still timely.  Much like Jesus being told of Pilate’s horrible attack on the Galileans, John Piper tells of two women, both about 80 years old, who were serving as missionaries in Africa.  The brakes failed in their car, and they went over a cliff and died instantly.   Piper asked,  “Was that a tragedy?“  “No,” he says, 

“I will tell you what a tragedy is. I will show you how to waste your life. Consider a story from the February 1998 edition of Reader’s Digest, which tells about a couple who “took early retirement from their jobs in the Northeast five years ago when he was 59 and she was 51. Now they live in Punta Gorda, Florida, where they cruise on their 30 foot trawler, play softball and collect shells.” [Piper says,] At first, when I read it I thought it might be a joke. A spoof on the American Dream. But it wasn’t. Tragically, this was the dream: Come to the end of your life—your one and only precious, God-given life—and let the last great work of your life, before you give an account to your Creator, be this: playing softball and collecting shells. Picture them before Christ at the great day of judgment: “Look, Lord. See my shells.” That is a tragedy. And people today are spending billions of dollars to persuade you to embrace that tragic dream. Over against that, I put my protest: Don’t buy it. Don’t waste your life.”2

Jesus had only three months before his crucifixion. He couldn’t waste time complaining about politics or current events; he had fruit to produce.  None of us knows how much time we have left.   Every day is a chance to repent of yesterday’s mistakes and bring fruit worthy of that repentance. In a world filled with bad news, I have good news today.   This day, God has given us a gift.  He has granted us the grace and mercy of another day of life.   As Piper says, please don’t waste it.  Make this day fruitful, lifting up praise to Jesus, lifting up our friends, and lifting up the Kingdom of God.

  1. Not all parables are allegories.  An early church father, Origen of Alexandria, who lived around 200 AD, is called the “father of allegorical interpretation.”  He felt all parables were allegories and had secret allegorical meanings.  Augustine, who lived 200 years later, is also known for making almost every story in the Bible an allegory.  Augustine said the Samaritan in the story of the Good Samaritan is Jesus; the thieves are the devil, the priest and the Levite are the Old Testament, the inn is the church, the innkeeper is Paul, and the money he is given is Paul’s counsel of celibacy.   Sometimes, when viewing all of Jesus’ stories as allegories, we may lose Jesus’ intended meaning.  In this instance, the story loses the purpose Jesus told it for — to answer the question of, “Who is my neighbor?”
  2. Piper, John. Don’t Waste Your Life . 1994.  Crossway.  Location 546, Kindle Edition.

November 28, 27 A.D.  –  Good Samaritan, Bad Questions —   The Year of the Lord’s Favor #60

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , ,

Week 41 ——— Good Samaritan, Bad Questions
Luke 10:25-37 

Jesus’ disciples will be on their two-month mission for a few more weeks. So, we continue to examine some of his teachings. Today, we discuss his most well-known parable, The Good Samaritan.

We talked about parables back in August when we discussed the parable of the four soils.  To review, remember, that was a parable about parables.  As you read the gospels, one-third of Jesus’s teaching is in parables. “Why parables, Jesus? Why don’t you just say what you mean?”

A parable is an ordinary life story told to make a point or teach a lesson.  One definition says a parable is “an allusive narrative which is told for an ulterior motive.  The well-known situation in the story disarms the listener, who is then hit with the lesson.  Soren Kierkegaard (a Danish theologian) said it this way: Parables are a form of indirect communication intended to deceive the hearer into the truth.

It is a way to tell a truth to someone who otherwise might not listen.  We see this in the parable of Nathan in 2 Samuel 12.  David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband.  But David is king and accountable to no one but God.  So Nathan tells David the story of a poor man with only one lamb.  Then, a wealthy man with many herds of sheep takes the poor man’s lamb from him, leaving him with nothing.  The king then becomes angry and says this wealthy man deserves to die. Nathan responds, “You are that man!”  Nathan told a story with an ulterior motive, and it worked.

