Do Not Be Afraid

²¹ When Jesus had again crossed over by boat to the other side of the lake, a large crowd gathered around him while he was by the lake. ²² Then one of the synagogue leaders, named Jairus, came, and when he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet. ²³ He pleaded earnestly with him, “My little daughter is dying. Please come and put your hands on her so that she will be healed and live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A large crowd followed and pressed around him. ²⁵ And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, ²⁸ because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” ²⁹ Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering.

³⁰ At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ “You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, ‘Who touched me?’ ”

³² But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³ Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.”

³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from the house of Jairus, the synagogue leader. “Your daughter is dead,” they said. “Why bother the teacher anymore?”

³⁶ Overhearing what they said, Jesus told him, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”

³⁷ He did not let anyone follow him except Peter, James and John the brother of James. ³⁸ When they came to the home of the synagogue leader, Jesus saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” ⁴⁰ But they laughed at him.

After he put them all out, he took the child’s father and mother and the disciples who were with him, and went in where the child was. ⁴¹ He took her by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum!” (which means “Little girl, I say to you, get up!”). ⁴² Immediately the girl stood up and began to walk around (she was twelve years old). At this they were completely astonished. ⁴³ He gave strict orders not to let anyone know about this, and told them to give her something to eat.

Following his foray into gentile territory, Jesus returns to his home area.  Once again, the crowd seems to immediately assemble around him.  A synagogue leader named Jairus comes, and like Legion, falls at the feet of Jesus.  Just as the demoniac (both before and after the possession), he begs Jesus to do something for him.

Jairus' plea is quite personal.  His daughter is dying.  While we may not have personal experience with violent demons, all of us know the tragedy of losing a loved one.  In that short sentence, "my little daughter is dying" lies the unfathomable pain and grief that is a part of our human condition.

Jairus believes that Jesus' touch is necessary to bring his daughter's healing.  This is interesting because of the healings that have occurred so far, two have required Jesus' touch (the leper and Peter's Mother-in-Law) but three have required only Jesus' words (the evil spirit, the paralytic and Legion).  But in this passage, Jesus' touch is an important element in the healing of Jairus' daughter as well as in the central story of the woman who will touch his garment.

As Jairus leads Jesus to his home, the crowd understandably follows along.  They are anxious to see what will happen.  Jairus appears to be the first person in the authority structure of the Jewish faith who encounters Jesus and accedes to his power.  All the other scribes and pharisees are angered by Jesus, and have instituted their plans to get rid of him.  Why is he willing to buck the system?  This may be due to Jairus' despair at his daughter's condition.  He will try anything to help his daughter.  Jairus' maverick action was certainly a fascination for the crowd.

Mark often places a story within a story, and here is a perfect example. Suddenly the focus shifts from Jairus to the woman with the issue of blood. Like Jairus, she knows suffering.  She has been to the doctors of the day (whose enlightened treatments of such ailments included ingesting animal feces) with, to what should be no surprise to our modern minds, no healing and actually worsening results.

She has suffered for 12 years from her condition which was not only a physical one, but also a spiritual one.  Her bleeding would make her perpetually unclean.  Not only would she be excluded from society, anyone who came into contact with her would also need to go through a week long purification.  Merely her touch would profane anything with which she came into contact.

Like Jairus and Legion, she is at the end of her rope, sneaking anonymously into the crowd.  Had she been noticed, the reaction would have been violent towards her.  But somehow undetected, she makes it to Jesus and touches the back of his garment believing that the touch she needed was not from the hand of Jesus but from her hand touching not Jesus, but Jesus' clothes.  And Mark tells us, she is immediately healed.  Now this is the opposite of the way purity is supposed to work.  If I touch a clean plate with a dirty hand the plate gets dirty, it doesn't make my hand clean.  The Jews believed that this touch would have made Jesus impure, not the woman pure.  But once again Jesus confounds their expectations

Then comes the strange response from Jesus, "Who touched my garments?"  The short answer is everyone probably touched him in the jostling of the large crowd.  The disciples can not figure out what the fuss is all about.  But Jesus keeps looking.

