Yes, I have taught the Parable of the Sower before, but not like this! This time I am going to teach it within the context of not only the agricultural practices of ancient Israel, but I am also going to tie the different kinds of soil in some possibly surprising ways to the disciples.
Transcript below, somewhat edited even.
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4 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.”
Now you might be saying, “Hey, she’s taught this before!” And you would be correct, but I haven’t taught it in context with the overall narrative of Mark before, which changes the game a bit. Remember that Mark arranges his Gospel into topics that play off of one another. So seeing this as a part of the larger story and not as a parable that just plays on its own (which it does) is going to bring a real richness to what we have studied so far and especially what we will be covering over the next few weeks.
Hi, I am Tyler Dawn Rosenquist and welcome to Character in Context, where I teach the historical and ancient sociological context of Scripture with an eye to developing the character of the Messiah. If you prefer written material, I have five years’ worth of blog at theancientbridge.com as well as my six books available on amazon—including a four-volume curriculum series dedicated to teaching Scriptural context in a way that even kids can understand it, called Context for Kids—and I have two video channels on YouTube with free Bible teachings for both adults and kids. You can find the link for those on my website. Past broadcasts of this program can be found at characterincontext.podbean.com and transcripts can be had for most broadcasts at theancientbridge.com
All Scripture this week comes courtesy of the ESV, the English Standard Version but you can follow along with whatever Bible you want. A list of my resources can be found attached to the transcript for Part two of this series at theancientbridge.com.
So, this week we have another one of what scholars call a “Markan sandwich”—meaning he takes one teaching and inserts it inside another. Our last Markan sandwich was actually what we covered over the last two weeks, namely the Beelzebul accusation wedged into the middle of the drama with Yeshua’s family standing on the outside, also accusing him of being out of His mind. As we covered that in two separate teachings, we will do the same thing this week, so we will be skipping over verses 10-12 and covering them next week when we talk about Isaiah 6.
4 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.
This should look familiar, if you have been following along with this series because, right after Mark 3:6, when the Pharisees went to enlist the Herodians in a plot to kill Him (which evidently went nowhere, presumably since the Herodians probably didn’t care), Yeshua also went to the seaside and taught a great crowd, polys ochlos. Here we see another mention of a boat as well, except this time He actually gets in it whereas last time, He merely had them ready to take Him in the boat, just in case. Last time, the situation was more serious because the Pharisees were plotting His death. This time, He has merely been accused of being in league with Beelzebul (and that accusation would have to be returned to Jerusalem and ruled on before there was any actual danger to His life). Why does He keep retreating to places like the eremos, the wilderness, and the sea? Because these are traditionally the chaotic and dangerous places associated with demonic powers in superstitious cultures (which includes not only first-century Jews but also later Christians, both being quite superstitious until the Middle Ages) and it was in the wilderness that Yeshua battled Satan and won (the temptation incident) and where we will see future victories at sea. Again, Exodus language here—wilderness and sea is where Yahweh traditionally tests and comes through for His people.
And He is sitting in the boat, which was the traditional posture for a teacher to take in those days as well as the safest for a non-fisherman as standing in a boat like this was not for noobs, as I can personally attest to. A large crowd is gathered—and that word for gathered shares the same root word with synagogue.
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.
First thing I want you to notice is that parables is plural. He told them multiple parables in this sitting but that doesn’t mean that Mark recorded them all. Mark notes that Yeshua taught them many things. As you will see over the next three or maybe four weeks, this specific parable is giving an important message for the people who were pointed out to us as “insiders” over the last two weeks. He says, “Listen!” which, as you probably might have guessed, is the word that the Septuagint translators used 701 times out of 854 to replace shema in the Greek, a word meaning both hear and obey. So, this word is seriously authoritative. Yeshua is speaking as one who has the power to command people to both listen and act on what they are hearing, but what are they supposed to act on? We’ll get to that.
“A sower went out to sow.”