So when you read a parable, you have to be on the lookout for what truth Jesus’ is trying to convey that someone may not want to hear.  And usually, there is a reason Jesus tells a parable.  There is a background story.   So, let’s start with the background story for the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Luke 10:25-29   And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”   He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?”   And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”   And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

It is a lawyer who comes to Jesus.  This is an expert not in civil law but in Scripture, in the Mosiac Law.  They are typically priests who are not currently functioning in the temple.   He asks Jesus a question, 

“Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”

How would you answer that question?   Here is the standard answer I get:

  1. Confess that you are a sinner
  2. Repent of your sins.
  3. Accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior

Don’t forget that this is not how Jesus answered the question. Jesus frequently answers with a question (actually, two questions). 

What is written in the Law, and how do you follow it?

  1. What is in the law?  (He is asking the expert in the law.)
  2. How do you read it?     How do you understand it?    There is a difference between reading and understanding.  My son, Andrew, has a degree in Math and a PhD in Economics.  Now, I can read papers he has written, but understanding them is another thing.  But there is an even more significant difference here.  In Hebrew, understanding is not just a mental process.  To understand is to do.

And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.”

Now, we have heard this answer before.  In the week Jesus will be crucified, scribes come and ask Jesus what the greatest commandment is, and Jesus gives this answer.   He is quoting Deuteronomy 6:4  and Leviticus 19:18.

And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

And Jesus says, “Great answer!”  So it seems the lawyer and Jesus agree, but then we get to verse 29.

Luke 10:29   But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” 

Why does he need to justify himself?  Didn’t they just agree with each other?   As we read, we see they are not on the same page.  The lawyer has the correct answer, but he has the wrong question.  Why are they not in agreement?  The answer is in the tense of the Greek verb, to do.  The Lawyer asks, ‘What shall I do?’  That verb tense suggests a single limited action — What one thing can I do once and be done?

Amy Jill Levine, in her book Short Stories by Jesus: “The lawyer is thinking of something to check off his to-do list: recite a prayer, offer a sacrifice, drop off a box of macaroni for a food drive, put a 20 in the collection plate. If he is efficient, he can inherit eternal life before lunch.”1

The lawyer asks, “What one thing can I do right now to ensure I have eternal life?

The lawyer’s question seeks a “one and done” answer.  It is a bad question, so Jesus changed it for him.  Jesus says, “Do this, and you will live.”  That “do” Jesus uses is a different tense in Greek.  Whereas the Lawyer’s question is what is the one thing I can do, Jesus’s comment is, ‘Keep doing these things.’  Continually do these things.  Jesus’ imperative “do” focuses not on a single action but on a continuing relationship.

Whereas the lawyer asked about “eternal life,” Jesus reframes what is at stake by urging, “Do this and live.”   The lawyer wants to make sure he will be there in Jesus’ kingdom to come.  But Jesus says if you keep doing those two commandments, you will experience the fullness of life starting right now.  Abundant life with Jesus is forever, but it is not just the length of life but the quality of life you live.  

So, there is a big difference in what the lawyer and Jesus are saying.

We make the same mistake.  Again, if someone goes to any seminary campus and stops a preacher student on the sidewalk and asks,  What is the one thing I can do today to have eternal life?  He gets the answer: Confess your sins and Repent.  Accept Jesus as your lord and savior.  Get baptized.  Check the box. You are done.  You have punched your ticket.  You have your “Get out of Hell Free” card.  

But Jesus tells him there is no one-and-done answer.  The key to living an abundant life is living the way God wants us to live.  It is continually following God step by step. It is about a relationship.

The lawyer realizes that Jesus changed his question on two crucial points.   So, his follow-up question is an attempt to clarify.  “Who is my neighbor?”  But if you ask, “Who is my neighbor?” you ask, “Who is not my neighbor?”  If you ask, “Who am I supposed to love?” you are also asking, “Who do I not have to love? Who is undeserving of my love?  Who can I mark off my list?”

So when Jesus hears that the expert doesn’t understand, he says, “I’m going to need to tell a story.”

Luke 10:30-37  Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead.   Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side.   So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side.   But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.   He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him.

