Why Some People Never Get It

Mark 4:1-20

In his book Thinking, Fast and Slow, the Nobel Prize winning economist Daniel Kahneman uses a simple puzzle to show the importance of slowing down and paying attention. Kahneman writes, “Do not try to solve [this puzzle] but listen to your intuition:

A bat and a ball cost $1.10.

The bat costs one dollar more than the ball.

How much does the ball cost?”

He writes that most people come up with a quick answer – 10 cents.

The distinctive mark of this easy puzzle is that it evokes an answer that is intuitive, appealing, and wrong. Do the math, and you’ll see. If the ball costs 10 cents, then the total cost will be $1.20 (10 cents for the ball and $1.10 for the bat), not $1.10. Because the bat doesn’t cost $1. It costs $1 more than the ball. The correct answer is 5 cents. The ball costs 5 cents. The bat $1.05, for the total of $1.10.

If you got the puzzle wrong, don’t be discouraged. According to his research, more than 50 percent of students at Harvard, MIT, and Princeton gave the wrong answer. At less selective universities, over 80 percent of students failed the puzzle.

He notes that solving this puzzle doesn’t depend on intelligence as much as it depends on our willingness to slow down, focus intently, and pay attention.

Throughout the Bible and the history of the church, many writers have also emphasized how important it is to slow down, focus intently, and pay attention in our walk with Christ. But as Kahneman’s research proves, paying attention often doesn’t come naturally to us. We have to work at paying attention.[i]

As we follow Jesus, are we paying attention? Or are we cruising along, missing what Jesus is doing around us, and saying to us, and teaching us, and forming in us, along the way. As we follow Jesus, we need to be paying attention.

NOT because Jesus is trying to trick us, or because he’s left mysteries that only the truly spiritually initiated will be able to understand. God isn’t like that. He isn’t trying to trick us, or hide things from us, or gather around himself only the spiritually elite. One look at the makeup of his group of disciples, especially the three closest to him – all three of whom were fishermen who had failed in their educational pursuits –  will remind us of that truth. But we DO have to be paying attention, lest we wander away from him, or miss the point completely. Turn with me to Mark 4:1-20.

Lets look first at Mark 4:1-9. Jesus is surrounded by crowds, and this time, as he teaches, the crowd was so large that he had to get into a small boat and row out a little ways. And this huge crowd was pressing in to listen as he taught, right there on the seashore. They were lining the shore, and he was sitting out in a boat – not way out, far enough out to create the necessary distance to speak effectively but not so far that the people couldn’t hear him.

And he tells them a story. Actually, he tells several stories. In fact, Mark tells us that the 4 parables recorded in Mark 4 are just a sampling of the parables Jesus told. The first one Mark records is a story about a farmer going out to sow seed.

A parable is a story, taken from situations and concepts that are common among the people, but there’s usually a twist to the story that makes the hearer go “Wait a minute …” And in that twist there is often a deeper meaning. So this farmer goes out to sow seed, and he sows the seed indiscriminately. So some of the seed falls along the path along the edge of the field, beaten down and hardened by people and their donkeys and horses walking over it as they come and go. And that seed was easy picking for birds.

Other seed falls on rocky ground, where there’s a layer of rock just under the soil. So the seed sprouts quickly, but when the spring rains give way to the sweltering summer sun, the plants don’t have deep roots and can’t access the water deeper in the soil, so they wither and die.

And then other seeds fell among thorns, thorns that came up with the good plants. And we all know that weeds grow faster than the plants we want, and in conditions the good plants can’t survive. In the dry conditions we’ve had so far this summer, everyone’s yards are brown right? Unless they’re irrigated. But the dandelions and other weeds are doing just fine, aren’t they? I keep expecting an image to come back from the Mars Rover showing a dandelion growing there on the barren planet.

And then yes, some seeds fall on good, fertile soil, and produce a crop. And some produce more of a crop than others. And what’s the “whoa, wait a minute” moment here? The way the farmer so indiscriminately plants the seed he spent good money on. Good farmers wouldn’t do that. They know their land. They know where water tends to pool, drowning plants out. They know where the soil is shallow and cannot produce a healthy crop. They certainly know where the road is. And they know the areas where thorns and weeds tend to grow. And they know to pull out the whole plant and burn it so that it cannot come back.

