NOTES for Mar 4:10-23
Explaining the parable of the sower to his disciples, Jesus compares the seed to the word of God that falls into the human heart. What does he mean? Prophetic revelation? Hardly: there have always been few prophets, whereas the parable speaks of sowing on a large, one might say mass, scale.
In Gospel times, however, the word was understood to mean not only prophetic revelation, but also Holy Scripture, and above all, of course, the Torah, which every believing Jew—and there were hardly any others then—studied at school, heard in the synagogue and read at home throughout his life. Yet alongside the Torah as a text, the Jewish tradition of the post-exilic period also knew what is called the inner Torah: the spiritual backbone formed in the heart and soul of everyone who sought to bring his life under the commandments or, as the Torah teachers of that era put it, to “take upon himself the burden of the Torah.”
In his parable, Jesus lists what prevents a person walking the path of righteousness and seeking the Kingdom from acquiring this inner Torah. The first, quite obvious but nevertheless very common obstacle is inattention to what has been heard, to the revelation received from God. The point is, of course, not merely to catch something in passing, but to listen attentively and then reflect on what has been heard. Yet many people fail even to do this and miss the opportunity opening before them.
But listening attentively, and even reflecting, does not yet mean accepting. Acceptance, truly setting out on the path of righteousness and the path of the Kingdom, requires a resolve that many lack. This concerns not only opposition from the forces of evil that permeate the untransfigured world, but also the apparently most ordinary bustle of daily life, familiar to everyone. Anyone with even a little experience of spiritual life knows that this can be an unobtrusive but very serious enemy on the spiritual path.
It often turns out that people who have withstood the test of direct pressure and even persecution cannot withstand the test of everyday bustle. Only those who manage to overcome everything preserve and nurture in their hearts the word they have received in all its fullness, acquiring the inner Torah. And they find the Kingdom to which Jesus bears witness.