And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’   Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”  He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

First, see how Jesus described the man who falls victim to the robbers.  He is “A man” (generic, no identifier).  There were two ways to identify someone in Jesus’ day:  by how they dressed and by their speech (their language  or accent.)  In the story, Jesus removes both.  So this could be anybody in need.  It could be a Jew, it could be a Roman. There is no way to tell.  There is no way to see if this man fits into a category of people that you would consider helping.  And this is very important.

Then, a priest and a Levite pass by. Priests and Levites were both groups of people descended from Levi. Priests made the sacrifices in the temple at the altar and the incense altar. Levites also worked in the temple, but they were guards, craftsmen, singers, or performed some other supporting function.

They pass by on “the other side.”  Now, Jesus’ audience knew something you don’t know.  They knew the path from Jerusalem to Jericho. It is a journey you don’t take alone, as thieves and bandits hide on the trail.   You have heard it called the ‘Jericho Road,’ but it is nothing like a road.  I have seen it.  It is a path, and there is no “other side.”  They probably snickered when Jesus said, “the other side.”  

Why were the priest and the Levite not willing to help? I have heard people talk about their worries about uncleanness, but this was not a problem with uncleanness. A statute in the Mishna says, “A priest may contract uncleanness because of a neglected corpse.”

The Talmud states,  “As long as there are no other people to look after the burial of a corpse, the duty is incumbent on the first Jew that passes by, without exception, to perform the burial” (Nazir 43b; Jerusalem Talmud, Nazir 56a). Judaism still takes this mandate seriously. That is why Jews stood vigil at Ground Zero until every corpse was recovered. Burying the dead is one of the most important commandments in Judaism, for it is one of the few acts that cannot be repaid by the person who benefits from it.

Similarly, there is the law of Pikuach Nefesh —  saving a life.  You can break almost any command in the Scripture to save a life (laws of ritual purity, Sabbath rest rules, or food rules.)  Saving a life overrules most other commandments.  They can’t tell if he is dead or alive, but either way, God’s law commands them to help him.  But they pass by, struggling to climb over rocks off the trail to avoid helping him.

Let me reference another story from Amy Jill Levine’s book Short Stories by Jesus. This book is an excellent resource for understanding Jesus’ parables.

The best explanation she said she had heard for the refusal of the priest and the Levite to come to the aid of the man in the ditch comes from Martin Luther King Jr.  The last sermon he preached on the Sunday before he was assassinated was about the Good Samaritan.  “I’m going to tell you what my imagination tells me. It’s possible these men were afraid. . . . And so the first question that the priest [and] the Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ . . . But then the Good Samaritan came by, and he reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?’” In that sermon, King announced that he was going to Memphis to support the sanitation workers who were being treated as less than human by the city of Memphis.  King said, “I can not ask, “What will happen to me if I go to Memphis?’  I have to ask, “If I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what will happen to them?” King then went to Memphis, where on Wednesday, he gave his “I Have a Dream speech,” and the following day, he was assassinated. There are bandits on the road.  But our decisions in this life must not be made out of fear, but out of love.2

Jesus continues, “But a Samaritan….”  Suddenly, his listeners are shocked!  It was like saying a dirty word.

We discussed the Samaritans when we talked about Jesus meeting the woman at the well in Samaria.  Simply put, the Samaritans were the people from the Northern Kingdom of Israel who were rejected by the Jews in Judea.  They were not allowed to participate in rebuilding the temple, so they built their own temple on Mt Gerazim.  There were conflicts between the Samaritans and the Jews to the point that in Jesus’ day, they were bitter enemies.  Jesus chooses an enemy to be the hero of his story.  And this makes his point. Neighbor means all, even enemies.

Luke 10:35-37  Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”  He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”

The lawyer can’t even bring himself to say the word ‘Samaritan’ (a curse word).  He did not have a category for a ‘good’ Samaritan. It would be like a modern-day Israelite saying ‘the good Hamas member’ or you saying ‘the good Taliban’ or ‘the good Nazi.’ Jesus’ point is, ‘If we can’t love those we disagree with, then we don’t have a clue what it means to follow me.’

