NICOLE STEVENSON
“And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.
No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light. Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away” (Luke 8:4-18).
Have you ever pondered the fact that Jesus said it was given to the disciples to know the secrets of the kingdom of God and yet they often didn’t understand the parables Jesus told anymore than the crowds did? And what about us? Does our confusion about the parables of Jesus mean we don’t have ears to hear?
I used to think the disciples were supposed to know what the parables meant without inquiring, that through a supernatural gifting they should’ve been able to properly interpret what Jesus was saying, and their inability to do so was evidence of weak faith. Why didn’t they understand this parable? How were they any different from anyone else there that day?
Ears to hear
I’ve since come to believe that while it was given to the disciples to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, this fact didn’t necessarily mean they would always understand everything without asking Him for help. They weren’t supposed to be autonomous, but wholly dependent upon God to instruct them in the truth. Strong faith doesn’t mean autonomous supernatural power and self-manifested wisdom; it means humility and complete dependence upon God—the object of one’s faith.
The disciples were certainly given ears to hear! They heard their Shepherd’s voice, and they followed Him (John 10:27), trusting and learning from Him (Matt 11:28). They received His words even when they were hard (Join 6:68-69), but they also had to pursue Him to learn from Him (Matt. 11:28). The more they heard and believed, the more they relied upon Him—not the less.
While it was given to the disciples to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, this knowing seems to have played out, as so many things do, within the tension of God’s sovereign call, and their willful response. What was given to them was access to the source of truth—the Lord Jesus Himself—and contained in this gift was a longing to know more of Him and what He taught.
There’s no way to know the conversations among the crowd as they dispersed after hearing Jesus give this parable. Were they speculating about what Jesus meant or who He was? Were they simply content not to understand? We can’t know. What we do know, though, is that they didn’t pursue Jesus for clarification—His disciples did.
Jesus’ disciples went to the One with the answers when they were confused. They went to the source of all wisdom while admitting their own ignorance.
Jesus’ disciples went to the One with the answers when they were confused. They went to the source of all wisdom while admitting their own ignorance. They were vulnerable and honest before Him about their confusion, and they sought to learn from Him knowing His words were more valuable than anything else this world could offer them.
The disciples were more interested in getting answers from God than they were in trying to privately explain Him to themselves. In contrast, the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders often whispered and grumbled among themselves trying to make sense of Jesus. They were more committed to their need to fuse what they already believed with what they were seeing. They tried to make Jesus fit into their preconceived ideas and were angry and rejecting of Him when He didn’t.
Be careful how you hear
As Jesus explained the parable to His disciples after they inquired of its meaning, He explained the good soil this way, “As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.” Then later he said, “Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he thinks that he has will be taken away.” Here again we see this tension of God sovereignly giving some ears to hear and his command that we be careful how we hear.
I remember well that moment in 2010 when I stepped outside of the building where the Former Adventist Fellowship Conference general sessions were being held. I was deeply confronted with the truth. I had finally heard it. I heard the gospel for the first time in my life, and I knew it was at odds with everything about my life as a Seventh-day Adventists. The moment was heavy, and I had to step outside and be alone in prayer.
God gave me ears to hear Him, to recognize truth, and in a way I can’t explain I began to observe my own thoughts and heart as I sought to determine how I would hear His words. Would I, like the Pharisees and other Jewish leaders, re-interpret them to fit a narrative that would make life more “comfortable” for me, or would I, like the disciples, take them so seriously that I’d be willing to give up everything I knew to learn from Jesus and follow Him anywhere?
Standing there that afternoon I felt the temptation to hold this truth in my hands and turn it over and over as I questioned whether or not it really was all that different from my previous worldview, or whether or not it really demanded all it claimed to demand. I felt myself tempted to allow my heart to deceive me and to soften the blow of truth so that I could keep all I held dear.
It was as if I were determining the soil upon which these seeds would fall. Would I allow the devil to take from me what I’d heard with his age-old question, “Did God really say….?” Would I receive it joyfully but prevent it from taking root by withholding my heart from it and not responding to it with my life? Would I “give it a try” so long as it didn’t interrupt my life as I knew it, then give it up if it did?
In all that temptation, I knew the only right choice as I stood before God was to take His clear words of truth into myself and to allow them to govern my life with an honest heart before Him. The options were clear and only one offered real life— I had to follow Jesus. I had to be a “doer of the word and not a hearer only” (James 1:22-25), I had to take up my cross and follow Him (Matt 16:24). There was no fusing of Adventism with Scripture (2 Cor 6:14-18), and to attempt to do so would mean to reject the true message I’d heard.
This realization didn’t mean I suddenly understood everything I read in Scripture, but it did mean that I’d spend the rest of my life seeking to learn from the One who penned it. I gave up my temptation to privately explain or speculate about God, and He replaced it with a desire to approach Him as my Father to learn from Him instead. It has been given to me to know the heart of God, and I will spend the rest of my life seeking to do just that.
Nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest
“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a jar or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light.”
One temptation to compromise when first learning the gospel as an Adventist is to keep the truth to yourself. We rationalize that it would break our family’s hearts, so we will just keep quiet about it and have a “private” relationship with Jesus.
What happens when we light a lamp and put it under a bed? We start a fire. What if we put it under a jar? It is extinguished. “For nothing is hidden that will not be made manifest, nor is anything secret that will not be known and come to light.”
True faith cannot be hidden forever.
Hiding their faith was also a temptation of the Jewish leaders in the synagogues, but Scripture makes clear that hidden faith betrays cherished idols. “…Many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.” (John 12:42)
True faith acts. True faith aligns with Christ, and Christ calls us to be separate, to proclaim, and to follow in word and deed. This is a scary thought for new former Adventists. We know what is on the line when we openly leave Adventism. Yet walking away from Adventism doesn’t mean walking alone. Anytime we walk toward our God, we are less alone than we’ve ever been.
The God of the Bible calls us to come out of the deceptions of idolatry and touch not the unclean thing. This command always gives me a picture of Rachel tucking her family idols away on her journey into her new life with Jacob. She followed her husband, but not without compromises to comfort herself in the unknown journey.
God says to leave behind all that belongs to what we left, but look at the promise He gives to those who do obey,
“I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty” (2 Cor. 6:16-18).
We are not actually walking away from idolatry if we are taking our idols with us. When we give up our idols we receive the true God of Scripture, and we become His sons and daughters. We are placed in His family and we will never walk alone again.
Manifest the fruit of discipleship.
Whether we are already born again and belong to God or we are just learning the gospel for the first time, I pray that we all hear the words of God with hearts that are honest before Him and that respond to Him in obedience. I pray that we will pursue truth when we don’t understand and that we won’t trust our own intuitions, speculations, or self-deceived compromises about reality. That we will, like the disciples of Christ, go to the one who has the words of eternal life and learn from Him being doers of the word and not hearers only. I pray that we will be careful how we hear so that we may bear much fruit as we walk with our Lord.
“So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31,32).
“You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.” Matt. 5:14-16
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