Mark 4:10-20 Choking on this World

First Things: Devotions in Mark’s Gospel

Mark 4:10-20 Choking on this World

In this first, foundational parable in Mark’s Gospel, about the seed and the soils, there is one condition that sticks out to me. All of them are important, and I am sure that all of them happen all of the time. But it is the seed sown among thorns that seems to describe what happens so often in our prosperous, frantic culture.

Mark 4:18–19  “And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” 

There are three conditions, three enemies that afflict us in our culture as we seek to heed God’s Word and to feed on Christ: worries; riches; and desires. 

Worries can be translated as “cares” or “anxieties.” It can also include “ambitions” and “preoccupations.” It is the things that occupy our minds, whether negatively, or, as we might think, positively. If I want to get rich, that might be understood as a “positive” ambition, but it certainly might “choke” out my walk with the Lord.

And there are certainly many things in our society or city to worry about, on the one hand, or get excited about, on the other. These things may or may not be good in themselves. But though good, they may not help the “seed” grow in our lives, that “seed” of discipleship that would lead us, change us, and grow us to become more like Jesus.

Would you rather be rich or poor? Dumb question, right? But there is a “deceitfulness” to riches that is not true of poverty. When rich, we are led to believe that we can be self-sufficient. It may contribute to a notion that we are better, smarter, more skilled than others who are less rich. It is a worldly way of evaluating self and others, and puts us on the wrong track, away from Christ.

And then there is that general word, “desire.” God created us as creatures of desire. We want things. This is not necessarily wrong, except when those desires come unhinged from God’s will. That’s why this word “desire” is often translated “lust.” It is then a love for something that has gone out of bounds, which no longer takes the other person into account, but concentrates on what’s in it for me. And it can be a major choking mechanism in our lives.

Perhaps the seed has been sown in your life. Can it even be found amidst all else that grows around it? Is there some weeding that needs to be done?