Immediately, the focus is placed upon the sower. And, as some background, there is no small debate among scholars what kind of sowing is being referred to here because you could do it one of a couple of ways. Now what’s being described is the broadcast method where the sower just tosses the seeds everywhere, which seems insanely wasteful to us today when most sowing is done by machines and very few of us even plant seeds ourselves but buy plants fully sprouted from the home and garden store. I tell you that in Idaho we have like a four-month growing season, sometimes, but really never any longer than that and sometimes shorter, and unless you want to start everything indoors that’s the way to go. But these sowers would cast the seed everywhere and the question among scholars is—was the ground plowed up before or after the seed was scattered because you can find documentary evidence of both. It isn’t incredibly important, but it is important. Sadly, we can only guess whereas they knew for sure as they were listening and it was where they lived and they all knew how it was done.
We learned in the mishna, among those liable for performing primary categories of labor: One who sows, and one who plows. The Gemara asks: Since, after all, in terms of plowing, one plows first and only then sows, let the tanna teach first one who plows, and afterward let him teach one who sows. The Gemara answers: The tanna ordered the mishna based on the practice in Eretz Yisrael, where they sow first and then plow. In Eretz Yisrael, the practice was to plow a second time after sowing to cover the seeds. (b. Shabbat 73b)
Now, as this was written six hundred years later, it might be right but as it was written by Babylonian Jews who had undoubtedly never set foot in the Land, we can consider it but we cannot call it authoritative. And as you can see, even they don’t agree anyway.
4 And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
Now, at this time and before, in Jewish folklore, the prince of demons Mastema was credited in various Second Temple era sectarian literature—he was considered a sort of demon of disaster and serves the same role as Satan in Job and the Gospels, and Beliar/Belial. As Mastemah is the Hebrew word for hatred and enmity, it seems likely that these would be fictional accounts of Satan called by another name just as he is called the evil one and other such things. Jubilees is a 2nd century BCE Jewish pseudepigraphic (fake name) midrashic (what if) document fictionally attributed to a revelation to Moses. But that isn’t really important, just fluff for your next game of Trivial Pursuit.
Jub 11:10-12 And the prince Mastêmâ sent ravens and birds to devour the seed which was sown in the land, in order to destroy the land, and rob the children of men of their labours. Before they could plough in the seed, the ravens picked (it) from the surface of the ground. And for this reason he called his name Terah because the ravens and the birds reduced them to destitution and devoured their seed. And the years began to be barren, owing to the birds, and they devoured all the fruit of the trees from the trees: it was only with great effort that they could save a little of all the fruit of the earth in their days.
So, just as in the parable of the sower here, we see birds coming to devour the seed that falls along the footpath. Remember this for later because it will be important to remember that birds were being associated with being agents of the enemy in snatching up seed.
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.
That word for rocky is, you guessed it! Petrodes! which comes from petra, which was Peter’s nickname and I am just going to leave it right there because when we get to the interpretation, it bears more than a casual resemblance. And you may be saying, “Why was he scattering on rocky soil in the first place?” Well, you just try and find non-rocky soil in first-century Israel! We are so spoiled in America, lemme tell ya. But the seed here, it couldn’t go deep because of the hard rock, so the seed germinated and popped right up but the roots couldn’t go deep and so would be unable to get much water.
6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
Well, we could see that coming, right? I have landscape fabric down in my front yard with rocks on top and I Get weeds, but the roots can only really grow along the surface right under the rocks and they are super easy to pull up. But these ones aren’t weeds in Idaho, they are crops in Israel and you know that crops are much fussier than weeds. I don’t know why, but it is true.
7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.
I love what Jeremiah 4:3 says regarding this, “For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns…” but here we have the sower going ahead and doing exactly what Jeremiah says not to do! What gives?! We’ll revisit this later.
Interestingly, the word for grain here in “yielded no grain” is actually karpos, or fruit. All through here we are seeing words that pop up in references to our expected growth as believers.
