Why He Spoke in Parables

Mark 4:1-20 gives us the parable of the sower, then a puzzling aside, then the explanation. The parable itself is familiar. A farmer scatters seed. Some falls on the path and birds take it. Some falls on rocky ground, springs up fast, and withers in the sun. Some falls among thorns and is choked. Some falls on good soil and yields a crop beyond expectation. Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.

Then, alone with the disciples, Jesus says something that has troubled readers for centuries. The secret of the kingdom has been given to them, but to those outside everything is said in parables, so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, ever hearing but never understanding. He is quoting Isaiah 6:9-10, words spoken to a prophet sent to a people who would not listen.

What does it mean? At the least, it means that parables are not illustrations designed to make things easier. They are tests of hearing. A parable draws in those who want to understand and lets slide those who do not. The same story that opens one heart closes another, not because Jesus is hiding the truth but because truth told in this form reveals what a listener is made of. The scribes who had just called him demonic would hear the sower and shrug. The disciples would hear it and ask.

That is the connection to the parable's own content. The seed is the same in every case. The soils differ. The word of God does not change to suit the hearer; the hearer is exposed by the word. When the sun of trouble comes, when the thorns of worry grow, what was in the ground becomes visible.

Here is the turn toward life. Every time you hear Scripture, something is being revealed about you, and something is being offered to you. The offering is the same as it was for the twelve: ask. The disciples did not understand the parable either. The difference was that they came to Jesus with the question. That is all good soil is. It is ground that does not pretend to understand, and does not walk away, but asks.