Who’s Winning?
By Tom Shepherd

A Commentary on the Sabbath School Lesson for April 16–22, 2005, "By Galilee"

I like baseball. I’m a Chicago Cubs fan. That probably says it all. Will they ever make it to the World Series again? Have you ever felt the same way about your life? Never quite making it? Up and down, with mostly down? Surprisingly, there seems to be a lot of this sort of thing in Mark 4 and 5.

Mark 4 is a set of parables. Central to this chapter is the parable of the Sower. At first glance, the farmer in the story doesn’t seem very successful. Four kinds of soil are in view: a hard path; stony, shallow ground; a weed patch; and finally good soil. All the soils receive the same kind of seed, but only one type produces a harvest.

As the story unfolds, Jesus tells the outcome for the seed in each of the four types of soil. In each case, the length of time to reach the end of the story becomes longer.

Birds probably ate the seeds on the path the same day it was sown. The stony, shallow ground’s seeds probably came up in a week and were scorched in the same amount of time. The weedy ground had seeds growing, but over a period of months the weeds choked out the good seeds. The longest story of all is that of the good soil, where a crop took perhaps four months to reach maturity—but it was well worth the wait since the seeds produced thirty to one hundred times the amount sown.

So what is the point of this story? It seems that you cannot trifle with the Word of God. Jesus said there are roadblocks that can prevent it having its desired effect in one’s life—Satan snatches things away, persecution discourages the heart, the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke out the power of the gospel. It sounds rather discouraging, like our team is not winning. Is it our fate to be the "Chicago Cubs" of spiritual life?

It need not be so.1 Jesus said that the good soil had three characteristics: the people it represents Heard the Word, Received the Word,2 and Bore Fruit, or Reproduced the Word. Everyone hears the Word of God at one time or another, but do we embrace it and love it? That is what has to happen for it really to bear fruit in our life.

Now, if this discourages you even more, you really have to read Mark 5.

In Mark 5, we meet several people who seem to be losing the game. First is a demon-possessed man who meets Jesus in the region of the Gerasenes. His tale of woe is well illustrated in the words of the last part of verse 4: "No one was strong enough to subdue him" (Mark 5:4, NIV).

The man runs up to Jesus and falls down before him in worship, but the demons scream out from within him and plead with Jesus not to send them away. Jesus lets them go into two thousand pigs, which immediately go crazy and end up drowned in the Sea of Galilee. The man is saved, but the local residents think the financial loss of the pigs too big a price and plead for Jesus to leave the region.

It seems like a back-and-forth game—the man is demon possessed (score one for demons). Jesus throws them out (score one for Jesus). The demons don’t leave the region, they get to go into the pigs (score one for demons). But they don’t seem to be able to handle pigs too well; all two thousand die in the lake (score one for Jesus). Then the local people ask Jesus to leave the region (note the parallel to the demons not wanting to leave the region—score one for demons).

But it all ends up with Jesus winning because he sends his disciple—the man cleansed of the demons—back to the region to tell of his salvation (score one for Jesus). If you add up all the points, it does seem tied (demons three, Jesus three). But remember, the last place we saw the demons was in the lake, and the man they had possessed is now on his way back home to tell of Jesus’ power. It seems like losers can become winners.

In the rest of chapter 5, the stories of two women are intertwined. First, we meet Jairus, a synagogue ruler, who pleads with Jesus to come lay his hands on his daughter, who is at the point of death. Without a word, Jesus goes with him, but their progress is hindered by the press of the crowd.

While they are walking, a woman with a twelve-year history of hemorrhage comes up behind Jesus and touches his clothes, believing that the touch would heal her. And indeed it does. But Jesus stops and asks, "Who touched my clothes?" It was a rather strange question to ask in a crowd.

It seems to take some time to find the answer, but finally the woman comes forward, and, after telling her story, hears the words of peace from Jesus: "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be well from your suffering." This is a nice ending to her story, but it creates havoc for Jairus because he gets a message at that very moment that his daughter has died.

How ironic that the delay created by healing the chronic case produces the death of the acute case (the twelve-year-old girl). Strange triage, wouldn’t you say? And it only gets worse because Jesus tells a joke at the funeral—"The child has not died, she is asleep!"

Do you ever feel that life just doesn’t make sense? Does it seem like God is far away, or worse yet, he is making jokes about your troubles? The stories of Mark 4 and 5 bring us both a warning and hope. First the warning: we cannot trifle with God’s Word, we must take it seriously. If we don’t, something is sure to come along and choke out its power in our life, maybe something as simple as an over busy schedule or money.

On the hope side, if you have messed things up, or the situation seems hopeless, know this: things are never hopeless when Jesus comes. He can cast out any demon, heal any disease, even raise the dead. So don’t be discouraged, the game isn’t over yet, and our Big Hitter has just stepped up to plate.

I think he’s going to hit a home run!

Questions to Ponder

1. Can you change from one type of soil to another?

2. Is it easy to be the wrong kind of soil?

3. What can you do to be the right kind?

4. Why did Jesus heal the chronic case first instead of the acute case?

5. Should we always have hope?

Notes

1. The Cubs are going to win the World Series, you know. Just wait and see.
2. The Greek word paradechomai means "to accept, receive, yield assent to, embrace with favor."

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