Luke 8:1-18 - The Jesus Show

Presented to each the Nipawin and Tisdale Corps, 15 July 2007
and Swift Current Corps, 16 November 2014
by Captain Michael Ramsay

As a family we rent movies from time to time but, as a rule, I don’t watch TV (we don’t even have one accessible right now) – I find that it takes too much time…but ‘in the old days’ I used to love Monty Python's Flying Circus. I don’t know who remembers it but one of the reasons it was neat was because I have heard said that John Clease, one of the main actors, was actually educated as a lawyer and shortly after becoming a lawyer he was offered two jobs – one as a lawyer and one as a comedian / actor. Like all of us, I’m sure [ha, ha, ha], he chose to be an actor - and as a result he reached more people than he ever could as a lawyer and affected them to an even greater extent. You see, in today’s world the media is a significant way to make an impact on the world; John Clease made an impact.

Shows popular these days include Survivor, Big Brother, Great Race, talk shows like Oprah. I must confess that I’ve never even seen an episode of most of them but I still know about them. These shows make an impact. They have elements of reality that our society at large can understand but they are couched in such a way as to make it exciting – either parodies, intensity of settings, or extreme subject matters: it is entertainment for the mass market and -When one does this, one reaches a lot of people, one gains a lot more exposure for oneself, and one’s message. More exposure than one gets from writing for an academic journal or practicing law, for instance.

Now I was thinking of giving you guys another quiz this week – but I think I’ll hold off for a while…but, I’ll ask you what were your favourite classes in school? …Math, English, Art, lunch: things that you love studying in elementary, secondary or post secondary. Shout them out ...

I just recently returned to (and from) school again –training college, the Salvation Army seminary and I had a favourite thing to study: it was systematic, contextual exegesis pertaining specifically to Jesus’ use of rhetoric to affect his listeners concentrating on metaphoric and parabolic language. Anybody else like that…

Anyway it is basically how Jesus speaks to people. Now there is no doubt that Jesus was smart. He is after all the Son of God. Even as a child he is learned enough to discourse (Luke 2:41ff) with the priests in the temple, later of his teaching, etc, he has followers, disciples, of whom he chooses 12 to be apostles (Lk 6:12-14; Mt 10:1-4; Mk 3:13-14). He is also able to hold his own in many debates and conflicts with the Sadducees, Pharisees, and Priests – the legal, intellectual, and religious leaders of his day. But here is the thing. He didn’t choose to be a lawyer; he doesn’t choose to be an academic; he doesn’t choose to be a priest. He chooses to reach the mass market instead. Sort of like – I never really though of the comparison before but (in this way) sort of like John Clease.

If you aren’t already looking at Luke, Chapter 8, I invite you to turn to it now.
Now Jesus was very popular and –just like today’s TV shows – he had many regular followers (verse 4). There were many people who would actually follow Jesus around from town to town as he taught. They would be like the regular viewers of THE JESUS SHOW ... with such sensational acts as turning water into wine, feeding the 4 or 5 thousand, healing the lame and casting demons into pigs and much, much more…tune in next week…and he had many regular followers that did: they followed him from town to town. And a good number of them, like it says in verse 2 and 3, were women and they were so devoted that they even provided for him out of their own resources.

Now, Jesus consciously chose not to speak exclusively in the intellectual language of his time and he chose not to appeal directly only to the elite of society. He chose instead to speak in the language that would attract the common people, the mass market. His message, particularly in Luke’s account, as we’ve discussed previously was for the poor, the needy and the oppressed. And for most of its history until (the second temple was destroyed and) the people finally dispersed in 70 AD, this was the bulk of Hebrews, Israelites, and Judeans.

Even though Jesus has a big following, and just like I don’t always understand what is going on in some of these talk shows and reality shows today, people didn’t always get what Jesus was saying and the many of the intellectual big wigs certainly did not even want to understand. If you look at verse 10 with me, Jesus is quoting Isaiah (Isaiah –6:9-10) and it says there that ‘to you (his disciples, the one’s following him – the regular viewers if you like, the one’s who would never miss the JESUS SHOW.) "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak in parables, so that "looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand.' Now, there is so much to this verse actually. More than I can possible go into here but suffice it to say for now, that this passage quoted from Isaiah is one of the signs pointing to Jesus as the Christ, The Messiah, the Anointed one of God – and not everyone / not everyone / understands…

Well, so do we understand? What is His point in the Parable of the Soils. What is this great message here that he tells to great crowds that come from (verse 4) town after town. Let’s see if we can figure it out.