Yes, in the ancient world, plowing sometimes followed sowing, with the seed being broadcast everywhere and then plowed into the soil. But the normal pattern was still plow, sow, grow, harvest. And people weren’t going to change where they typically walked. Even if the farmer plowed up the road –maybe path is a better term – people coming and going were going to beat it back down again. So why in the world is this farmer out there sowing his incredibly valuable seed – the source of his family’s income for the year – willy nilly wherever it falls. Seems rather careless, doesn’t it?

And therein lies the key to understanding the nature of the one planting the Kingdom of God – God himself, in this world, and in our hearts. Jesus ends the parable by saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” So, do you get it?

Most of the people listening didn’t. So, after he finishes teaching and is alone, his disciples, and others too, according to Mark, found him and asked for an explanation, about why he uses parables in general, and then about the parable of the farmer in particular. And it IS the parable of the farmer. Although the soils figure in prominently too. Look at Vv. 10-13.

It sounds like Jesus is saying, “I’m only saving a few, and keeping my kingdom hidden from everyone else.” But that isn’t what he is saying. He’s actually giving an explanation for why he is experiencing so much opposition. Because Mark chapters 2 and 3 have been all about the opposition Jesus encountered, even early in his ministry. Yes, the crowds are drawn to him. But he’s getting strong opposition from the Pharisees, Scribes, and other religious leaders. Perhaps even the Jewish Sanhedrin at this point. He’s even getting opposition from his own family as they struggle to understand what he is saying and doing. And he’s encountering the misunderstanding of the masses, as they view him as just a powerful miracle worker who can heal, and in their desperation they’re demanding healing, and sometimes missing the bigger picture. He’s answering the unspoken question, “If you’re really from God, why all the opposition and misunderstanding? What’s really happening to the seed God is planting through Jesus?”

The word translated as “mystery” here doesn’t mean something that is unexplainable or something that cannot be understood, as we often use it today. It means something that can only be communicated by God to the human heart. And it isn’t just for the spiritually initiated or the spiritually elite. It is for those who pursue understanding from God. Not by doing certain rites and rituals, or by reading a certain number of chapters of the Bible a day, or by praying a certain number of hours a day. It isn’t a secret code hidden in the pages of Scripture that only some will understand. It is in pursuing Jesus and asking for understanding that we receive it.

Mark tells us that his disciples and others with them (some of the crowd who heard the teaching) FOUND Jesus and asked him questions. They are pursuing him and his further instruction. They admit that they’ve missed the point. So if his own disciples don’t get it, what do we think happened to the rest of the crowd, those who just listened and then went home? Those who didn’t seek out Jesus for more when they didn’t understand? They went home not getting it. Not understanding. Not really. Maybe they thought they did, but didn’t. Maybe they just didn’t care to understand.

But there were some who pursued Jesus and, admitting the limits of their own understanding, asked questions. And Jesus didn’t turn them away. In Matthew 7:7-8, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” No secret handshake or list of things to do. Just ask. Seek. Knock. These few asked, and sought, and knocked, and the door to understanding was opened for them.

The rest see but do not really perceive what they see Jesus doing. They hear, but they do not understand. And they really don’t see the need for forgiveness, so they don’t see the need to really perceive and understand. They’re along for the ride and for what Jesus can do for them – the amazing displays of power and the healing and deliverance, but they really have no desire to know JESUS himself. But there are those who do. There are those who pursue him, who ask, and seek, and knock. Now, look at Vv. 14-20.

You see, there’s no problem with the seed. The seed is the Word of God. Matthew calls it the “Word of the kingdom” (Matt. 13:19). The good news of the love of God made visible and tangible in Jesus Christ. The life, death, and resurrection of Christ. The announcement that the Kingdom of God is available to all who will receive it. And this seed will produce. “So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it” says God through the prophet Isaiah (55:11). The seed is good and will produce, if it falls on the right soil.

And the farmer sows the seed unsparingly. A farmer who sows unsparingly knows that he has an unending supply of seed. And so there is no soil he is unwilling to sow seed on. He doesn’t just sow seed on a certain kind of soil – in the life of a certain kind of person. He sows it everywhere. He invites all to come. To ask, to seek, to knock. The question isn’t God’s willingness to plant the seed of his Kingdom, of his grace and mercy, in our lives. The question is our willingness to receive it.

