We know that Jesus liked to use parables as part of his teaching toolkit. A parable is an open-ended story designed to engage its hearers and move their minds and hearts beyond where they have been until now. They can have an unexpected twist and frequently end with a question. Scripture scholars have made it clear that the gospels were not dictated by Jesus to the evangelists. They picked and chose what they felt was important for their listeners and, later, their readers. And they added their own spin. Much of the commentary on the parables that Jesus told was added later as the gospels were edited to address issues in the community for whom the gospel was put into its final, written form.
One of the most popular of these teaching tales was the parable of the sower and the seeds. It appears in all three synoptic gospels (Mark 4:3-9; Matthew 13:4-9; Luke 8:5-8). It is usually placed first among Jesus’ parables, so the evangelists who did the editing seemed to have thought it had a clearly vital message. Perhaps because they themselves experienced in their ministry what Jesus taught through this parable.
It goes like this: a farm worker went out to plant a crop of grain. The method used was what was later described as broadcasting. Take a handful of seeds and fling them out with a wide sweeping motion as you walk along. Afterward, a plowman would come along and loosen the soil to better receive and to germinate the seeds. Even if you were very careful and accurate with your broadcasting, inevitably some seed would land on ground that wasn’t suitable for growing grain.
Jesus continues. Some of the seed fell on a path that lined, or maybe even cut across, the field. Some seed fell on patches that had so much rock and stone that it wasn’t reasonable to even try to clear it all. Some seed fell among thorns – those tough, stubborn weeds whose own seeds blew in from everywhere. Some seed (hopefully most of it!) fell on good soil.
What happened to these seeds? The seed that fell on the well-traveled and beaten path was easy food for the birds or was trampled by the passersby. The seed that fell among the rocks and stones sprouted and sent up its shoots very quickly, because there was no depth to the soil there. The blazing sun burned up the tender plants almost as quickly as they appeared. The seed that fell among the thorns couldn’t compete with those defiant botanical bullies. They sprouted, but got overwhelmed by the competition. The seed that fell on the good soil grew abundantly according to the richness of the nutrients and the timeliness of the rains.
What’s clearly behind this farming tale is what Jesus experienced in his own ministry. Some people got his message and some people didn’t. Some people were too indoctrinated with a hardened mindset and couldn’t even take it in. Some were unable to receive the message because the religious authorities, or their relatives and friends, with persistent opposition, ridicule and critiquing, took away the possibility for them to give the message a fair hearing. Some were shallow. They liked the gentle, beautiful words about love, but couldn’t stand the challenging parts of Jesus’ message (e.g. the consequences of loving to the end, no matter what). Some people enthusiastically embraced the novelty of the message and all the energy around Jesus, but never really took it, or him, seriously. After a time, the fad wore thin and was replaced by other more interesting or entertaining distractions. Some people were able to hear Jesus out – the whole message – and bought into it (both the beautiful and the difficult aspects of it) with their lives. They became abundantly fruitful witnesses of the truth that Jesus was telling and living.
The later commentary identifies the seed as the Word of God. Who “gets it”? Who is able to hear and take to heart the message of God’s love, personally embodied in Jesus himself? Anyone who tries to live and proclaim this message will face the same responses. There is so much that hinders us from wholeheartedly receiving and living out the kind of egoless love that Jesus is! The great twentieth-century German theologian, Karl Rahner, once wrote that the biggest challenge to faith today is everyday life in the world – with all its struggles and suffering. Faith in God and in the Good News of Jesus embraces all that is, and all that can and will be – possibilities we can’t even imagine. Which type of seed are you?
Jana Buckley says:
And so you did as you mentioned a parable often does, ended in a question. Good way to end – on a think moment.
This post made me ponder the writing of the gospels. I had never considered the possibility of the editing process being done, though it makes sense as some books include some events and others may not.
I just always took it for granted that the gospel writers simply wrote the inspired words as if being a secretary taking dictation since the events that do appear in multiple books coincide in their telling quite well.
a43dcb5_wp says:
There was some amazing work done, beginning in the early part of the twentieth century, first by some brilliant Lutheran scripture scholars. They scientifically analyzed all the available ancient gospel texts and fragments and began to notice “layers” in the development: what was common, what was unique, what was older and what was added later. The gospels were first passed on orally, which was the teaching method of the time. Then, as time passed and the followers of Jesus scattered and the first witnesses began to die, pieces were written down and gathered, then there was the first “draft,” finally there was the editing. Since each of the four gospels were produced in a different community, the pieces were chosen to speak to the needs of that faith community at the time. They concluded that the Gospel of Mark was put into written form first. The others used it as a kind of template.