Lesson 4: “Parables”
COLLEEN TINKER | Editor, Life Assurance Ministries
Problems with this lesson:
- The lesson, on EGWs authority, explains away the function of “judgment” in Jesus’s parables.
- The lesson misinterprets the parable of the sower because of Adventism’s view of mans’ nature.
- The Teachers Notes tie the parable of growing seed with the kingdom of God and Daniel’s 70-week prophecy.
This week’s Sabbath School lesson addresses Mark 4 and the five parables of Jesus recorded in that chapter. By far the parade that receives the deepest explanation is the “parable of the sower”, sometimes called the “parable of the soils”.
Before looking more closely at this parable, though, we need to look at the way Adventism, on EGWs authority, understands Jesus’s parables in general. Thursday’s lesson tackles the question of “the reason for the parables,” the author uses Mark 4:10–12 as the background passage for the day’s discussion and then attempts to explain that Jesus didn’t really mean what He appeared to say. Let’s look first at Mark 4:10–12, and then we’ll examine the lesson’s argument and compare it to the context of Jesus’s words.
And when He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, [began] asking Him [about] the parables. And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, everything comes in parables, so that WHILE SEEING, THEY MAY SEE AND NOT PERCEIVE, AND WHILE HEARING, THEY MAY HEAR AND NOT UNDERSTAND, LEST THEY RETURN AND BE FORGIVEN.” Mark 4:10–12 LSB
In Matthew’s gospel we find a more detailed account of this same statement and the parable of the soils, and we see what had occurred between Him and the Pharisees before He made this statement to His disciples. In Matthew 11:25–30 we find Jesus grieving the death of John the Baptist and the hard hearts of unrepentant Chorazin and Bethsaida. He prays to His Father and says,
At that time Jesus said, “I praise You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from [the] wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.
“Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight.
“All things have been handed over to Me by My Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father; nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal [Him].” Matthew 11:25-27 LSB
And then He issues a call to anyone who hears His voice:
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.
“For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30 LSB
Then, in Matthew 12, right after declaring to all who heard Him that He Himself is their true rest, Jesus encounters the Pharisees in the infamous Sabbath grainfield experience. He compared Himself and His disciples to his forebear King David and his men who, against the law, took and ate the sacred shewbread yet were not guilty. Both Jesus and David were, at the times of their “illegal” eating, God’s anointed kings over Israel, but in both cases, their anointing was still secret. The public did not know that David had been anointed, and the Pharisees were not aware that Jesus was the anointed one—the Messiah—whom God had promised.
In fact, in Matthew 12 Jesus told the Pharisees something even more shocking to them. He declared that He was “greater than the temple” and announced that He was “Lord of the Sabbath”. The Sabbath was not in authority over HIM; rather, He was the authority over the Sabbath.
To further emphasize His point, Jesus then went into the synagogue where, on the Sabbath, He healed the man with the withered hand, tripping them with a question about their own Sabbath rule: which of them would not lift their own sheep out of a ditch on the Sabbath if the hapless animal fell in?
The Pharisees were filled with rage after this encounter, and they began to plot together how to destroy Him. Matthew then continues with the account of Jesus casting a demon out of a demon-possessed man, and the Pharisees reached critical mass. They accused Jesus of casting out the demon by the power of Beelzebub—the prince of demons, Satan himself.
Again Jesus tripped them over their own practice of casting demons out of people and declared that a house divided against itself could not stand. He was not casting out demons by Satan! Rather, if He was casting out demons by the Spirit of God, “then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Mt. 12:28).
Chapter 12 continues with Jesus explaining that the unpardonable sin is attributing to Satan the work of God and saying that a wicked generation would receive no sign from Him except the “sign of Jonah”—a reference to His own resurrection on the third day after His death just as Jonah was vomited by the great fish after three days in its belly.
Matthew 12 concludes with Jesus redefining “family” as His mother and brothers came to speak to Him. Matthew tells us this:
But Jesus answered the one who was telling Him and said, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?”
And stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Behold My mother and My brothers!
“For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.” Matthew 12:48-50 LSB
It was in this context that Jesus then told His parable of the sower. Jesus had just experienced the leaders of the Jews turning a figurative corner. They no longer were merely curious and jealous of Him; they had looked right at Him and had recognized that He was doing what only God could do. He was fulfilling all the prophecies that foretold what the Messiah would do: He was healing and casting out demons. He was forgiving sins! The Pharisees KNEW He had to be God. They knew the prophecies that He was fulfilling—but they refused to believe.
Not only did they refuse to believe, but they attributed His miracles to SATAN! Their disclosed their evil hearts—and Jesus began teaching differently in their presence. Here is Matthew’s account of Jesus’ discussion with them:
And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”
And Jesus answered and said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
“For whoever has, to him [more] shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.
“Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
“And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING, BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, AND WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR, AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, LEST THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’
“But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear.
