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And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching: "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched; and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"
But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that
'Seeing they may see and not perceive,And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred."
And hearing they may hear and not understand;
Lest they should turn,
And their sins be forgiven them.'"
- Mark 4:1-20
In Friday's reading, we read that Jesus appointed the Twelve. On Saturday, we read they all went into a house. Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, "He is out of His mind." And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, "He has Beelzebub," and "By the ruler of the demons He casts out demons." So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: "How can Satan cast out Satan? If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house. "Assuredly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they may utter, but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is subject to eternal condemnation" -- because they said, "He has an unclean spirit." Then His brothers and His mother came, and standing outside they sent to Him, calling Him. And a multitude was sitting around Him, and they said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are outside seeking You." But He answered them, saying, "Who is My mother, or My brothers?" And He looked around in a circle at those who sat about Him, and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother."
And again He began to teach by the sea. And a great multitude was gathered to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat in it on the sea; and the whole multitude was on the land facing the sea. The first thing we note in today's reading is the great multitude that gathers to listen to Jesus. Mark's Gospel has told us several times now of the great crowds that cause chaos around Him. Here, once again, He's got to use a boat in the sea because of the crowds.
Then He taught them many things by parables, and said to them in His teaching: "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched; and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." And He said to them, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" With the great growth of this ministry came first the appointing of the Twelve, who will be "sent out" as apostles. But a kind of "landmark" in the Gospels is Jesus' preaching to the crowds in parables. My study bible says, "Parables are stories in word-pictures, revealing spiritual truth. The Hebrew and Aramaic words for parable also mean 'allegory,' 'riddle,' or 'proverb.' The Scriptures, especially the Gospels, are filled with parables -- images drawn from daily life in the world to represent and communicate the deep things of God. Parables give us glimpses of Him whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways (Is. 55:8,9)." This is Jesus' beginning parable; in the Synoptic Gospels, it's our introduction to parables.
But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable. And He said to them, "To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that 'seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them.'" My study bible explains: "The mystery is the reality of the presence of the Kingdom itself, revealed in Jesus and perceived by faith." The quotation is from Isaiah 6:9-10. My study bible says that Jesus' quotation refers to hardness of heart as the cause of lack of understanding. (In Thursday's reading, Mark's Gospel told of us Jesus' grief and anger at the hardness of heart of the leadership in the synagogue). Jesus' words prefacing the quotation from Isaiah, so that, tell us that His style of teaching is in the fulfillment of this prophecy.
And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?" My study bible says, "Discipleship requires both that we have a personal relationship with Christ and that we understand what He teaches."
The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." Of the parable as a whole, my study bible says, "The gospel of God's Kingdom is powerful, but our heart response determines its fruitfulness in our lives."
Jesus' explanation here really tells us about the parable; there's not much need to further "explain" if we read the Gospel reading carefully today. But there are two elements here that are important and central of our understanding of what He's teaching us. Those elements are mystery and faith. As far as the parable is concerned, these two things go hand in hand. In other words, the connection to our faith is also our connection to understanding. His very technique of teaching here is clear; He explains it Himself. Some will understand and some will not. Hardness of heart, as we said earlier, has come up earlier in the Gospel. It was used to refer to those in the synagogue who would not countenance Jesus' healing of the man with the withered hand on the sabbath. There, Jesus' grief and anger at their hardness of heart taught that those whose hearts were "callused" (the meaning of this phrase in the Greek) could not sense what was truly just in that situation; they did not share Jesus' compassion for the man who needed healing and wholeness. Here, hardness of heart is linked with the inability to perceive, as in the quotation from Isaiah: "Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand." It's also linked to Jesus' statement to the crowd at the end of the parable (also echoing Isaiah): "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" The heart, then, in Scripture is a center of perceiving, sensing, understanding; the center of a person and what it means to be a person. It is with the heart