The woman knows the jig is up and falls on her knees before Jesus.  This is the third time in the chapter that someone bows to Jesus, but the first time it happens after the healing.  The now healed woman pleads with Jesus because she is afraid of what Jesus will do.  She has trusted Jesus for healing, but now is frightened that Jesus will condemn her for her impudence.  She has broken a series of social taboos in touching Jesus--she is unclean, she is a woman.

But Jesus responds with compassion and with a redefinition.  She believes that touching Jesus garment has healed her.  Jesus feels the power go through him.  He will not let her go thinking that the touch has healed her.  Jesus tells her that her faith has made her whole.  She is to no longer be afraid, but to be at peace and freed from her suffering.  He sends her off as another disciple.

It may have been common practice, but it seems jarring to hear Jesus refer to this woman as "daughter".  It seems to remind us that Jesus' mother, brothers and sisters are those that do his will.  And it serves as a bridge between the two stories--between Jairus whose love for a daughter has caused him to seek help and this "daughter" of Jesus who is healed by Jesus.

As Jesus is pronouncing a blessing on this persistent woman, some messengers arrive from Jairus' home.  They tell Jairus that Jesus is no longer necessary for his child has died.  In that moment Jairus' world stopped and slowly fell apart at his feet.

Jesus is remarkably calm in the midst of the news telling Jairus not to fear but to have faith.  This provides another link with the nested story as the woman with the issue of blood has been an example of the healing power of faith.

Here Jesus pauses to thin the crowd.  It is an interesting move.  Perhaps the crowd loses some interest upon hearing that death has occurred and begins to dissipate on its own.  They say to each other that there is no hope of seeing a miracle now.  Jesus has only his close circle (Peter, James and John) of disciples to accompany him.

But even as Jesus dismisses one commotion, another awaits him.  People are crying and wailing in grief.  Of course, it was the custom of the day to hire professional mourners and it may well be that these grievers that Jesus meets outside the house are actually being paid.  This might explain their laughter rather than shock or anger at Jesus who tells them the child is only sleeping.

Once again, Jesus is intruding into the commerce of his day in the same way that he has left swineherds and doctors out of jobs, now these mourners will have to find a new way to make a living.  Even though Jesus is not the one who has hired them, he dismisses them and we are left with Jairus and his wife, the disciples, the little girl and Jesus.

In this peaceful setting, Jesus takes the girl's hand and tells her to stand up. She does this immediately to the surprise of everyone (if she had been only asleep, it must have been quite sound to last through the wailing of the mourners!).

Did you notice how old the girl is?  12 years old, the very same length of time that the woman suffered from the issue of blood.  The number may be symbolic, or it may be the memory link that brought these two stories together in Mark's mind.  

Now, again on home soil, Jesus tells everyone to keep this all quiet.  The chapter that has begun in a foreign cemetery with a wild man ends in a bedroom with a girl wiping the sleep from her eyes. 

Do not be afraid; just believe.

Legion

5 They went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes. ² When Jesus got out of the boat, a man with an impure spirit came from the tombs to meet him. ³ This man lived in the tombs, and no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain. ⁴ For he had often been chained hand and foot, but he tore the chains apart and broke the irons on his feet. No one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Night and day among the tombs and in the hills he would cry out and cut himself with stones.

⁶ When he saw Jesus from a distance, he ran and fell on his knees in front of him. ⁷ He shouted at the top of his voice, “What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? In God’s name don’t torture me!” ⁸ For Jesus had said to him, “Come out of this man, you impure spirit!”

⁹ Then Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

“My name is Legion,” he replied, “for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on the nearby hillside. ¹² The demons begged Jesus, “Send us among the pigs; allow us to go into them.” ¹³ He gave them permission, and the impure spirits came out and went into the pigs. The herd, about two thousand in number, rushed down the steep bank into the lake and were drowned.

