He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

The Sower, by Vincent van Gogh.  Arles, June 1888.  Kröller-Müller Museum, Netherlands

 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:  "Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

- Matthew 13:1-9

In our recent readings, Jesus has been giving His response to the Pharisees who accused Him of casting out demons by the power of demons (beginning with Friday's reading).  Yesterday we read that Jesus taught:  "When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none.  Then he says, 'I will return to my house from which I came.'  And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order.  Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first.  So shall it also be with this wicked generation."  While He was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother and brothers stood outside, seeking to speak with Him.  Then one said to Him, "Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, seeking to speak with You."  But He answered and said to the one who told Him, "Who is My mother and who are My brothers?"  And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, "Here are My mother and My brothers!  For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother."

 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:  "Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop:  some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"  My study bible explains here that in the Old Testament, metaphors or sowing and harvesting are common (Psalm 126:5; Jeremiah 31:27-30; Hosea 2:21-23; Joel 3:12-14).  This is because these were part of daily life of the people in an agrarian society.  Here, in this first parable, Jesus reveals Himself as the promised Messiah, who is the sower in the earth, as foretold in Isaiah 55:10-13.

Over the course of our next couple of readings, Jesus will explain to His disciples the parable of the Sower, and also why He has begun to preach in parables.  But for today, we will ponder what we've just been given in the text.  Let's note that now great multitudes are gathered together to Him.  There are so many people that He now sits in a boat off the shore, while the people stand on the shore and listen.  At this point in His ministry, He is attracting a great deal of attention, and there are all kinds of people coming to listen.  Moreover, He is already being plotted against by the Pharisees, who have accused Him of working by the ruler of the demons to perform His great works, such as the casting out of demons, for which He is now known.  So there is this dual "track" regarding the reception of His ministry in Israel.  We also know that He has been generally rejected in various cities in which He has done great works (see this reading).  John the Baptist is in prison, and both Jesus and John have come in for criticism of their ministries -- for opposite reasons -- by the leadership.  But Jesus sees John as a holy man, the last of the great prophets, while He has directed John's disciples to tell John of the signs (prophesied as belonging to the time of the Messiah) that accompany His ministry.  The stage is set for Christ's beginning to speak in parables.  Parables are "word-pictures" in the description by study bible gives them.  They are most often given by Jesus as images of the Kingdom, ways in which the hearer may begin to grasp this working of the Kingdom among them.  In today's parable, the first parable Jesus begins with, the image of the Sower is given, and it is a clear image of Christ Himself, sowing His word.  This image was already suggested in Isaiah 55:10-13, as my study bible comments.  Do the crowds understand this, and put it together?  Do the religious leaders, the experts in the Scripture, understand what He is saying?  Can they accept it?  All of this is now left open to question, as the very act of teaching in parables gives us a sense that it is really up to the hearer to affirmatively receive the word He gives.  He is not going to force anyone to have faith in Him, nor even to understand Him.  He is sowing a word -- and whether or not there is fertile ground, or good conditions of the soil and the weather, He will not seek to control.  This implies a confidence in God the Father, a complete trust that Jesus has regarding His mission in the world.  It also gives us a deeply profound sense of respect for the will of human beings.  While it is not up to us to decide what grace does nor how God works in the world, there is a kind of door to our hearts that opens and closes.  We may be that fertile ground.  We may truly desire to hear the word, or ponder it within our hearts.  We may say -- at some depth of level within ourselves we can't even always grasp -- that we simply accept it, assent to it.  Jesus gives varying options in this parable regarding the conditions of the soil and the environment into which the seed falls; that is, He knows the dangers to His word.  This is once again an image of trust in God the Father.  Whatever happens in His ministry, Jesus allows and does not seek to control all of these conditions of the world, trusting that this is simply the way it has to go.  Who will accept?  Who will reject?  Where will the seed fall, and how will it fall?  Even the act of using a parable is a message to us that we also participate in this ministry with our own fertile or not-so-fertile ground.  Jesus' choice to use parables tell us that this mission of the Kingdom in the world is a drama, a story unfolding, in which we also participate -- even by the act of listening.  The parable calls on us to be interested, curious, to want more -- or not.  So much is left up to us.  How much do we want what He is offering?  Do we want to know what this is all about?  And what of all those difficult conditions that meet the seed:  the birds, the sun, and the thorns?  He can't be sure of the outcome, for in Luke's Gospel, He asks, "Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8).  Let us consider the risks to His word, and the trust in the Father asked of Christ.  We, in turn, are asked to live our lives by His example.