This brings us back to another of Jesus’ messages from the Sermon on the Mount.

Matthew 5:43-45   “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’   But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 

We have discussed several of these “you have heard it said” statements in the past two weeks. Jesus takes an Old Testament teaching and explains God’s wisdom and heart behind it. While it is natural to hate your enemy, Jesus asks us to be like our heavenly Father, who loves all, regardless of their attitude toward him or his laws.

And Jesus concludes with the lawyer, “You go, and do likewise.”  This is the same tense of “do” Jesus used before.  You go and continually do what this Samaritan did.  Day after day, keep doing this, following the path God laid before you.  Again, it is not a one-and-done but a lifetime of being the kind of person God wants us to be.

Jesus didn’t make up this story out of thin air.  Last week, we discussed how Jesus’ story about making an offering when you are fighting with a brother came from Genesis 4, the Bible story of Cain and Abel.  This parable of the Good Samaritan is also straight out of the Old Testament.  Jesus knew the Scriptures.  He knew they contained the wisdom of the Father.  So, he retells these stories in parable form.  Let’s look at the Old Testament real-life story of loving your enemy that inspired the parable of the good Samaritan.

First, the background:
Solomon died in 931 BC, and the kingdom was divided into the northern section, called “Israel,” and the southern section, called “Judah.” Jerusalem is the capital of the south, and Samaria is the capital of the north. At times, they were allies; at times, they were enemies. In 2 Chronicles 28, they were enemies.

2 Chronicles 28:1-4   Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of Yehovah, as his father David had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel. He even made metal images for the Baals, and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according to the abominations of the nations whom Yehovah drove out before the people of Israel.  And he sacrificed and made offerings on the high places and on the hills and under every green tree.

In other words, this king of Judah, Ahaz, was evil.

2 Chronicles 28:5-7   Therefore Yehovah his God gave him into the hand of the king of Syria, who defeated him and took captive a great number of his people and brought them to Damascus. He was also given into the hand of the king of Israel, who struck him with great force.  For Pekah the son of Remaliah [king of Syria] killed 120,000 from Judah in one day, all of them men of valor, because they had forsaken Yehovah, the God of their fathers.  

Because the king of Judah was so wicked, God let the Syrian army attack and took many of them as slaves back to Syria. After Syria wipes out Judah, while they are defenseless, Pekah, the king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, decides it is a good time to attack Judah also.  They killed over 120 thousand in one day and took 200 thousand captive to become slaves.

2 Chronicles 28:8-11   The men of Israel took captive 200,000 of their relatives, women, sons, and daughters. They also took much spoil from them and brought the spoil to Samaria.   But a prophet of Yehovah was there, whose name was Oded, and he went out to meet the army that came to Samaria and said to them, “Behold, because Yehovah, the God of your fathers, was angry with Judah, he gave them into your hand, but you have killed them in a rage that has reached up to heaven.   And now you intend to subjugate the people of Judah and Jerusalem, male and female, as your slaves. Have you not sins of your own against Yehovah your God?   Now hear me, and send back the captives from your relatives whom you have taken, for the fierce wrath of Yehovah is upon you.”

The prophet Oded calls out the men of the Northern kingdom for their cruelty against their brothers from the South.   The prophet said God is about to pour his wrath on you for the way you treated your neighbors to the South.  So look at how they reacted:

2 Chronicles 28:15 And the men who have been mentioned by name rose and took the captives, and with the spoil they clothed all who were naked among them. They clothed them, gave them sandals, provided them with food and drink, and anointed them, and carrying all the feeble among them on donkeys, they brought them to their kinsfolk at Jericho, the city of palm trees. Then they returned to Samaria.

Look at the story’s details and notice they are the exact details of Jesus’s story. The Samaritan clothed the man who was naked. The Samaritan anointed him with oil and wine as a healing balm. The good Samaritan puts the man on his own donkey. He took him to Jericho. The people in 2 Chronicles were from Samaria, what will be the territory of the Samaritans.  This has all happened before.  Jesus takes an event from the Old Testament Scripture, an unusual story where the people at war choose to love their enemies.  Jesus sees the wisdom of God in this story and then uses it to teach a lesson from the law to the expert in the law. 