“For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see [it], and to hear what you hear, and did not hear [it].” Matthew 13:10-17 LSB
Jesus was fulfilling the words God had spoken to Isaiah centuries before when, ironically, the prophet had been assigned to call hard-hearted Israel to repentance before God’s judgment would fall on them and they would be exiled and absorbed into Assyria. God told Isaiah that even though he gave them God’s message to repent, most of them would not because their hearts were so hard that hearing God’s word would only make them more hard and rebellious.
Now Jesus is explaining that in their generation, with the promised Messiah standing among them and with their plainly seeing that He was from God and was doing the works that only God could do, their arrogant, unbelieving hearts were hardening more.
Jesus quoted Isaiah to explain why He would no longer plainly preach repentance and the kingdom of God in their presence. The words of God were hardening their refusal to believe. He would from then on speak in parables only. Those who desired to know and do God’s will would understand His meaning and seek more truth; those who had rejected him would not be able to pick apart His words of the kingdom any further.
This echoes Jesus’ instructions not to cast one’s pearls before swine, because swine would trample the pearls into the mud and then tear the person who had brought the pearls. Persisting in offering truth to those who refused to hear it only hardens and increases the sin of the hardened one.
The lesson, though, doesn’t explain Jesus’ parables with this context in mind—because EGW didn’t. Tuesday’s lesson actually says this:
In Mark the key for understanding Jesus’ words is found in Mark 3:35. To understand Jesus’ words and teachings, one must do the will of God (Mark 3:35). This brings that person into the family of Jesus. Those who have already decided that Jesus is possessed by the devil will not listen.
The point of Jesus’ quotation from Isaiah 6 is not that God is keeping people out but that their own preconceived ideas and hardness of heart prevent them from accepting the saving truth.
This truth is the overarching concept of the parable of the sower. Each one chooses what type of soil to be. All decide for themselves whether or not they will surrender to Jesus. In the end, we each choose.
The author is saying that people can’t understand Jesus’s parables unless they “do the will of God”. From an Adventist perspective, this idea means keeping the law, especially the fourth commandment. Further, the lesson insists that everyone chooses what type of soil to be. To be sure, we all are commanded to believe when we hear the gospel, but we are not blank slates. We are born dead in sin, and our command to “believe” and to thus do God’s will is a call trust in the Lord Jesus and to pass from death to life. Adventism does not teach that people are born spiritually dead in sin. It does not teach that to do God’s will is to believe in the One whom He sent.
The Holy Spirit is the one who makes God’s word understandable. In fact, since we are all born dead in sin, we cannot on our own rise above our natural state. God has to intervene and show us the truth bring our dead spirits to life through the gospel of our salvation.
EGW and the Parables
Adventism cannot teach the biblical context for Jesus’s use of the parables because EGW contradicted the Bible. She actually wrote that Jesus’s hiding the details of truth was the model for Adventists to use in hiding their peculiar doctrines. She also taught that the parables showed that Jesus used “natural things” to lead to “spiritual things”. She described Jesus as using nature as a teaching tool to help His disciples learn “self-abnegation”. Even more, she said that He gained knowledge and spiritual teaching from nature.
In other words, EGW gave Adventists a picture of Jesus resembling a pagan, or new age, guru who knew how to mine life’s wisdom from the natural world. Here are a few of her quotes:
All points of our faith are not to be borne to the front and presented before the prejudiced crowds. Jesus spoke before the Pharisees and Sadducees in parables, hiding the clearness of truth under symbols and figures, because they would make a wrong use of the truths he presented before them; but to his disciples he spoke plainly. We should learn from Christ’s method of teaching, and be careful not to close the ears of the people by presenting truths which, not being fully explained, they are in no way prepared to receive.…
The truths that we hold in common should be dwelt upon first, and the confidence of the hearers obtained; then as the people can be brought along, we can advance slowly with the matter presented. Great wisdom is needed to present unpopular truth before a prejudiced people in the most cautious manner, that access may be gained to their hearts.—Gospel Workers 92, p. 191, 192
In training His disciples, Jesus chose to withdraw from the confusion of the city to the quiet of the fields and hills, as more in harmony with the lessons of self-abnegation He desired to teach them.—Desire of Ages, p. 291.1
The Scripture says, “All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; … that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.” Matthew 13:34, 35. Natural things were the medium for the spiritual; the things of nature and the life-experience of His hearers were connected with the truths of the written word. Leading thus from the natural to the spiritual kingdom, Christ’s parables are links in the chain of truth that unites man with God, and earth with heaven.—Christ’s Object Lessons, p. 17.2
He who had created all things, was now a child of humanity, and He studied the lessons which His own hand had written in earth and sea and sky. The parables by which, during His ministry, He loved to teach His lessons of truth, show how open His spirit was to the influences of nature, and how, in His youth, He had delighted to gather the spiritual teaching from the surroundings of His daily life. To Jesus the significance of the word and the works of God unfolded gradually, as He was seeking to understand the reason of things, as any youth may seek to understand. The culture of holy thoughts and communings was His. All the windows of His soul were open toward the sun; and in the light of heaven His spiritual nature waxed strong, and His life made manifest the wisdom and grace of God.—Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 442.3
To be sure Jesus used His parables to illustrate the kingdom concepts He was teaching. But it was not His use of nature and His clever illustrations that convinced people to follow Him. Rather He was the One whom the Jews knew was foretold in the Scriptures, and He demonstrated His authority over nature and spoke with the authority of God Himself as He taught the word of God. He was not a gifted teacher who knew how to use common symbols to make His point; rather, He demonstrated and explained who God is, and those who responded to His authority believed.
