Today we continue in our series in the Gospel of Mark by looking at what has become known as the Parable of the Sower, and what it says to us about us and about discipleship and the cost of discipleship. The parable is one of 8 parables that are found in all three of the synoptic gospels, that is Matthew, Mark and Luke, which compares to around 33 total parables found in those three. And I say around 33 because there are some arguments about whether some of the stories that some include as parables are actually parables or not. But, this is a significant parable, first because it is one that Jesus explains, or at least seeks to explain, and secondly because of the role it plays in telling the story of Jesus’ ministry. According to New Testament scholar Mary Ann Tolbert in her book Sowing the Gospels, which many consider one of the best books on the gospel of Mark, says of the Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Wicked Tenants, which we will look at next week, that they “present in concise, summary form the Gospel’s view of Jesus: He is the sower of the word and the heir of the vineyard. The first emphasizes his task and the second his identity; together they make up the gospel’s basic narrative.” (122) That is to say that these two parables, although she argues that the Parable of the Sower is the more important of the two, orient us to not only what the gospel is about, and what Jesus’ message is about, but about how to identify the characters in the story and what is to be expected if we truly understand and follow Jesus’ message.
Now, what Jesus’ interpretation of this parable would seem to say is that he intentionally teaches in parables so that some people won’t understand anything about the teachings, but those who are in the know will know, and that as verse 34 later will tell us that Jesus explained everything in private to the disciples. Some of you, in having read some of the parables may agree with that in that you don’t understand what they are saying, although what I always say is that as soon as you think you have the parables figured out you need to go back and read them again because you’ve probably missed something. But that doesn’t match what we see in the actual teachings, because one of the things that we hear about in Mark about the disciples is that they didn’t understand either Jesus’ teachings or what they had just witnessed, because they just don’t get it, and as I said last week the disciples as used as foils for what true discipleship looks like, and so it turns out, counter to what we might expect as we think about the soil in this parable, the disciples, at least right now, are not the ones who yield an abundant harvest. But, although this translation says it’s a secret of the Kingdom that Jesus given to the disciples, an idea we’ll return too, a better translation is probably mystery, and can we ever truly ever understand a mystery? No, that’s why it’s a mystery. Additionally, where is the seed spread? Is it only spread on the good soil? No, it’s spread everywhere, and it doesn’t say that it’s different seed spread in different places. It’s all the same seed, so the efficacy of the growth has nothing to do with the sower or the seed, but with the soil, which is why some suggest that this shouldn’t be called the parable of the sower at all, but instead the parable of the soil.
But, one of the things we do know, although Jesus doesn’t say it, is that he is the sower of the word, as he says, in chapter 1, just after he has begun the call of the disciples, Jesus says that they must go to the neighboring towns in order to proclaim the message, for that is what he came to do. (1:38) and what is that message? It’s that the Kingdom of God has come near, and that plays directly into what is being sowed here, because immediately after this parable, there are two additional parables, also involving seeds, and they have to do with the Kingdom of God. Including one with which most of us are probably familiar, in that Jesus says the Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed, which he says is the smallest of all seeds, even though it’s not, but that from this little seed comes forth a great shrub. If we were to tell it today, we would talk about how an acorn becomes a giant oak, and so to is the Kingdom of God in its growth, from faith. Which seems to be a lot of what it means to be good soil.
Because first there is the seed that falls on the path, and because the path is hard, it doesn’t ever take root, and so the birds come and eat it up. In his interpretation Jesus says this soil are the ones who hear the word, but Satan immediately comes and takes away the word. Now as we think of the gospels, who might it be that Jesus encounters who represent this type of soil? According to Mary Anne Tolbert, this is represented by the scribes and Pharisees, of whom Jesus says about them, quoting from the prophet Isaiah, “This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” That is, it’s not people who have openly rejected God, but even those who talk and the talk, they can quote scripture with the best of them, but they are not in fact followers of the way, because their hearts are not in alignment with what they say they proclaim. Jesus tells us later in Mark that what comes out of us reveals who we are because what comes out of us reveals our hearts, and so it’s not saying “well, they said that, but that’s not who they are.” When in fact, it’s probably exactly who they are. If someone reveals who they are through words and actions, we should trust them.
Second are those who are in rocky ground, and so the seed sprouts, but because it doesn’t have a good root, when the sun comes up it withers away. Jesus says these are people who initially receive the word with joy, but as soon as they face trouble or persecution, they fall away. This group is represented by the disciples themselves who jump in literally with both feet, follow everything, but as soon as the going gets tough, what happens? They run away, again a theme we will come back to. They look like they are firmly rooted, and they are even willing to say that they can drink of the same cup as Jesus, but when push comes to shove, it turns out they can’t. Now we should note that doubt and questioning is not a revealing of shallow roots, as is often said, because even Jesus asks God to take the cup from him. But, the difference is, when it truly matters, they aren’t there, their faith and trust are not there.