8 And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
Dang, some good news for a change. Now, in keeping with my keeping all this about actual farming techniques, at least for the moment here, what is a good harvest in the Land of Israel during this time? Well, in the Jordan valley, which was incredibly lush, you could expect to see harvests of tenfold to a hundredfold, but a hundredfold was like a total bumper crop. In the rest of Palestine, we’re looking at sevenfold to tenfold harvests. This means, you sow one grain and you get seven to ten back, some of which must of course be retained for seed for next year. So, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold are all within the range of the best of the fertile Jordan Valley. When we look at how much of the harvest was consumed with Roman taxes, the bigger the better because without a bumper crop, people were losing their land and even starving. Crops were life. They weren’t separated from the Land like we are and even people with gardens cannot comprehend what it was like to live and die by the sweat of your own brow.
9 And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Again, second pronouncement as an authority figure in this parable. And both of these “hear” words, noun and verb, come from that very hard to pronounce Greek word that translates the Hebrew shema. So not only is He telling them to listen, He is demanding a proper response. At this point, I am very tempted to go ahead and teach verses 10-12 but I am going to just limit my comments to the fact that Yeshua takes His disciples aside later when they are alone and makes it very clear that whether or not a person can hear is entirely about how they hear and respond (shema) to Yeshua. But that’s next week. And it’s is too important to gloss over. Let’s go on to verse ten and then skip to verse thirteen.
10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.
Wait, say what? Those around Him WITH the twelve asked Him about the parables. Not just the twelve, there were more than twelve, this included some of the polys ochlos, the great crowd, who although they were not among the twelve, they had responded appropriately and were getting special treatment. Remember, we know from Luke 10 that not only the twelve but also seventy-two more were sent out able to preach and work miracles. Just like David who had his thirty mighty men, his inner circle of three, and yet a much larger army around him. I can just see them now. “Peter, we don’t know what the heck He was talking about, you ask him.” Peter turns around to ask James and John to do it, but they were smart enough to pretend like they couldn’t hear him. And because Peter had not yet done anything stupid, at least not according to this Gospel, he figured, “What the heck could I lose? Not like anyone is ever going to write this down and remember this. Thank goodness there is no internet. When we tell this story later, we’ll make sure we sound a lot smarter than we are.” Anyway…
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
Okay then, let’s talk about parables. Parables give us an extended metaphor of something being like something else, but a much-overlooked aspect of parables is that they are not straight analogies where everything matches up. The story in the parable will also be “not like” something else. Obviously God is not happy with people who act like the dishonest manager, right? But that parable expresses a concept that is “like” something while at the same time not being like something. So we can’t get carried away with trying to make parables all line up with reality. It’s an imperfect metaphor designed to get people to think, not obsess. But I want to discuss a problem with this last verse because people go the wrong direction with it–“Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? –this isn’t, as some claim, making this particular parable some sort of interpretive key. The seed will not always be the Word of God in every parable. Sometimes the seed is the Kingdom itself. Sometimes the seeds are the children of the Kingdom and sometimes seeds are from the evil one. We have to listen and adapt with each new parable or we will come up witH some wacky stuff. But, in this case, Yeshua specifically admits to the seed being the Word of God. Next week, when we study Isaiah 6, we will have a specific kind of seed there as well, which is not the Word of God!
14 The sower sows the word.
Like I just said, no surprise there. And, as we will see there is no problem with this seed. It is excellent seed (which is not true in all parables!) but the problem is usually with the soil itself. Yeshua, here is the sower sowing the Word of God, namely the Gospel—which is exactly what He has been doing in order to draw those with “ears that hear” or shema. And I mentioned before, when the parable is initially given it looks to us like the sower is careless with his seed but we have to look at the generosity of God’s message to the world through Yeshua. The message is meant to be cast absolutely everywhere with zero exceptions. That is a sobering message for us right there—how liberal have we been with the seed of the Gospel? Are we even spreading it around at all? I know way more people who spend all their time condemning people for sin without even bothering to preach the Good News and a whole lot of other people who couldn’t care less about reaching the lost with the Gospel because all they are trying to do is preach Sabbath and kosher eating and the Feasts, but do we find eternal life in those? No. We say we do not keep the law for salvation and yet do we believe it when we are preaching that instead of the Word of salvation? It weighs very heavily on my heart. The sower tosses the seed everywhere except into the water, it seems, but we can’t be bothered. Too busy chasing knowledge and allowing people to perish every single day.