The heart of the parable is the condition of the soil. Most of us are at least familiar enough with gardens and flower beds to know that some soil is better for growing things than other soil. Look at V. 15. This is hardened life soil. It’s been compacted so tightly by people walking on it that the seed can no longer penetrate. This is the heart that is closed to the Word of God. It doesn’t penetrate at all. But remember, it isn’t necessarily the fault of the soil that it is compacted. Sometimes, it’s simply been walked on too many times. It’s borne too much weight, and is now hard.

And then we have shallow life soil. Look at Vv. 16-17. Sometimes there was a layer of rock a little below the surface. In the ancient world, plows were often simply sharp sticks and only turned over the first few inches of soil. These stones were farther below the surface. The shallow heart receives the Word of God with great joy, but the seed never really penetrates. It’s an emotional connection, but nothing more. There’s nothing wrong with emotion. The love of God should move our emotions just as much as it transforms the way we think, but if our faith never goes deeper than emotion, or than what God can do for us, it will not stand. It will not produce fruit.

Then there’s the divided life soil. Look at Vv. 18-19. This is the soil that contains the seeds of weeds as well as the seed planted by the farmer. There is a weedy root system below the surface. I read these words from a sermon on this passage this week: “Butterfly Christianity [belongs to those] who try to combine with their profession [of faith] a life in and for fashion and frivolity. We cannot withdraw from society … but those who delight in it as the supreme good have already overlaid the germs of spiritual life within them, and will soon become [worldly].

Am I wrong, my friends, when I say that in these thorns we have the great dangers against which gospel hearers in this day and in this place need most of all to guard? They are too largely choking the growth of the word in the city as a whole. They have encroached on our week-day Christianity, and they are gradually invading the sanctuary of the Lord’s day itself; while among individuals they are growing so strong and rank, that they [prayer] closet is too much neglected; family worship has almost disappeared; the weekly prayer and [worship] is ignored, and everything is made to give way to business or pleasure or ambition.

I am no pessimist; but I see in all this a great peril, not only to individuals, but to the Church as a whole, and to the community at large.” Those words were penned and preached by Dr. W.M. Taylor to his congregation in New York, in 1886. The divided, distracted life. This isn’t to say that our lives shouldn’t have pleasure, that we shouldn’t attend to the everyday issues of life, or that wealth in and of itself is bad. But they become weeds when they choke out the Word of God that is at work in us, stunting or stopping it’s growth.

And then there’s the open, receptive, fertile life soil. The soil that receives and nourishes the seed, that receives the sun and the rain to that allow the seed to grow, and that allows the seed to produce a crop. This is the person who hears, really hears, the Word of God. And having heard it, holds it, patiently allowing it to do its work. Now most of us assume that we are in one of these four categories: hardened, shallow, weedy, or fertile. And I’m sure that is sometimes the case. But I think the truth is that we are each one more like the farmer’s field. And there are areas of our lives in which we are closed, not wanting or allowing the Word of God to penetrate. And there are areas where we are shallow. And areas where we are weedy. And areas where we are fertile. Our job is to seek to make as much of the field as fertile as we can so that day by day, month by month, and year by year more and more of the field becomes receptive to the seed and fertile and produces more and more of a crop.

So how do we do that? By paying attention, and cultivating hearts that welcome the Word, whether it is, in the moment, comforting, or challenging, or downright terrifying. We cultivate our hearts to welcome the Word. And unlike the path, where the seed just sits and waits to be devoured by something else, we receive the Word immediately. Unlike the stony soil that prevents the seed from going deep, we receive the Word deeply into our lives, allowing it to penetrate every part of us – our minds, our emotions, and our wills. And unlike the thorny soil, we receive the Word exclusively, not allowing the competing voices of this world – the voices of success and wealth and power and pleasure and influence and security – to take root in our lives too. Fertile soil is soil that receives the word immediately, deeply, and exclusively.

So let me ask the question again – are we paying attention? Or are we missing what God is saying and doing right in front of us? Yes, God’s Kingdom is opposed in this world. Sometimes, Satan steals it. Sometimes, it dies out in the heat of challenge and difficulty and hard times and persecution. Sometimes, it is choked out by competing claims and divided hearts. But it will, in many places, bear fruit. Our job is simply to sow the seed, and let God do with it what God will. Let us pray.

[i] Daniel Kahneman, Thinking, Fast and Slow (Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 2011), pp. 44-45