NOTES for Mar 4:1-20

Today's reading tells of Jesus' preaching on the shore of the Lake of Gennesaret. Judging by the Gospel accounts, this place was one of Christ's favorite places to preach in Galilee. More people could gather on the shore of the lake than in any synagogue, even the largest one, and the chance of conflict with opponents was somewhat lower there, so no one would have been very likely to interfere with the preaching.

As a rule, Jesus preaches to His listeners by speaking in parables, and then explains the meaning of those parables to His closest disciples, the apostles. This method was generally widespread in the ancient East, and in some countries it is still used just as widely today. In this way the speaker achieved two important aims: he expanded the meaning of what was said and made his listeners think.

The language of a parable is always symbolic, and a symbol is always rich in meanings. Something said in the form of a parable always allows more than one interpretation, and for that reason a parable can convey to the listener truths that could not be adequately expressed, for example, in strict scientific language. In addition, a parable never gives ready-made answers, and therefore the listener or reader must always search for those answers personally, reflecting on the variety of meanings the parable offers. An answer found independently was, of course, remembered and absorbed better than one received in finished form, which only had to be heard and memorized. Thanks to the parables, Jesus' preaching became a form of living communication with those who listened to Him. Without them it would have turned into something like a scholarly lecture, and the Gospel would have resembled a textbook, whose reading may have been useful but most likely would not have brought the joy it brings us today.

And yet, when a parable was not entirely clear to Jesus' closest disciples, He Himself explained it to them, as described in today's passage. An adequate understanding of Jesus' words was absolutely necessary for the apostles: they had a mission to preach, and without such understanding that mission would have been impossible.

The Word is sown without words. Instead of Jesus Christ's teachings about God's Kingdom, the Word itself is sown on Earth (now with a capital letter), in order to bear fruit a hundredfold, to accomplish the mission given to Him by the Father. For the other words, however much they move us, however much they set us aflame, remain only words. No meeting with them is possible; one can love them only as an idea. On Christmas night is born the One who does not yet know how to speak, but in whom the Creator is already speaking with the world, addressing everyone who can hear. How far this conversation will go, whether the Word sown then will dry up or perish, depends on a few people who love their Son, and on everyone who was with them in the Bethlehem cave.

The Parable of the Sower is one of the most famous of Christ's parables. It is given by all three authors of the Synoptic Gospels and therefore recurs in the cycle of liturgical readings. As in each of His parables, here too the Lord reveals to His disciples in images something essential about God and man.

It is quite clear that the image of God in this parable is the sower himself, and the seed is the word of God, as Christ Himself explains to the disciples. He does not dwell on this in detail, but it is important for us to consider every aspect of Christ's comparison of Himself with a sower sowing the word. For the sower receives no guarantees that his labor will bear the desired fruit. He, as it were, gives the seed over into the power of the earth, so that it may have the possibility of bearing fruit. And in the Gospel of John the Lord says this: unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. This is a humble and tragic image, a kind of verbal icon of the Crucified Lamb of God.

Explaining this parable to the disciples, the Lord says that the fruit we bear is ultimately determined by the qualities of ourselves, as that poor or fertile soil into which the word of God falls. Not God, but we ourselves are responsible for keeping the heart from being stone, for keeping thorns from growing thick... From the Sower's point of view, the result of His labor on the Cross depends on us. This is the highest measure of responsibility, at once unbearable and incredibly ennobling for the human person. The fruit that the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, will receive depends on us! For centuries people have been frightened by this responsibility, and still are. One of the most common ideas in religious systems, from antiquity to our own day, is the idea of predestination. People try to shift responsibility for the fruit borne onto the Sower Himself, thinking that some are granted to be good soil and others are not. And only God speaks the truth that determines both the measure of responsibility and the measure of human dignity in the world.

In their polemic against believers, atheists often use various statistical data as an argument. For example, they compare the number of believers according to surveys in academies and universities with the percentage of believers in the country as a whole, and show that the first figure is much smaller than the second. This, they say, proves that faith belongs to uneducated people. The parable the Lord tells us in today's Gospel reading shows the absurdity of calculations of this kind. The small seed, insignificant and unnoticeable... many like it perish, but when placed in gracious soil it bears fruit many, many times greater than itself.

In ancient times, a sevenfold harvest was considered very large, while Christ speaks of a thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and hundredfold harvest. Many think this is hyperbole typical of the language of parables. Maybe so. But it may also testify to how different the laws of the spirit are from the laws of material nature, and how much more grace-filled and blessed they are. Think about it: at our origins stand one Christ and twelve people. And how many of us are there now! Then thirty and sixty and a hundred will seem to you not an exaggeration, but a modest understatement.

The parable of the sower, one of the best-known among the parables of the Lord Jesus Christ, has been handed down to us by three evangelists, and therefore we encounter it many times in the cycle of church readings. First of all, this parable is important for us because of its direct content. The Lord speaks about the reasons why we do not respond to God's call, to His word addressed to us. And these reasons are such that there is room for them in the life of almost every person. It is striking how clearly the Lord sees human nature... For the Creator, of course, this is natural. But it is noteworthy that He gives the explanation of these reasons to the apostles, who are to preach, and whose word will be received with all the difficulties about which the Lord warns them. It is important for the apostles to understand this so that they do not fall into temptation. To all the listeners, however, the Lord offers the parable without commentary, giving them the opportunity to apply it to themselves. This spiritual work is not always simple for people, but if it is done, a great deal becomes visible. And this applies not only to neophytes, but to all Christians. That is why the evangelists included in their narratives not only the parable, but also its explanation.

Also very important is the image of the seed and the sowing, which Christ uses repeatedly and which serves as a symbol of His ministry. The characteristic feature of this image is that the seed does not sprout at once, grows slowly, and requires care. This frees us from the tempting desire to observe the process of its growth in us, giving us the opportunity to focus on God Himself rather than on what He will give us. At the end of today's passage, the Lord Himself specifically emphasizes for the disciples that the seed will certainly sprout, because there is nothing hidden that will not become manifest. This remark of His, spoken to the apostles, is directed especially against a "technological" approach to spiritual growth.

The combination of the explanation of the parable of the sower with the final verses of the fourth chapter of the Gospel seems somewhat illogical. Nevertheless, it supplies one more essential dimension for understanding the parable. Sooner or later, it will become evident how the word that was sown acts within us and what benefits it brings. The impression we make on others and on ourselves will become unimportant and insignificant. What will become evident is how the Word acted within us and how we helped it grow and multiply. Its work cannot remain unnoticed. When the matter at hand is bearing fruit even tenfold, it is absurd to suppose that no one will notice. We may think that no one will ever notice or understand what is happening within us, but what is manifest must become manifest. This is precisely the effect of which Saint Seraphim of Sarov spoke when he said: “Acquire the Holy Spirit—and thousands around you will be saved.”

Many people perceive these words as a kind of classification of people. There are those to whom it is given; everyone else, however much they might wish otherwise, remains outside. But this clearly contradicts Christianity's humanistic universalism. Of course, Christ is describing different states in which our soul finds itself at different moments of our life. At times it resembles stone; then we are deaf both to the word of God and to the problems and needs of other people, and in the end we cannot even tear ourselves away from a monitor or television—or any number of other things—to look at how beautiful the sky is above us. All that remains is to beg the Lord to deliver us from “stony insensibility.” At times we receive another person into ourselves, but only while that person is here beside us speaking about his troubles; once out of sight, he is out of mind. Only in brief moments of life do we feel God's grace within us, when new meanings suddenly open up in the Word and in another person.