that we perceive spiritually; it's also in the heart that we harbor all kinds of things we should not. Healing of the heart, in its deepest sense of connection to faith and understanding, is referred to in the quotation from Isaiah, and it's correlated with forgiveness: "Lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them." All of this is to say that our perception of the mysteries of His teaching, His word, and Scripture, is connected to the depth of the rootedness of faith. In this parable, Jesus puts together the things of the heart and connects them to spiritual understanding, and to our own rootedness in faith and its connection in us to the things of God. Faith itself is a great mystery and a gift, and it is more than an assent to a set of values, principles and rules. Faith is something that touches the depths of who we are. It's rooted in the heart and its persistence in us and in our lives covers all things. It opens up doors of perception and understanding, giving us insight, and at its best opens up in us a perception of real justice. This is our goal in faith, a kind of righteousness that is more than following the rules, but sees when "rules" get in the way of God's love and mercy. In some sense, it really doesn't matter what those "rules" are -- they could be social conventions or things we learned growing up that no longer serve what God asks of us as we go the extra mile in asking for God's love and understanding in our lives. In complex situations, nothing is easy; but faith, Jesus tells us here, is linked to our understanding of how to go through them, as well as our persistence in connection to God through difficult times. The heart, in a scriptural sense, is at the center of who we are. Let us remember that deep center is the place where we must persist in our faith, and open up the great gift of understanding that keeps us in His way, whatever life may give to us.
And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?" My study bible says, "Discipleship requires both that we have a personal relationship with Christ and that we understand what He teaches."
The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred." Of the parable as a whole, my study bible says, "The gospel of God's Kingdom is powerful, but our heart response determines its fruitfulness in our lives."
Jesus' explanation here really tells us about the parable; there's not much need to further "explain" if we read the Gospel reading carefully today. But there are two elements here that are important and central of our understanding of what He's teaching us. Those elements are mystery and faith. As far as the parable is concerned, these two things go hand in hand. In other words, the connection to our faith is also our connection to understanding. His very technique of teaching here is clear; He explains it Himself. Some will understand and some will not. Hardness of heart, as we said earlier, has come up earlier in the Gospel. It was used to refer to those in the synagogue who would not countenance Jesus' healing of the man with the withered hand on the sabbath. There, Jesus' grief and anger at their hardness of heart taught that those whose hearts were "callused" (the meaning of this phrase in the Greek) could not sense what was truly just in that situation; they did not share Jesus' compassion for the man who needed healing and wholeness. Here, hardness of heart is linked with the inability to perceive, as in the quotation from Isaiah: "Seeing they may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand." It's also linked to Jesus' statement to the crowd at the end of the parable (also echoing Isaiah): "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" The heart, then, in Scripture is a center of perceiving, sensing, understanding; the center of a person and what it means to be a person. It is with the heart that we perceive spiritually; it's also in the heart that we harbor all kinds of things we should not. Healing of the heart, in its deepest sense of connection to faith and understanding, is referred to in the quotation from Isaiah, and it's correlated with forgiveness: "Lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them." All of this is to say that our perception of the mysteries of His teaching, His word, and Scripture, is connected to the depth of the rootedness of faith. In this parable, Jesus puts together the things of the heart and connects them to spiritual understanding, and to our own rootedness in faith and its connection in us to the things of God. Faith itself is a great mystery and a gift, and it is more than an assent to a set of values, principles and rules. Faith is something that touches the depths of who we are. It's rooted in the heart and its persistence in us and in our lives covers all things. It opens up doors of perception and understanding, giving us insight, and at its best opens up in us a perception of real justice. This is our goal in faith, a kind of righteousness that is more than following the rules, but sees when "rules" get in the way of God's love and mercy. In some sense, it really doesn't matter what those "rules" are -- they could be social conventions or things we learned growing up that no longer serve what God asks of us as we go the extra mile in asking for God's love and understanding in our lives. In complex situations, nothing is easy; but faith, Jesus tells us here, is linked to our understanding of how to go through them, as well as our persistence in connection to God through difficult times. The heart, in a scriptural sense, is at the center of who we are. Let us remember that deep center is the place where we must persist in our faith, and open up the great gift of understanding that keeps us in His way, whatever life may give to us.
