Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow

 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 hearing they may hear and not understand;
Lest they should turn,
And their sins be forgiven them.'"

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 become 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."

- Mark 4:1-20

Yesterday, we read that after Jesus went on the mountain and chose His twelve disciples, they 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.  Then He taught them many things by parables . . .   An important turning point has happened in Jesus' ministry.  We have read and observed as His fame has become widespread, so that He's swamped by people who just want to touch Him to be healed, even as He teaches by the seashore, outside of the cities and towns.  The religious leadership has taken a side against Him, and seeks ways to discredit Him and do away with Him, as He's taken a stand regarding the Sabbath when they criticized Him.   In yesterday's reading, we saw that "His own people" think He's beside Himself, and the scribes accused Him of working by the power of demons.  Finally, He made a declaration about family and relationship.  He said, "Whoever does the will of God is My brother and My sister and mother."  We can see the evolution of the ministry, and what develops because of it.  In response to the great crowds He has chosen His Twelve, and now a new development:  He begins to preach in 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!"   Jesus begins with a parable, and it is essentially about Himself, what He is doing -- what His ministry is all about.  It is the parable of the Sower.

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.'"   Why parables?  Why this new development?  Jesus quotes from Isaiah 6:9-10.  The emphasis becomes about gathering a people to Him who want to know, who thirst for what the Sower is offering.  We've seen the developments begin through His ministry, the types of division among all the people in their response to His word.  Parables take that action one step further:  those who want what He offers must be those who truly desire the faith connection with Him, who thirst after the word, in whom it takes root.  He responds to divisions and opposition not by greater persuasion, but rather the opposite -- a firm acknowledgement that His ministry works through a voluntary love and faith, a true desire of the heart.  This is how real healing takes place.

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 become 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."  Jesus gives the explanation in private to the disciples, to those who are already voluntarily with Him, who seek the depth of His word.  It's all about how His word takes root in us, throughout our lives, and how we manage to cling to it, and it grows in us.

What is the voluntary nature of a faith in Christ?  Why does He work now in parables -- now that the crowds have grown so great that all and sundry want to know about Him?  It's one thing for people to come in response to His demonstrated healing power.  It's another for people to gather to Him because His word, His teachings, take root within them, so that they hunger for more.  To understand the power and value of the word is to understand that Jesus the Sower is the Messiah (foretold in Isaiah 55:10-13).  And, of course, John's Gospel teaches us that He is the Word.  But there is an important aspect to parables that gives us a particular understanding of just how we are drawn, and that is the essence and importance of mystery.  Parables were already widely in use and traditionally told in Jesus' time to reveal knowledge or tease out wisdom, but it is Jesus who becomes the user par excellence, revealing aspects of the Kingdom that continue to reveal for us 2,000 years later.   The Hebrew and Aramaic words for parable, says my study bible, also mean "allegory," "riddle," or "proverb."  But Jesus' use of the parables goes far beyond simple answers and understandings; rather, they reveal the working of the Kingdom, they reveal the nature of  Christ the Word Himself, and they reveal our way more deeply into His Kingdom.  Such simplicity in teaching, concise revelation through every day things, is a mark of extraordinary capacity for communication:  the perfection of the use of parables.  My study bible calls them "images drawn from daily life in the world to represent and communicate the deep things of God."  They give us "glimpses of Him whose thoughts are not our thoughts and whose ways are not our ways"  (see Isaiah 55:8-9).  The most important thing, perhaps, that we today can understand from the telling of the parables is the essence of mystery that permeates our faith.  Jesus is not here in His mission to the world simply to proclaim a reality and force people to choose "yes" or "no."  He's not here to declare something at once obvious and plain, and complete in our immediate grasp of it.  He's here to lead us into something -- that is, those who really want to follow, in whom His word takes root.  The parables are meant to open the door, but what is beyond the door, His Way for us, is an infinite kind of learning, a deepening understanding, an endless horizon.  It is the way to participation in the Kingdom itself, even to intimate communication in a life with Him.  But the key to the parable is mystery:  He wishes to draw those who desire to be drawn, or more truly, those in whom the word takes root.  Thus "he who has ears to hear, let him hear."  The real power of the parables is that they work for each of us, wherever we are and however we are prepared to hear them.  The stages of the word or seed in the parable of the Sower, and each different type of adversity that seems to fight the word in us seems to me to be a picture not just of different types of situations for different individuals, but things we may all go through at some point in our lives: challenges to our faith.  Parables also give us someplace to latch onto in the struggle of faith, a promise of a process at work, an entry into understanding, whoever we are, whatever we are experiencing.  He leaves it to each of us to choose and to hear as we may, or not.  And He leaves us with a message He will repeat later on to the disciples:   this journey is all about endurance.