¹⁴ Those tending the pigs ran off and reported this in the town and countryside, and the people went out to see what had happened. ¹⁵ When they came to Jesus, they saw the man who had been possessed by the legion of demons, sitting there, dressed and in his right mind; and they were afraid. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it told the people what had happened to the demon-possessed man—and told about the pigs as well. ¹⁷ Then the people began to plead with Jesus to leave their region.

¹⁸ As Jesus was getting into the boat, the man who had been demon-possessed begged to go with him. ¹⁹ Jesus did not let him, but said, “Go home to your own people and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.” ²⁰ So the man went away and began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him. And all the people were amazed.

When Jesus and his disciples get in the boat to go to the "other side", they are going to land outside of Jewish territory.  There is a fair chance that given the patterns of commerce and the insular nature of the state of Israel, none of the disciples had ever been there before.  After all, why would they want to go to a pagan place when everything they needed was readily available in their own villages.

So, after the scare on the lake, they land, some eyes wide with wonder and others their eye narrowed in jingoistic suspicion.  Their worst fears are confirmed when the welcome wagon arrives.  They got in the boat to leave the crowd behind and now they are met by another crowd, this one in the body of a single crazed man.  Like many people, his condition has come to define him.  He has no name other than the one that the demons will announce later in the encounter.  Like many people who don't fit in, he becomes not a person with a name but a body with a condition.

He is living among the tombs and in a way he is dead already.  The man has been driven from polite society because they are unable to "civilize" him.  He no longer receives invitations to family dinners or joins his friends for the afternoon.  They have all abandoned and forgotten him.  He lives among the dead because he is as good as dead to his own community.

The demons that posses the man are violent and strong.  Like a circus strongman, he breaks the chains and shackles that are placed upon him.  The violence was not only directed toward his family and town, but also on himself as he would cut himself with stones.  A pathetic lonely figure, it is not clear whether this self-harm is the destructive nature of the demons turned inward or the self loathing, self punishment, or even attempted self cleansing of the man towards his possessors.

As Jesus gets off the boat, the man runs up to him and falls on his knees.  Mark includes the fascinating detail that the demoniac sees Jesus at a distance, this implies that he could run away rather than towards Jesus, but even his demons can't keep him from approaching.  Remember this is the dangerous man who can't be bound, but at the sight of Jesus he falls to a posture of submission (worship?).

The disciples have just asked "Who is this?" on the boat, and the man from his knee bellows in an evil rage the answer for all to hear.  "What do you want from me, Jesus, son of the most high God?"  Here we have again repeated the title given in the opening verse of Mark.  This is the second demon (interestingly this one in gentile territory as if to make the point that Jesus is bigger than just the Jewish religion) to make the pronouncement following the one made by the heavenly voice at Jesus baptism.  The disciples, who have had the benefit of individual instruction and viewing close hand the acts of Jesus don't know who he is, but the first time the demons lay eyes on him, Christ is recognized.

Jesus ask the man's name, whether in the steps of an ancient exorcism to exert authority over the demon or in compassion wanting to have his name to show that he is more than his condition, we do not know.  And it really doesn't matter as the name that is given--Legion--is the condition that grips the man.  Whether there is a sly jab at the Roman occupiers of Israel in this account is not clear.

The demons beg not to be sent out of the area and Jesus accedes to their request and drives them into a herd of unclean pigs.  The destructive demons porcine presence causes the animals to plunge off a cliff to their death.

Polite society could conveniently forget about the demoniac among the tombs, but now Jesus has threatened their livelihood.  Who will after all make restitution for the herd?  Upon hearing about this lemming-like leap, the town leaders go out to find the formerly out of control man now in his right mind and dressed.

