Luke 8:4-15 — Yeah, yeah I heard you......

READ THIS: Luke 8:4-15

4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, “‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’

11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

WHAT’S THIS MEAN, ANYWAY?

This passage is great because Jesus basically writes His own devo on verses 4-8, seen here in verses 11-15. If Jesus' explanation doesn't make sense, feel free to comment below, and we can explain any part of it more! Meanwhile, let's talk a bit about verses 9-10. 

Jesus tells a vague parable and the disciples ask Jesus to explain more. Jesus explains the parable after telling the disciples that they get to know the secrets of God's kingdom, while other people just get the parables. Then, He quotes a verse from Isaiah 6. 

In Isaiah 6, Isaiah is told to prophesy to the people of Judah, even though they won't listen to the prophecy at all. The prophecy was that the people of Judah don't listen to God or really care about Him. These people can see just fine with their two eyes, and they can hear just fine with their ears, but they clearly don't understand what they see and hear because their life doesn't change based on it. The same goes for some of the people listening to Jesus' parables. They hear and see Jesus, but their lives aren't changed because they don't understand. Part of this is to fulfill the Isaiah prophecy, but part of this also just shows how humans are. Humans can have all the ability to understand, but still not get it. It's like when a waiter puts down a hot plate in front of you and says, "hey, don't touch it, it's hot," and we can clearly see the steam, and we clearly hear the warning, but we touch it anyway and act surprised saying, "oh, wow, that IS hot!" The parables as a whole can be pretty straight forward, but it just somehow doesn't fully register for us anyway. 

THINK ABOUT IT:

1. Why does Jesus explain the parables to the disciples? Do you think the disciples kept these kinds of explanations to themselves?

2. What's something that you kind of knew, but you didn't fully KNOW it until you experienced it? (like the hot plate example)

TRY THIS:

Try to plan out an analogy/parable/way of explaining that could help someone who kind of knows Jesus to really KNOW Jesus. Try to think about your answer to number two to help you think about what it takes to really KNOW something!