So the Lawyer asked, “Who is my neighbor?” But Jesus turned his question around again.  His parable doesn’t answer the question of what people fall into the neighbor category because Jesus says there is no category.  All people are neighbors.  All people are worthy of your love and help.  Even enemies should be shown love and care.

.The critical question in this passage is not, “Who is my neighbor?” but “Am I a neighbor?”   Am I treating everyone I pass by as worthy of love and care?  That person on the side of the road who needs help, do I look at them and consider whether they are worthy of you stopping to help them?  Do I categorize people as worthy or unworthy of my help?  It is not about who they are but about who I am.  Am I like my heavenly father who shows love to all?  

  1. Levine, Amy-Jill. Short Stories by Jesus (p. 84). HarperOne. Kindle Edition. 
  2. Ibid, (p. 102). 

August 16, 27 A.D.  Jesus Speaks in Parables #45

David Chupp The 70 Weeks with Jesus Blog , , , ,

Week 26 ———  The Parable of the Four Soils
Matthew 13:10-23 — Mark 4:10-25 — Luke 8:9-18

Matthew 13:1-10   That same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.   And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach.   And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow.   And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.   Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.   Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.   Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.   He who has ears, let him hear.”

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist on February 16 and then spent 40 days in the wilderness.  He returned to John, who proclaimed him the “Lamb of God.” His ministry began on March 30 when some of John’s disciples asked to tag along.  Jesus is preaching, teaching, healing, and casting out demons, and he goes viral.  In just a few months, he has gone from the unknown son of a carpenter in a tiny crossroad town to the most talked about person in Galilee.  He also attracted the attention of the religious leaders, who began to plot ways to have him killed, a task they would accomplish eight months later on April 28.   

We are in the time when Jesus of Nazareth is at the height of his popularity.  People are coming from everywhere to hear him speak or to be healed.   Here in Capernaum, he goes out in the morning to the beach, and great crowds gather.  So he does as he has done before; he goes out in a boat so they can stand on the beach and hear him.  There is a cove near there, which people today call “the cove of the sower.”  You can see from this drone shot below that this would be a great place to teach a crowd, a natural amphitheater.  As the people stand there on the beach, behind them are fields.  This time of the year, the final harvesting of the wheat crop is completed, so the fields are sitting, waiting for the fall rains to soften the ground so they can be plowed and planted in September.  So the crowd can overflow from the beach to the field.

Jesus has something important to teach.  And for the first time, he teaches primarily in parables.  And the first parable he tells, the parable of the soils, is a parable about parables.  I want to deal with the last verse we read this morning first because the disciples ask a question that I have heard many people ask about Jesus:

Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”

As you read the gospels, one-third of Jesus’s teaching is in parables. Why parables, Jesus? Why don’t you just say what you mean?

Jesus didn’t invent parables. There are many in the Old Testament. In Hebrew, they are called mashals.  For example, there is the one in Judges of the trees who wanted to crown themselves a king of the trees.  There is the parable that Nathan told David of the poor man who only had one lamb, but the wealthy neighbor came and took it.  Solomon often taught in parables.  The rabbis around Jesus’ day and afterward often taught in parables, and we have hundreds recorded in the Talmud.  But why teach in parables?

A parable is an ordinary life story told to make a point or teach a lesson.  One definition says a parable is “an allusive narrative which is told for an ulterior motive.  The well-known situation in the story disarms the listener, who is then hit with the lesson.  Soren Kierkegaard (a Danish theologian) said it this way: Parables are a form of indirect communication intended to deceive the hearer into the truth.

We see this in the parable of Nathan in 2 Samuel 12.  David has committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered her husband.  But David is king and accountable to no one but God.  So Nathan tells David the story of a poor man with only one lamb.  Then, a wealthy man with many herds of sheep takes the poor man’s lamb from him, leaving him with nothing.  The king then becomes angry and says this wealthy man deserves to die. Nathan responds, “You are that man!”  Nathan told a story with an ulterior motive, and it worked.

