Have you ever tried over and over to log into a web site, only to read the directions one more time and see that you have been entering your data (again and again) in the wrong spot? Or have you found yourself unable to make any sense of a set of driving directions—and then you discover you have the wrong starting point in mind? A few years ago, the word "duh" made it into American English vernacular for just such moments.
My single exegetical insight into this week's gospel text has to do with understanding. In Matthew, when Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower, he talks about understanding the word:
"When anyone hears the word about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches what was sown in his heart; this is the seed sown along the path" (Matt 13:19, NET).
"But as for the seed sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word and understands. He bears fruit, yielding a hundred, sixty, or thirty times what was sown" (Matt 13:23, NET).
Neither Mark nor Luke records an explanation from Jesus that says anything about understanding the word. "Getting it" is a preoccupation only for Matthew. Matthew would have liked Philip's question to the Ethiopian eunuch as Philip caught up to his chariot: "Do you understand what you are reading?" (Acts 8:30).
By this point in Jesus' ministry, people watching and listening to him have all sorts of data about him. They have heard the Sermon on the Mount, his Dream Speech of life in the Rule of God. They have seen healings, even one reported at a distance—and that of a Roman centurion's slave. The disciples have witnessed the stilling of the storm. Pharisees have witnessed him eating with sinners. Crowds of people have heard him pronounce the forgiveness of sins and seen him heal on the Sabbath.
"Do you understand what you are reading?" Do the witnesses understand what they are seeing? Here are a few reactions to Jesus reported just before and after the parable of the sower:
- The Pharisees conclude that it is by the ruler of demons that Jesus casts out demons (Matt 12:24).
- Some of the scribes and Pharisees ask for a sign (Have they been seeing nothing for the last 8 chapters?) (Matt 12:38).
- Jesus' family is a little anxious, trying to get word to him (Matt 13:46ff).
- The hometown crowd takes offense at him (Matt 13:57).
It's as if we are halfway through the semester and just about everyone has failed the midterm. Do you understand? Does anyone understand what they are seeing? In another context, the apostle Paul calls Jesus the wisdom of God and then says, "None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Cor 2:8).
Jesus responds to this lack of understanding by s p e a k i n g v e r y s l o w l y to the duh-sciples. "Hear, then, the parable of the sower," he says before he explains the parable to them. "Let me draw you a picture. Is a parable too artistic of a medium for you? How about an allegory then? Let's try one-for-one correspondence. I'm not really talking about seeds here; I'm talking about the word of the kingdom of God."
In Mark's version, Jesus quotes Isaiah as a way of saying that he is speaking in parables in order to hide the secrets of the kingdom, as if the parables were a kind of inside-baseball for the disciples only. Yet in all the synoptics—Mark included—Jesus keeps at his audience. "Do you understand? Well, then, let me explain it again." He is sometimes an impatient teacher (cf. Matt 16:9 and Mark 8:17), but he is ever the teacher.
What is Jesus trying to teach? For starters, he is teaching that in the midst of rulers of this age from Herod the Great to Pontius Pilate roiling at the news, still, "the kingdom of heaven is at hand" (Matt 4:17; cf. 13:20). He is teaching that persecutions are not to be feared and that persecution or no, "you are of more value than many sparrows" (Matt 10:26-31; cf. 13:21). He is teaching that "life is more than food, and the body more than clothing" (Matt 6:25; cf. 13:22).
And he keeps teaching. This Teacher bears a striking family resemblance to the loquacious One who called worlds into being with the Word and just keeps on talking through the prophets, the scriptures and even your voice and mine. Throughout the gospel, the Word made flesh keeps teaching with his speech and actions. He himself is seed cast abroad on the earth, sent by the Sower whose word does not return void but accomplishes what was intended for it. Thorns, the rulers of this age, dry and hardened minds and hearts: all sorts of things threaten this good seed and its seedlings. Still, it bears fruit.
Comments