How will they respond?  Will they celebrate and throw a party?  After all, the lost one has been restored.  As an aside, this story has odd echoes of Luke's story of the prodigal son in it.  The demoniac and the father see the Son/son from afar and run to him.  In the far off country, the prodigal slops the pigs and the demons from the man are sent into the herd.  But the difference between the Father and the town is striking.  The Father rejoices at the son's return.  The townspeople don't rejoice but beg Jesus to leave.

The demons beg to stay in the region.  The townspeople beg Jesus to leave.  The harsh reality is that people would rather have things stay as they are rather than risk things being turned upside down by Jesus.  They would rather have their livestock than the man restored.

The man who has been healed (resurrected in a way as he goes from living in the tombs back to his home) is ecstatic.  He asks Jesus if he can go with him.  Jesus has previously told others to keep quiet, but here he takes a totally different approach.  Some have suggested that this difference is because the man does not live in Israel.  Rather than inviting him to come with him, he instructs him to go and tell everyone where he lives.  "Go home and tell of the mercy you have received," Jesus tells him.  The man formerly known as Legion is the first foreign missionary!  Everyone knows who he was and who he becomes and when they hear his testimony in the local square they are all amazed at the power that has healed him.

Who Is This?

³⁵ That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” ³⁶ Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. ³⁷ A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. ³⁸ Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

³⁹ He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.

⁴⁰ He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”

⁴¹ They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”


The crowd pressed against the shore, hanging on every word.  Jesus had told them parables of soils and seeds.  Now the light was fading. Jesus had stood in the boat and spoken to the crowd on the shore, but there was no place to even put in so that he could get out because everywhere teemed with people. And so, Jesus instructs the disciples to find a place away from the crowd where they can make landfall.


The crowd, looks at the disappearing boat and wonders where are all the miracles that they had been promised.  After all, they knew that Jesus had a message for them, but listening to that was the price of admission for the miracles and healing that always followed.  Now Jesus has left them and not a one of them had seen a miraculous sign.  Is this the beginning of the end of Jesus ministry to the crowds?  Will they turn on him just like the Pharisees and teachers of the law?


Mark includes details that strike me as quite odd here.  After all, he typically chooses the shortest way of telling his story.  But Jesus is taken along "just as he was" in the boat.  Is this some message to the church often symbolized by a boat?  Do we often want to dress up Jesus, to make him more palatable to our culture?  Do we simplify his story, force him into our mold?  Do we sometime have Jesus on the boat but not "just as he was"?


Or the detail that there were other boats with him.  It sounds almost like a flotilla.  Was Jesus' boat not big enough for all the disciples?  Were the followers of Jesus more in number than we have typically imagined?  And why does Mark say other boats with him (Jesus) rather than other boats with them?  Where do these boats disappear to in the narrative, for they are not spoken of again?  Do they turn back, as the crowds will, when the storm clouds appear on the horizon--before it gets dangerous?


Whatever the case, when the storm arrives, the other boats are forgotten.  The squall is furious, the boat seems ready to swamp.  And there is Jesus asleep.  Not merely asleep, mind you, but in a deep, unperturbed sleep with his head comfortably resting on a cushion.  Jesus is the calm eye in the center of a hurricane around him.


The disciples, many of whom are fishermen, and thus experienced on a boat.  I can only think that if they are afraid there is good reason to be afraid.  It is not as if they were unexperienced with storms.  It is interesting that Mark doesn't tell us what they do to try to get the ship safely through the storm.  But it certainly appears that they had exhausted all the options they knew to save themselves.  They were after all the experts.


It is curious that these water rats, wake Jesus as if they think he can do something.  What would the son of a carpenter know about piloting a boat through a storm?  But they clearly think that Jesus can get them out of this fix, for when they wake him, their words are not, "Wake up, we're all going to die!" but instead "Teacher, don't you care if we drown?"


They have mistaken Jesus faith, which has allowed him to sleep through the storm with confidence, with apathy.  They think Jesus should be just as anxious as they are.  They are the rocky soil where the seed has yet to take root.  But they ought I think to be commended for even in their limited understanding, they turn to Jesus for help.