Jesus uses parables to teach, but as with Nathan’s parable, they often involve a lesson people do not want to hear. Jesus uses parables for difficult lessons, usually lessons that challenge what people have been taught for years.  

So, let’s jump into Jesus’s first parable. He tells this one first because it is a parable about parables.

Some call it the parable of the sower, but it is really the parable of the four soils.  Many rabbinic parables compare four things.  Let me give you an example of an ancient rabbinic parable that is similar to this parable of Jesus because it is about how to listen:

There are four types among those who sit in the presence of the rabbis: the sponge, the funnel, the strainer, and the sieve. “The sponge,” which soaks up everything. “The funnel,” which takes in at this end and lets out at the other. “The strainer,” which lets out the wine and retains the dregs. “The sieve,” which removes the chaff and dust and keeps the grain. (Pirke Avot, 5:17)

So which do you think is the better student?  You might be tempted to say the sponge that soaks up everything is the best type of student.  They get it all.  And the worst listener is the funnel, for it just lets everything run through.  But look at the wine strainer.  It allows all the good wine to pass through but retains the dregs and contaminants.  Compare that to the sieve.  It removes the chaff and dirt but retains the seed. This is how the rabbis wanted their students to learn, to retain the essential lessons, but filter out the rest.  Paul, who was rabbinically trained, felt the same way about the people who listened to him:

Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” Acts 17:11

Don’t just listen to a message or bible study like a sponge.  Filter what you hear through the scripture.  Carefully consider how the scripture applies to your life, pray for God to open your eyes to his wisdom, and look for ways to be obedient to the Word.

Many of Jesus’ parables are agricultural because many of his listeners were farmers, and all of them depended on the success of the farmers to survive.  You teach using examples people are familiar with.  God even scheduled their religious observances around the farmers.  The beginning of the new year was determined by the first new moon after the barley reached the near-ripe Aviv state. Passover and the feast of Firstfruits happen just before the barley harvest.  Then, 50 days later, it is Pentecost, the wheat harvest time.

But our story today happens in the late summer.  The wheat harvest has ended.  The ground sits fallow for a few months. They wait until after the early rains come in October, which will soften the ground so they can plow it.  But the farmer does not rest.  Two things had to be done before the early rains came.   First, they must burn off the thorns.  If they don’t, then whatever they plant will be choked out.  Next, they must remove the rocks from the field.  Rocks are constantly pushed up to the surface or exposed by the rain.  Typically, farmers collect these rocks on the borders of their fields, as shown in this picture.  

So in the parable, you have seed sown on the path, the rocky ground, among the thorns, and on the good soil.  We talked about this parable in my men’s group last year, and my friend Shane asked, “Why would you sow seed in those other places anyway?  Remember that all their work to farm the land was done by hand.  The seed for wheat was thrown and scattered as they walked through their fields.  So, some would be blown on the rocky places or the paths around the fields.  

Now we move on to the explanation of the parable:  “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8:11).   This is a parable about hearing the word of God.   Notice that the seed that falls in these four places is the same.  Now it is possible that when you plant your garden you might get bad seed.  But that is not the problem here.  God’s word is the seed, and it is always good.  This parable answers why different groups of people can hear the same word but respond in entirely different ways.  So, as you read this parable, you should ask yourself, what kind of soil am I?

Matthew 13:19-23  When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path.  As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.  As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.  As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

The seed on the path, the hard ground. It just sits there.  The birds come and eat it.  Jesus says this represents the evil one ‘snatching it away.’   How does the evil one snatch what you hear out of your head?  It is easy.  Because the ground is so hard, the seed never gets in.  These people listen, but they hear nothing.  They are hard-hearted.  They are the funnel in the rabbi’s parable.  It all just passes in one ear and out the other.    They don’t care about the word. It is like me watching that documentary on British Royalty that my wife was watching on Netflix.  I was in the room and heard the TV, but when it was over, I knew nothing about British royalty.

