GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 4:18
Weed B Gone
My younger brother, Jim, and I wanted to earn some money, so we went to a local farmer and asked if he had any work he needed doing. I think we may have had visions of driving a tractor or something equally exciting. The farmer did have a job. He took us to a giant field of soybeans behind his machine shed. As I recall, the field stretched about as far as the eye could see. “You see those weeds,” he said, “I need those weeds pulled. Don’t cut them. Pull them out roots and all.” Not exactly the work we had in mind, but we started pulling weeds, row after row. It took quite a while to complete the work in the hot Illinois sun. But when we finished, there was not a weed standing in the whole field. The farmer wanted the weeds pulled out by the roots so they would not sprout from the roots left in the ground and grow back. The whole unwanted weed had to be uprooted and discarded.
As Jesus explained the meaning of the parable of the sower, he said, “And others are those being sown among the thorns; these are those hearing the word.” (Mark 4:18) The soil into which these seeds were sown was not hard like that of the path, or rocky, but good soil—soil, however, which also produced thorns. In the Illinois farmer’s field, the weeds grew along with the soybeans. He did not plant the weeds and neither did the Palestinian farmer. But as the seed sprouted and put forth stalks, so did the weeds—the weed seeds or roots had not been pulled up or dug out.
Of note in Jesus’ description is that the soil was good. The seed took hold, sprouted, and put forth a stalk. At first, the farmer probably had hopes of a fine crop from the early stalks. He could see the early signs of life and growth. It is likely that he did not notice the weed or thorns at first. It may have been hard to distinguish between the early stalks of the seed and the weeds as they grew together. In the early days, the seeds and the thorns may have appeared quite similar. Jesus said these people heard the word; they received the message; they took it in; it began to grow, and so did the thorn bushes.
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