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.
Now, remember Jubilees 11:10-12? Written roughly 150 to 200 years before Messiah and talking about the Prince of Hatred sending birds to eat up the seeds so that the people would have no harvest? We see this same picture here—not too surprising as many of Yeshua’s parables draw on popular materials, just generally with a surprise twist at the end. Here we have the path and there is nothing inherently wrong with the path, not if it is land that is going to be plowed up after the seed is sown. This isn’t like a concrete sidewalk—this is just land where Satan gets in the way before the seed even has a chance. So, we don’t know that there is necessarily a problem with this soil. For some reason, the enemy distracted or destroyed, or whatever he needed to do in order to keep the seed from even sinking in. This is actually kind of neutral and maybe you can relate to having heard the gospel when you were younger and it just didn’t even phase you. I sure can relate to that. I wasn’t hostile to it, it just didn’t even register with me.
16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.
This is my favorite because, well petrodes, rocky ground. This is the petros, or Peter soil. Peter is the kind of gung ho guy who just takes things and runs with them, right? Man, He heard Yeshua and he followed Yeshua and even had to fix his mother in law’s roof because of Yeshua. He was thrilled to be following Yeshua. He’s going to be even more thrilled when he goes out preaching and working miracles and even the demons are subjected to him in Yeshua’s authority. He loves being associated with this miracle worker who draws crowds. It’s the kind of life he never could have imagined while fishing all night and mending and drying his nets day after day, year in, year out. He was living the life.
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.
But he had no root, amazingly enough. He did endure for a while, right? Oh, but the moment his life was in danger he drew his sword and attacked a servant by lopping off his ear and then he ran for his life. And then in the courtyard of the High Priest he denied even knowing Yeshua. And he didn’t show up at the Cross either. Heck with only falling away—Peter denied Yeshua when he took up that sword and harmed a mere servant. Peter denied Yeshua when he ran away that night from the guards who had come to arrest his Master. Peter denied Yeshua when he claimed not to know him, even calling down curses on himself. Peter denied Yeshua when he refused to be by his side as he died. He didn’t just slightly fall away, he immediately fell away once things got dangerous. Peter, who had correctly identified Yeshua, didn’t truly know who He was. Ironic, eh? It should frankly make us all squirm more than a little bit and make us very loathe to make claims of “I would never deny Him!” Personally, I know too many people who have over the years whom I would have sworn were solid.
Fortunately for Peter, this sort of soil can be plowed and made useful. As most certainly happened with him, ending up with his being crucified upside down because he doesn’t feel worthy of being crucified the same way Yeshua was. Oh, and if you have ever seen a Catholic wearing an upside-down cross, just ignore the fact that Satanists co-opted it—it is what’s known as the cross of St Peter and is worn in humility, not to dishonor Yeshua. I know there are memes, but people who make memes often have not actually studied what they are meming about and I have an entire section on my blog called “Challenging the memes” where I talk about that and debunk some of them. If I wanted, I could probably actually do that full time but it just makes me feel hostile so I don’t. Okay, that was a pointless rabbit trail.
18 And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word,
Now we have our third category of hearers. First was snatched away immediately. That was definitely me when I was younger. In one ear and didn’t even have time to go out the other. Second is like Peter, totally gung ho and thrilled but then as soon as times get tough he is out of there in five different ways. Third way is when the Word gets sown among thorns. They absolutely do hear the word, it’s real.
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.
This seed penetrates through the thorns and plants in the ground but what springs up is choked off and fruitless. You know who this is—this is Judas. He wanted stuff, but Yeshua wasn’t the kind of Messiah to give it to him so he sold him to the chief priests. And remember, as we will see later, Judas received the same spirit as the rest and he went out and preached and healed people and was one of the twelve and golly bob howdy he had every advantage we would all kill for, figuratively speaking. But despite the “anointing” it was not enough. No good fruit. Think about that. He preached. He healed. He cast out demons. He did miracles. But it didn’t count as fruit. That should scare the hell out of us, pardon my French.