First, do you remember taking quizzes in school. –Don’t worry, I’m still not going to give you one- I remember Mrs Randall, though, when I was in grade 6, she would come in with some strange one’s –surprise tests - every once and a while. You could never answer the questions but if you turned to the back of the test there was always an answer key. So I would always just flip to the back and copy out the answers.

Now I don’t really know if that was cheating or not or if we were supposed to do that, but as we go through this parable, we’re going to do the same thing – you see the interpretation of the parable is just over there in verses 11-15 and right of the bat, in verse 11, if you’ll look with me, it records that the seed in this story is the word of God. So let’s take that information back to the parable verses 4-8. Verse 5: "A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up.”

So someone is sowing, planting, teaching the word of God and as he does, some of the seed falls on the path and is trampled on or the birds eat it up. Now this is the picture Jesus is painting - and most people at this time in Palestine, since Israel is an agricultural society, understand this. In first century Palestine, instead of a fence between each field, there is be a narrow well-beaten path, like the one mentioned in the parable; these paths are as hard as pavement;[1] and mark off property lines and sections of land. They are also paths to travel.

The image here is of a person walking along with his bag of seeds and tossing them into his field and some of these seeds inevitably fall onto the trodden path where nothing can grow because it is so hard. It is like today if I were trying to through seeds beside the highway. The ones that landed on the road just would not grow.

So Jesus then is letting us know that even as we are faithful in sowing the seed, sharing the gospel, there are those with whom it just won’t take. We need to sow. We need to sow, (it is part of the great commission Matthew 28:16-20), but there are people who just won’t - for whatever reason - let the seed of the word of God grow.

There can be many different reasons for this, I remember a friend of mine – we’ll call her Melissa – and back in the 1980’s she comes to church with us, she comes to Bible study, she is dating a Christian friend of mine and we tell her and talk to her about Jesus all the time –because that is just what we talk about- but the seed just won’t take. And I know her over many years. Her heart is hard (verse 12) and she does not believe. It is sad but she does not believe. We are faithful in sowing, but she appears hard. We are faithful in sowing but she does not believe.

And that is what Jesus is speaking about here in such a way that those, as it says in Mark’s account (Mark 3), those with ears can hear and the regular viewers of the JESUS SHOW can fully understand the sadness of this. Even as we are faithful, some will not believe. And in order to believe we must have faith and faithfulness (Romans 3).

As the faithful planter plants, as the sower sows, as we share the word of God, there is the next ground upon which the seed falls. Verse 6 says that some seed falls on the rocks. This seed starts out well but it whither and it dies. And verse 7 says that some of the seeds that are faithfully sown – some of the seeds fall among thorns and these thorns choke it out.

Now I was in prison for a couple of years – not as an inmate, praise God - but as a minister and a training college cadet. And I loved it very much and my heart weeps for many of them daily. I love my friends there. I really do. Now I was there regularly and preached a bit there over the years and spent a lot of time at the Penn getting to know the guys.

Sadly some of my friends there appear to be the soil of the rock and soil of the weeds. So often you see people’s lives turning around as they are out to the prison church services three, four, and, if possible, five times a week. So often they start to read the word and ponder things of the Lord. So often the Lord gets a hold of their lives and starts to transform them. So often, the seed starts to GROW! And then so often (vs 12) the devil comes along…but it doesn’t need to be this way.

The regular followers of the JESUS SHOW know that the word of God, the gospel, is good news. It is the power to change and because of that we keep sowing the seeds. We keep sharing the good news. We are faithful and we have faith.

And then there are those who receive will it with joy (verse 13). Like some of my friends that do do really well in prison but they don’t have the foundation, they don’t have the background, they don’t have the roots, and when they leave jail they can’t find a town, a church, a Christian, a single person for support. The seed doesn’t take root in their soil. The Word doesn’t take root in their soul. It doesn’t grow. They believe only for a time and then – they fall away.

But it doesn’t need to be this way. The regular followers of the JESUS SHOW know that the gospel is good news. It is itself (cf Romans 1:17-18) the power to change. So we keep sowing the seeds, we keep sharing the gospel.