The third soil is full of thorns which grows up and chokes the good seed. Jesus says this is the ones who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things choke out the word. In Mark, this is best represented by the rich man who asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus basically says obey the commandments, and the man says he has done all these things his whole life, and then Jesus, looking at him with love, which is so important for the answer says, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own and give the money to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.” And we are told that the man went away grieving, because he had many possessions. As Jesus is later to say, and something we should all be paying attention to in these days, especially the church, “For what will it profit you if you gain the whole world and forfeit their life? What are the things we are willing to put before God, the things we prioritize as being more important? Because what the man shows us, like the scribes and the Pharisees, is that you can think of yourself as being religious, there might even be growth, because the seed is growing along with the thorns, but is it the right kind of growth? You can be coming to church every week and saying all the right things, but still not be growing in faith because it’s being choked out by the things that are truly important to us? One way to find out is to ask yourself what you are passionate about, and then look at how much time you are spending on that, or how much money you are spending on that, or how much energy or thought or concentration, and then see if those things match. Or another way is what are you afraid of? What are you fearful of losing? Because what Mark shows is that fear and faith do not go together. The opposite of faith for Mark is not doubt, the opposite of faith is fear.
When the final kind of soil, and not only does it take root, but it brings forth a fantastic harvest of 30, 60 and even a hundredfold, and these are the ones, Jesus says who accept the seed and truly bear the fruit, and it is seen in all aspects of their lives. In the healing stories that take place in Mark, the healings take place because of the faith of the people who are being healed. Even if they might have difficulty understanding, as does the man who asks Jesus if he is able to heal his son who has epilepsy, and Jesus says, “All things can be done for the one who believes,” and the man responds, “I believe, help my unbelief.” And there is the woman with the issue of blood who thinks that if she just touches Jesus’ cloak that she will be healed, or the Syrophoenician woman who begs for her daughter to be healed, all of them, we are told are healed because of their faith. The seed has taken root in their souls and they believe in the good news and that it is for them, and even if they express doubt, that’s more powerful than if they had said they believed but secretly didn’t, or weren’t willing to admit that they doubted, I believe, help my unbelief.
This parable both begin and adds with the injunction to listen! Listen and pay attention, because the truth is I believe that all of us are all four of these types of soil and different times and in different places and on different things. There may be places where we are willing to let the seed penetrate our hearts and to live it out, as does the rich man, but perhaps we reject other parts of the seed because we don’t want to be changed in that area, our hearts are hardened against hearing anything new, and so the seeds are eaten by the birds, they get choked out or maybe even wither and die. But, the good news is that God continues to scatter the seed, even into the toughest soils with the worst conditions, and seeds are tough things. Consider the plants that grow up and break through concrete, then just imagine the power of the words, the seeds of God. But then we have to go a step further and to see these seeds as leading us to the kingdom of God. And what does that look like?
In Jesus’ last disputation with the scribes and Pharisees in Mark, one of the scribes asks Jesus which is the greatest commandment, and Jesus answers that we are to love the Lord our God with all our soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. To this the scribe replies, “You are right teacher… this is much more important than all the whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” That is loving God and neighbor, which means doing something, not just saying words, is more important than all the things that were important, all the things that truly religious people did, and then Jesus responds, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” What is the seed that is scattered? What does seed taking root in good soil look like? What is that mustard seed that grows? it is to love God with all that you are and to love our neighbors, as broadly defined as possible, as ourselves., and the soil produces the harvest is the one that produces fruit for all the world to see.
There were lots of events in this past week that had me shaking my head and thinking of good soil and the fruit of the Spirit and of a portion of the prayer of confession for communion. There was the woman in Baltimore who was dumped by a hospital in the middle of a freezing night at a bus stop covered only in a hospital gown. There was a preacher “confessing” to having sexually assaulted a teenager at a prior church, and he only said something because the victim had told her story, again because the first church did not do anything, and he received a standing ovation from his congregation, and we might compare that to the church that suspended the man who had been the senior pastor when it happened, and who didn’t do anything, and who was suspended. And then of course there was the presidents remarks this week which also happened to fall on the eve of the 8th anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti, in which several members of UMCOR were killed because they were doing there trying to make people’s lives better, not condemning them or ignoring their conditions, and I couldn’t help but say to myself that confession, “We have not done your will, we have broken your law, we have rebelled against your love, we have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us we pray.”
And of course, I couldn’t also help to think of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., educated at a United Methodist seminary, who called us to be better than we are, to strive for the Kingdom of God, and to resort to the better angels of our nature. And who said, while he sat in a jail in Birmingham and was being questioned by white clergy why he was there, “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here… Moreover, I am cognizant of the interrelatedness of all communities and states. I cannot sit idly by in Atlanta and not be concerned about what happens in Birmingham. Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly…. Anyone who lives inside the United States can never be considered an outsider anywhere within its bounds.”
We should change that to say, anyone on this plant can never be considered and outsider. But, as King and others also knew only to well, because they knew Jesus, that proclaiming the good news and the Kingdom of God does not come without sacrifice, pain and suffering. That message is at the heart of Jesus message to us to pick up our cross, and to follow. That to be the good soil, we must open our hearts, to shatter our hardened hearts, and to allow the seed, the word of God, to penetrate our souls. If we are not being challenged by the word of God, then we are not listening closely enough. Listen, Jesus implores us. Listen and act, Jesus says. Listen and truly hear, because the seed is good, but it is up to us to be ready and prepared.
So, let me close with this passage from a Prophet crying out in the wilderness, the prophet Isaiah, who says, “Ho, (that is listen) everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price… Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live… For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord, For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the thing for which I sent it. For you shall go out in joy, and be led back in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” May the world be a better place because we are in it. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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