The parable of the sower describes the nature of men’s naturally-dead hearts. The hard path is understandable; it describes people who have no response at all to the gospel seed. The rocky soil describes people who initially respond to the gospel: it is attractive, and the fellowship of church is uniquely inviting. But this group of people never really submit themselves to the Lord Jesus. They have a superficial response, and when the going gets tough, they disappear. The weedy soil also describes a person who is attracted to the message of the gospel, but like the rich young ruler, they are not willing to give up their attachment to the world. Their worldly concerns choke out the tender gospel plant, and they never grow into mature Christians. They wither and die.
Finally, the good soil represents those who respond fully to the gospel. They receive the “implanted word”, as Peter says, and they commit themselves to the Lord Jesus and to His gospel. They trust everything to Him, and they grow mature gospel plants that eventually bears fruit. After all, bearing fruit is the proof that a plant is alive and mature.
The lesson cannot explain (because Adventism does not believe) that people are born dead and must be brought to spiritual life through believing in the Lord Jesus and His finished work. Thus the parable of the soils is seen as a disciplinary passage, a warning that the reader should examine himself to be sure he or she is obeying the commandments fully, committing to Sabbath-keeping and witnessing to make proselytes.
Instead, the parable is instructive to believers as they see the types of compromised commitment that occurs in any congregation. Only those who are born again and trust the Lord Jesus are secure in Him. Superficial interest wears thin eventually, and people’s true natures eventually win. Only a nature changed and made new is kept by the Lord Himself.
Teachers Confusion
Finally, the Teachers Comments once again wreaked havoc with the context of Mark. In fact, the entire text of the comments tries to explain how Jesus’ parable of the growing seeds found in Mark 4:30–32 is related to the 70-year prophecy of Daniel and to the vision of Daniel 7!
Adventism has to keep reminding its members that everything they read in the Bible must be related to their unique understanding of prophecy. Even in a lesson about Jesus’s parables, they can’t let the text speak for itself. Instead of using the context to understand that Jesus was adapting His teaching to be less direct in front of the blasphemy of the Pharisees’ unbelief while not compromising the kingdom truth He was teaching, EGW and Adventism use the parables as excuses for their own deceptive proselytizing, hiding their gospel-twisting, Jesus-diminishing doctrines behind things the people want to hear.
Furthermore, they miss the explanation of the types of people one finds in the church. People are often shocked when an on-fire person suddenly apostatizes. The parable of the soils explains these sad surprises, and it reveals that even within a local congregation there are always people who need to hear the gospel and trust the Lord Jesus.
The parable of the kingdom seed growing reassures us that God is growing His kingdom. We can’t stop it, and we can’t prevent God’s purposes from being fulfilled. Contrary to the Adventist teaching that the members must finish “the work” for Jesus to return, these parables and all of Jesus’ teaching assure us that He has a day fixed when He will return. The growth of the kingdom is HIS work. We merely carry out the assignments He gives us for the time and place He puts us.
If we have heard the gospel of our salvation and have believed, then we have an eternally secure place in the kingdom. If we have entrusted our sin to Him and believed that He atoned for it by the blood of His cross, if we have received the eternal life that is ours because He broke the curse of death that our sin demanded—then we are good soil that will bear fruit because we are kept by the Lord Jesus Himself.
The Lord asks us to trust Him alone. He asks us to give up our trust in an extra-biblical prophet who subtly twisted Scripture to give Adventists “permission” to be deceptive and to reduce Jesus’ teaching to naturalistic moralisms.
Jesus came to reveal the eternal reality of the kingdom of God and the truth about the human heart. He did not come to show us how to be clever teachers and to use creative teaching aids. His parables were never for the purpose of creatively bypassing people’s resistance. They were always for the revelation of truth while avoiding increasing the sin of a hardened person. His teaching hardened those who refused to believe, and it softened those who wanted to know truth.
What kind of soil are you? Have you believed in the gospel of the Lord Jesus, of His death for your sin, His burial, and His resurrection on the third day which broke death from the inside-out?
If not, look at Him today. Look at your need of a Savior, and trust the One who died for you. He will save you, and He will give you life. Believe today, and live. †
This weekly feature is dedicated to Adventists who are looking for biblical insights into the topics discussed in the Sabbath School lesson quarterly. We post articles which address each lesson as presented in the Sabbath School Bible Study Guide, including biblical commentary on them. We hope you find this material helpful and that you will come to know Jesus and His revelation of Himself in His word in profound biblical ways.
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