Jesus does not merely quiet the waters, he rebukes them.  He calls out into the chaos of the waves and with the authority of a parent corrects the water.  And it is not good enough for Mark to let us know that the wind is stilled, he also wants us to know that the water is calmed.  And not just calmed, but completely calmed.


To this point Jesus miracles have been on small stages and in intimate settings.  But now Jesus shows his mastery over all of nature.  He has spoken of the mystery of the growing seed and now he has demonstrated that he has within him the power to guide the mystery of the natural world.


"Why are you so afraid?" he asks his disciples.  Whether he asks this because they were so fearful when they awakened him or because now they stand in ever greater fear as it has dawned on them that this Jesus they are following is not just a good talker who has a few little miracles up his sleeve but is in reality the Lord of creation, we don't know.  When Jesus continues, he asks, "Do you still have no faith?"  The implication is clear, and it corrects so much of our thinking.  Doubt is not the opposite of faith, fear is the opposite of faith.


The disciples are yet terrified even after Jesus questions them making clear that they do not have faith.  They are unable to identify who Jesus is, which is interesting because so far the voice from heaven and the demons driven out by Jesus have been clear about his identity.


Even the wind and waves obey him, but his own disciples are afraid.

A Mustard Seed

²⁶ He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. ²⁷ Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. ²⁸ All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. ²⁹ As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰ Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. ³² Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.”

³³ With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. ³⁴ He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.

Jesus continues on with the farming analogies in this scripture passage.  For the first time, the Kingdom of God that has been mentioned twice before is being described.  In chapter 1, Mark tells us that the people are to repent for the Kingdom of God is near.  When Jesus explains the parable of the soils, he says the secret of the Kingdom of God has been given to them.  But this is the firs time that phrase is in anyway defined.  The word for kingdom means more properly rule or reign, so Jesus is telling his disciples what the world ought to be and will be like when God is at the center of people's hearts.

The rule of God is like a man scattering seed.  The soil when seeded does its work without the continuing effort of the farmer, whether the planter sleeps or wakes, the seed will sprout and grow on its own.  Once planted, the mystery begins that culminates in the harvest.  Jesus wants his disciples to understand that they are responsible for the planting and reaping but the mystery that happens in people's hearts between is God at work.

The next image is of the mustard seed.  It is best if we keep our traditional understanding of this parable (and for that matter Matthew and Luke's telling of it) at arm's length.  We usually see this as a triumphalist parable.  From small beginnings comes great results is what we have always been taught about this story.  Of course what we have seen in Mark so far has been anything but triumphant.  While Jesus has been popularly acclaimed, the story has focused on the opposition to him and the failure of the disciples to understand.  In the story so far, full of failures and failings, triumph seems like a note out of time.

But what was a mustard plant?  That is what Mark calls it--a plant--it is only later tellers of the story who will declare it a tree.  Mustard was a weed, not a condiment, to Jesus hearers.  It had a bitter odor when it was broken.  In fact, it might make a clearer picture if we refer to it with a modern analogue--stink weed.

Now he would have their attention.  The Kingdom Of God is like stink weed.  It is a scrubby tenacious plant that  most people who like order want to eradicate.  But even though the winds whip through it and it provides little shelter, it is enough for the birds to seek cover in it on the ground and on the lowermost branches.  It is not much, but it is something.

This is no grand vision of marching to Zion, but the slight hope that God will provide us not with everything we might want, but with what we need.  Jesus, we are told, continued to tell them a variety of parables.  And if we remember back, Jesus has told them that those who are good soil will understand them.  It is like a punch in the gut when Mark says, "he explained everything."  The disciples still can't see the truth right in front of their eyes.  

The Not So Secret Secret

4 Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. ² He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: ³ “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

⁹ Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

¹⁰ When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables ¹² so that,

“‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving,
    and ever hearing but never understanding;
otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’”

¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? ¹⁴ The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵ Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶ Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸ Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰ Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

²¹ He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a bowl or a bed? Instead, don’t you put it on its stand?²² For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. ²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”

²⁴ “Consider carefully what you hear,” he continued. “With the measure you use, it will be measured to you—and even more. ²⁵ Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.”