Then, there is the seed on the rocky ground.  They receive it with joy.  Oh, they like being in church.  They know everyone; they clap and sing and may raise their hands in praise.  But outside the church, being excited about God may not be convenient.  What happens if it is not popular to talk about God? They get quiet. These are the people who like the idea of God and the idea of “going to Heaven,” but they don’t have a genuine personal relationship with the Father.  But Jesus says, “When tribulation or persecution arises.”  We in the US know very little about persecution.  For many years, Christianity has been popular in the US.  For a time, it was good for a business person to be involved in a church.  That helped his business.  It is still true to some extent in the South.  But times are changing.  Church membership may be a negative in some areas.  But tribulation and persecution?  We haven’t yet known that to any degree here.  But in the rest of the world, persecution abounds.

This is a map from opendoors.org that shows the countries in the world with very high and extreme levels of persecution of Christians. 

One in seven Christians in the world is under persecution.  Last year, 4998 Christians were killed for their faith. There are no rocky ground listeners in these countries.  There are no ‘casual Christians.’  If you sit in a church meeting (typically a home church), then you could be arrested or, in several of these countries, killed on the spot.  These people must count the cost anytime they gather to discuss scripture or pray.  They have removed the rocks from their fields.  They desire a deep relationship with God.  If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have taken the risk.

Then there is the seed sown among thorns.

 “Matthew 13:19-23  …As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”   The cares of the world.  Distraction.  I am constantly amazed by an incredibly bizarre thing that happens every Sunday morning in churches all over America. It has happened in every church I have ever attended.  Everyone sits and listens for 30 minutes to someone talk about scripture, about this amazing God who had the power to speak words to make the universe come into existence. And about a heavenly Father who loves us so much that Jesus was willing to suffer for us, to die for our sins and be raised from the dead.  And then afterward, everyone pretends that it didn’t happen.  The last hymn is sung, and then everyone pops up, and it is like this:  “How about those Braves?  Oh, I like your dress!  Did you see ‘The Bachelor’ this week?  That storm last night was intense.  What’s for lunch?”  You may get challenged by God by something said or sung in church.  But as soon as the last hymn is over, your mind turns to other things.  The cares of this world: the weather, the previous ballgame, what’s for lunch?  And whatever it was that challenged you from God’s word is forgotten, and you are none the better.  Or is it that we hear the benediction and assume that God-time is over?   Okay, we did the God stuff for an hour, and now, we’ll move on to the rest of life.

Let me be honest with you for just a minute.  When someone comes up to me after the service and says something like, “I appreciated what you said,” or “Thanks, that really spoke to me,” I desperately want to respond, “Great, what exactly spoke to you? What did you hear that meant something to you?  How will that make a difference in your life?”  But I am guilty of just letting it go.  We all move on to other things.  God-time is over.  But it isn’t.  We are all surrounded by thorns.  Too quickly, we move on because someone somewhere said,  “There are two things you never discuss in public: politics or religion.”  If we can’t talk to each other about how scripture affects us and what God is doing in our lives, then we aren’t people of God.  God was never meant to be a one-hour-a-week God.  He doesn’t take up residence in our hearts on a part-time basis.  If he is our Lord, then it is 24/7.  

But we are taught to separate the world into sacred and secular as if they are two different things. Secular is defined as “denoting  attitudes, activities, or other things with no religious or spiritual basis.”  Let me ask you, where in this world is God absent?  Where do you go without the Holy Spirit within you?  Our whole life, our entire time on this planet, is sacred.  Nothing is outside God.  For a Christian, there is no such thing as secular. 

But we are so easily distracted.  There are always ten other things that clamor for our attention. This is why I take notes when I listen to a sermon.  It helps me focus so I can go home, look up the scripture, and consider things.  Don’t let the cares of this world take away your chance to grow as a Christian.   This is why we have trouble finding time to study the word, pray, or do whatever God has asked us to do.  We are too distracted. 

I’m not saying we can’t be social and talk about current happenings.  But don’t turn off God’s presence in your life.  Find time to share your life with God with others.  Don’t let the thorns get you.  Don’t let the cares of this world steal your chance to be who God wants you to be.

