Anchor My Faith

Why Do You Not Understand?

Scripture: Matthew 13:19; Mark 4:13-14; Luke 8:11

The problem of the lack of understanding of a parable that we looked at in the previous lesson, carries over into this lesson. When Jesus taught on the parable of the sower, his disciples did not understand and when Jesus was alone with them ^{Mk 4:13} “he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand [any of] the parables?’”

The parable of the sower is so easy to understand, but the disciples don’t get it. It appears that their hearts may be a bit hard, not yet prepared spiritually to understand. Jesus is not talking to his disciples in a spirit of rebuke, but to call attention to the exposition he was about to give; to train them in the right apprehension of his future parables. Jesus will explain this parable to them to help them see how to understand more difficult parables.

Jesus now explains the parable: ^{Lk 8:11} “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God [and] ^{Mk 4:14} the sower sows the word. ^{Mt 13:19} 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.”

Jesus begins by defining the seed, that was sown in different situations, to be the word of God. Those who heard Jesus teach the parable could easily imagine the seed being placed in the locations mentioned in the parable but would not equate it with the word of God being sown into one’s heart. Jesus is presenting truth in simple physical terms, which will be understood later in spiritual terms. This is true of the Bible. It is a book of truth waiting for those given the ability to understand to open it and apply it to their lives.  

The sower of the seed is not named because it can be anyone who proclaims the gospel. According to the great commission, it should be you and I and then our children and grandchildren. Here the sower sows the seed along the path where it was trampled on and the birds came and devoured it. The seed is the word of God and if one does not understand it, the evil one (the birds in the parable) comes and takes away that which was sown in that person.

Jesus continues to teach his disciples by explaining the other three soil conditions. We will cover those explanations until the next lesson.

Prayer

Father, what kind of soil do we have in our hearts? What kind of fruit can we expect from the soil we have? Help us focus on establishing better soil to produce better future harvest.