If Jesus was who the narrator of Mark tells us (Jesus the Messiah, the son of God), why didn't people believe him?  Wouldn't it be natural to expect that if Jesus was the beloved child of God, who was pleased with him as we are told at his baptism, that his ministry would be a smashing success?  How could Jesus who drives out demons be anything other than the most popular man in town?  When Jesus preached repentance why would anyone not turn?


These are the questions that Mark seeks to answer not only in this text from chapter 4 of the gospel, but in the entirety of his gospel.  Why, if Jesus was who Mark claims he was, was his ministry so spectacularly unsuccessful?


As we approach what is commonly called the parable of the sower, but is likely better called the parable of the soils, we see it with familiar eyes that may blind us to some of the more interesting parts of the story.  We typically make this a triumphant story with a remarkable return.


But, most of this parable is about failure--just as is most of the gospel of Mark.  Not the failure of the seed (the gospel) which no matter where it is cast has in itself everything that is needed to become a plant.  Perhaps the failure is that of the sower who indiscriminately casts the seed everywhere.  75% of the seed fails, wasted on soil that will not support it to maturity.  In looking at the parable and Mark's explanation, the majority of the words are about the seed that fails, not the hundred times crop.

But Jesus casts the failure as not that of the extravagant sower, but instead of the field where the seeds are sown.  The soil that causes the seed to fail is the focus of the parable.  The path, the rocky places, the weeds and the good soil are, the interpretation tells us, the types of responses to Jesus.  Mary Ann Tolbert suggests that in the gospel of Mark every person who encounters Jesus is revealed to be one of these four types of soil.  The path, those who are hardened and immediately reject Jesus, are the pharisees and the teachers of the law.  They almost immediately reject Jesus and begin to plot against Him.  The rocky ground is the response of the disciples (maybe it is not a compliment when Simon's name is changed to Rock (Petros)) and the crowds who are initially excited but will repeatedly will misunderstand and fail Jesus.  To this point, we have not been introduced to any of the weedy ground types, but soon enough we will meet the rich young man who when challenged by Jesus to give up what he has will be unable to follow because "he was very rich."  The fertile soil, the minority, are those who have come in faith to Jesus and are healed.


Many believe that this parable of the soils is the central theme of the gospel. They point to Jesus emphasis that those present "hear" (and see) this story, the explanation and retelling for emphasis, and the closing again with a call to hear.  Jesus in explaining to his disciples the story tells them that its intent is not to lead people to belief, but to reveal what faith they have.  Those who are inside will understand and those outside will remain confused. Attention is immediately drawn to the previous story where Jesus' family is outside while those who are inside are declared Jesus new Mother and brothers and sisters.


Strangely, immediately after telling the disciples that only those inside can hear and understand, Jesus uses the analogy of a lamp.  If a person wants light, they do not hide the lamp he argues. Instead, they make it obvious to everyone.  So is this a secret or not?  Is Jesus telling stories to bring light or to keep the outsiders in the dark?  Perhaps Jesus is saying that his stories bring light that reveals the condition of the listener's heart.  The light doesn't change reality, it just shows the one looking what it is.


The passage closes with a warning about the measure to be given.  It would be easy given the proceeding parable to determine to be more efficient sowers.  Why not just cast the seed where it will grow?  Wouldn't it be better to just put the seed on the quarter of the ground that is good soil?


And yet, Jesus continues by saying that we should give in the measure we were given, that is to say, continue to cast the gospel into the wind where it reaches the path, the rocky soil, the weed patch and even in some rare instances the good soil.  Because all of us are mixtures of the types of soils our faith in sowing the gospel to all soils means that even though our efforts will often be in vain, the times the gospel finds fertile soil will produce more than enough.