This world is full of people who work hard to avoid thinking about their lives and where they are headed. They constantly seek distraction because they don’t want to think about things with eternal meaning.  Victor Frankl said it this way:

“When a person can’t find a deep sense of meaning, they distract themselves with pleasure.”

Remember when Jesus went to Mary and Martha and Lazarus’ house, and Mary sat at Jesus’ feet to listen to his teaching: 

Luke 10:40-42  “But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.”  But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

Sometimes, we are distracted by good things.  Serving is a good thing, but there is a time to serve and a time to listen.  There is a time to talk about the weather or the ball game and a time to study scripture.  Be careful not to let the evil one snatch away all your opportunities to grow in God’s word.

Then, there is the seed on the good ground that has been properly prepared.  The thorns have been burned off, and the rocks have been removed.  The soil has been tilled and plowed.  It is ready for the seed.  “this is the one who hears the word and understands it.”  The word “understands” means considering and contemplating what he hears.  Then Jesus says, “He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”  Note the reverse order of the yield. Usually, we would say, “30 times, 60 times, a hundred times.” A hundred times the yield is a harvest almost beyond belief.  Jesus is here emphasizing the hundredfold because he wants his Bible-aware listeners to remember someone in the Bible who harvested that amount.

Gen. 26:12   And Isaac sowed in that land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. Yehovah blessed him.   

Jesus is telling his listeners that they can be blessed like Isaac, one of their patriarchs, one they revered. The story is even richer if you know the context.  If you don’t, then go back to the first verse of Genesis 26: 

Gen. 26:1   Now there was a famine in the land.   

Isaac is reaping this massive crop amid a famine in the land.   Everyone else can’t find food, and Isaac raises this amazing bumper crop.   We are living in a time of famine, a moral famine.  The world has pursued pleasure to such extremes that morality is no longer considered important.  Right and wrong are no longer the standard.  For most of the world, God is becoming irrelevant.  The spiritual famine is real.  But Jesus says that despite this famine, you can bear fruit in a fantastic harvest if you are the good soil. 

You must properly prepare yourself to hear the word of God.  How do you prepare?   Have an ongoing relationship with God, listen and carefully consider the Word, and don’t let the cares of this world choke out your life.  If you do this, you will reap blessings you can’t even imagine.

Matthew 13:10-15   Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”   And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.  For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.  This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.  Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
“‘“You will indeed hear but never understand,
and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
   For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and with their ears they can barely hear,
and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
and turn, and I would heal them.’

This makes it sound like Jesus is hiding the truth of scripture on purpose from some.  But you have to know the context of the quote he is giving here from the book of Isaiah.  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6 because things are as they were in Isaiah’s day.  It was a time when people had turned away from God.  Even the priests and religious leaders had settled into a pattern of going through the motions of religion without truly honoring Yehovah.  They heard the Scripture, but they could not understand.  God called Isaiah to try to get the people to return to God and repent.  But they did not listen.  Jesus finds the people in the same situation.  The people listen to the scripture but do not “hear” it.  For Jesus, the word ‘hear’ is the Hebrew ‘shmah’, which means listening and obeying.  Jesus sees the people listening to God’s word and then ignoring it.  Without obedience, they haven’t really heard. And that is why Jesus says:  “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Jesus says this a lot.)  You only understand it if you know the Hebrew verb shmah.  He says: ”If you are able to listen, then you had better obey.”

Notice that every soil gets the same seed.  The difference is the soil.  Everyone hears the same words from Jesus.  Some respond with thankfulness and worship, and others respond with anger—the same words but very different responses.  And Jesus says the difference is what type of soil you are. 

Brad Young tells the story of being in Israel during the time of year when farmers were working hard to prepare their fields.  They had burned off the thorns and were working to get the rocks out of the field.  Some were lugging heavy stones back to the boundary; One was pounding on a huge rock to break it up so it could be moved.  And he watched him for a while, sweating in the hot sun, and heard God whisper to him.  “Are you willing to do that kind of work to prepare your field, your heart for my words?”

Are you willing?