Jesus: The Word Sower

Introduction

One of the great parables

The Parable of parables

The defining parable by which Justifies His uses of parables as a teaching method, a method, it seems many in the crowd struggled to follow.

Listen carefully to the text of Sacred Scripture, and before we do let us pray...

Mark 4:1–20 ESV

1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, 12 so that “ ‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’ ” 13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17 And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 20 But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

2.

The Equals Sign

If there is a bumper sticker for our age, it is the equals sign. We have all seen them.

Simple Message: All men and women are treated equally here. We do not discriminate. All are welcome here. We don’t recognize outsiders.

Sounds generous, patient, and above all tolerant.

Obvious contrast to the ancien regime in which a Christian, conservative majority— very much did brand and exclude heretics and freaks.

Of course these promises are shallow, clever slight of hand. You will only be tolerated if you acknowledge the new regime, if you commit to seeing the world the way they do, if you follow their rules. If you disagree, you will be branded a heretic, an intolerant bigot, and you will be hounded from the public square.

The reason for this, I trust is easy to see: no one is really willing to tolerate everything. If you you believe in goodness, you will never be willing to tolerate those who stand for and promote evil. So in our day when people define goodness in terms of free, untrammeled sexual self-expression, they simply will not tolerate any who want build fences, where they demand land, lots of land and the starry sky above.