A Sower went out to sow

Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: ‘Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that

“they may indeed look, but not perceive,

and may indeed listen, but not understand;

so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.” ’

And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’

- Mark 4:1-20

Jesus begins preaching in a new way in today's text. This is the first appearance, in Mark's gospel, of a parable. Parables are "word pictures" which are given in order to reveal spiritual truth in a particular way. My study bible notes that the Hebrew and Aramaic words for parable also mean "allegory," "riddle," or "proverb." I find that parables are vivid illustrations, drawn from daily life, but not quite meant to be metaphors or analogies: the drawn-out analogies don't really work; we are to take them as they are given, as vivid illustrations of a point that Jesus is trying to make. This, to my mind, is a really Middle or Near Eastern way of speaking, of telling a story or riddle to make a point.

Again he began to teach beside the lake. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the lake and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the lake on the land. Once more, Mark is presenting us with a picture of Jesus swamped by the crowds, almost overwhelmed with the numbers of people attending his ministry. So, the notion of parables is introduced together with the idea that we have masses of people now attending these talks, great crowds. The parable is a way of addressing large audiences, not all of whom will become disciples; it is a public way of presenting "glimpses of Him whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways" (Isaiah 55:8,9), according to my study bible.

Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!' The parable tells us of the sower and the seed, and what happens or befalls with the reception of the seed, and how it grows. I wonder, would we have access today to our understanding if it were not indeed taught to us in the following paragraphs of the gospel? "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!" Cultivation of "the heart" - the center of our being wherein we find spiritual ears (and eyes) is what is called upon here. It all depends on how we listen.

When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that “they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand, so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.” ’ This last quotation is a reference to Isaiah 6:9,10. To understand requires effort on our part, the development and cultivation of the heart that can truly hear and understand, spiritual eyes and ears.

And he said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.' The parable is explained for his inner circle, and we in turn are given this explanation through this "book of the Church" via the evangelist Mark. We're given four ways of reception of this word, but only one is successful. The first is the word that is immediately "taken away by Satan." We can imagine the forms this may take in our minds, the kinds of dismissal and fears that may preclude our reception of that word. The second is the rocky ground, in which the word is received with joy, but has no depth or root in the person - and when trouble or persecution begins, they fall away. This note, that we who receive are to expect difficulty, tells us something about the nature of the word and its reception and how we grow in that kingdom. We are not to expect it to all be easy. The thorns represent the worldly allures: wealth, power, greed and all that goes with it. Clearly, Jesus is saying, these things get in the way of the productive yield of fruitfulness for the word. Recently I heard a sermon by an Episcopal Seminarian (Deacon Candice Corrigan), and she preached Lent as a time of "making room" for God. If we are tempted by the things of the world to destroy our possible fruitfulness, surely this is a note about what we forgo in order to make room for this kingdom and its works in us and through our lives, and the fruitful reception of the word. Finally, there is the good soil, with full reception. And there the kingdom grows, as is its true and good nature: "they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold."

I can't speak for anyone else, but the older I get, the more I understand the sense of what Jesus is preaching in this parable of the Sower, and especially his explanation. So much depends upon our priorities, what we put first. The cares of the world do indeed choke the word and get in the way. I have seen greed and the lure of wealth or other dreams of personal image get in the way of so much that can be loving and manifest true fruit. I have seen relationships poisoned with such allure. The cares of the world do go hand in hand with this pursuit of the "lure of wealth, and desire for other things." The word is choked indeed in us by such things. Persecutions and trouble send us running from this word in fear. And it's interesting to note that behind these allures and worries and trouble and pain there is indeed the constant theme of fear, the one thing we can associate with that which is against perfect love. (See 1 John 4:18.)

So how do we hear the word? And how do we cultivate the heart that is fully capable of hearing and seeing and knowing, and of persistence in yielding fruit for the word? This is not an easy path; Jesus implies that here when he speaks of the rocky soil. Instead of giving in to all the things that will try to drag us away from the word, the solution is a deeper rootedness, a deeper digging into the soil of the heart to find the way forward in the word, and to bear fruit. We reply to these temptations and fears and the agonies and difficulties of the world with prayer, a prayer to help us to find the way through, in peace with the Word who speaks to us in our hearts. This way we can yield, perhaps a hundredfold, and make that word and its love available also for others, for the difficulties and temptations they go through, the hard time through which they, too, want help to continue to hear and to root that word deeper in their hearts. It's for others as well as ourselves. "Listen!" Jesus tells us, at the beginning and the end of his parable; "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!"