Let’s look at Matthew 7:21-23 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
Hello Judas! Want to know what good fruit is? Check out the Sermon on the Mount! Meekness, peacefulness, mercy, caring for the vulnerable, not mocking, not reviling, not slandering, not lusting, not retaliating, forgiving and blessing instead of cursing, etc. etc. If you have the spiritual gift, then healing and doing miracles is easy. Nowadays with the internet, preaching is easy and you can block anyone who threatens you. Heck, you don’t even have to know what you are saying, or even have a calling on your life, you can just go out and start barking at people—but that isn’t fruit. Me teaching you on this radio program isn’t fruit. How I treat you is fruit. Who I am on the inside, good or bad, is fruit that is good or bad. Oh my gosh, we get it so infernally wrong. Judas could move in the spiritual gifts better than any one of us and because the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, if he hadn’t killed himself he could have conceivably gone right on doing it after betraying our Lord, which is deeply disturbing. But it meant nothing whatsoever because the seed planted in him was choking to death in the grip of all his issues and deception and desires and all that. And we shouldn’t imagine we can’t go the same path! Maybe we haven’t faced our peculiar temptation yet that will be the final straw before we bolt. I routinely beg God not to allow me to be tempted in whatever way would break me. I have absolutely no idea what it could be but there is probably something. With Judas, however, he actually went looking for trouble.
But what happened to Peter after the resurrection? What can happen to absolutely anyone from each of these last three soils?
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.”
BOOM! Game changer. Peter, Paul, countless others, I imagine, who abandoned Him and His message at the cross and who figured He must have just been another crazy claimant. But soil can change. Ask any farmer. Let’s revisit that verse from Jeremiah 4 and keep on reading.
3 For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem: “Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns. 4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.”
Wow—sure reads differently when you don’t just stop at one verse, eh?
Remove the foreskins of your hearts, lest my wrath go forth like fire. Sounds very much like what Yeshua is talking about here. Listen! Behold! Hear and Obey! Plow up the soil of your hearts and receive me and allow my words to change you. Receive the Gospel of the Kingdom! Bear good fruit and not just some, but a harvest impressive even by Jordan Valley standards. Become radically more loving and loyal, joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, generous, trustworthy, and trusting, gentle, and self-controlled! Cultivate meekness and humility, mercy—weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice! Visit the sick, clothe, and feed the poor, seek justice for the oppressed. That’s fruit—not sitting around reading the bible all day without it changing how we serve others. Reading the Bible can be the most selfish activity on earth if all it does is give us a smug sense of satisfaction and makes us know-it-alls but do-nothings. It is so demanding but not in the way we want it to be. We have to yield and be changed into vessels of grace but we would rather become vessels of wrath—it feels better and costs a lot less but it isn’t the right direction. We live to serve others—to wash the feet of our Judases and to patiently bear with the Peters in our lives because, although Yeshua knew who was who, we sure don’t. Whose inadequate planting is going to end up yielding nothing but ruin and whose is going to end up being replowed and coming back with that hundred-fold harvest? Heck, who could know that the site of George Floyd’s killing would become a site of mass conversions and baptisms? We do not know the endgame.
I am going to recommend a book. Now, when I am writing this out, June 22, I just finished Eric Metaxas’s book on William Wilberforce, Amazing Grace, last night. He’s the reason the slave trade ended in Europe long before it ended in America but he is probably also the main reason abolition took hold in America as well. Way better than the movie, just unbelievably better. But besides that, I am recommending Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s The Cost of Discipleship. It should be required reading. My dear friend Dinah Dye recommended it to me about five years ago now and I wished I had read it a long time before that. It’s a game-changer.
Okay, next week, Isaiah 6 and we’ll find out all about ears that hear and ears that don’t hear!