But still there are they who are like the plants choked by the weeds; there are other friends of ours, as we are faithful and sharing the word of God to them. As we are faithful in planting and sowing, there are those that seem to have that same enthusiasm. They seem to have that same passion for the Word of God. They seem to have that same passion for Christ but then…it changes.

I think of Russell, a friend of mine from jail. He is a great musician. He plays religiously in the church band at the prison; he is amazing. On the outside he is a professional musician. Upon release, he immediately gets involved in a band again. He does really well too and I don’t see or hear from him for over a year, but then just before I leave to come out here actually I see him again – back in prison. Verse 14: “as for those that fell among the thorns, these are the ones 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.”

The rocky and thorny soil is very common in Palestine in Jesus’ day and people (as rocky and thorny soil) are very common in Canada in our day. Is there anything choking the word of God out of our life? Luke spends a lot of time in his Gospel addressing the difficulties of wealth (cf. 12:16; 14:12; 16:1, 19; 18:24 21:1). 18:24 says, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” and we all in Canada, no matter how much we think we lack, are among the wealthiest people ever to live on the planet. Is wealth trying to choke us out of the Kingdom?

Jesus speaks about the pursuit of pleasure (17:27; 21:34) and he speaks of worry (10:41; Ch 12): this comes from trying to take responsibility for that which God has control. Is there something else choking the word of God from our life? Is there something that we spend more energy in doing than reading the word? Is there something we spend more time doing than talking with God? Is there? Are there weeds chocking our growth in Christ? It doesn’t need to be this way. The gospel is good news. It is itself, as it says in Romans 1:17-18, it is itself the power to change us.

And change us it does when it takes root. When we resist the devil, he will flee us. The one who perseveres receives the crown of life, which the Lord has promised (James 1:12). We do not need to be as hard as the beaten path and we certainly should never be discouraged from sowing the seed’s of God’s word. Because look – look at verse 8. There is good news.

Verse 8: “Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold." … "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"; about that good soil, verse 15: ... the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance. And how can they not?

Jesus continues[2]…as he explains a parable with a parable, verses 16-18, how could they not: "No one after lighting a lamp hides it under a jar, or puts it under a bed, but puts it on a lamp stand, so that those who enter may see the light. For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed. Listen, pay attention, He says.

As we are faithful in sowing the seed of God’s word. It will produce fruit. All of us who are in the Kingdom today are there because the Lord’s seed has grown in our soil; it has grown in our soul. And as it grows more and more we can’t help but sow more seeds of the word of God, It is a natural result of our salvation – no one hides a lamp under a lamp stand.

It is the same with our loved ones. We should not be discouraged as we are faithful in sowing the seeds of the gospel of God’s word; we never know really what kind of soil it is landing on…and when it hits good soil LOOK OUT! When it hits good soil its yield will be – as Mark and Matthew each record - “thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold”[3] :l (Mark 4:20; cf. Matthew 13:23).

Remember Melissa, my friend, the one we talked to for days and years, the one who, for a long time was not receptive to the word, well guess what – the seed grew, The seed grew. She was not the soil of the path after all, she was the good soil. The seed grew and produced its fruit. You see the Lord is good. He does not desire that even one should perish. And in the case of Melissa, as we were led, we planted that seed and, as we were led, we watered it for years with prayer – literally for years -after she told us repeatedly that she did not accept that seed. We prayed, we prayed, watered and we prayed, and the Lord remembered Melissa. He heard our prayers and she is in the Kingdom tonight.

Praise the Lord. Halleluiah. And I have that same faith for my friends in and out of jail and I have that same faith for any of you here today and I have that same faith for any of your friends and loved ones here today.

Halleluiah. Praise the Lord and let’s continue watering those seeds in prayer shall we.

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[1] William Barkley, And Jesus Said. (Edinburgh, UK: The Saint Andrew Press, 1972), 18.
[2] The parable of the lamp under the jar follows immediately after this parable is explained; the further parable is I believe a part of Jesus’ explanation of the parable of the soils, for Luke provides no textual indicators for a topical shift in the material of 8:4-21; it is one pericope. cf. Joel B Green, The Gospel of Luke (TNICNT 3: Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, UK: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 315; and R. Alan Culpepper, The Gospel of Luke (NIB 9: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon Press, 1995), 180.
[3] Matthew lists them in a descending order rather than Mark’s ascending order.