Parables: Stories of the Kingdom (Six Weeks with the Bible) - Softcover

Welborn, Amy; Perrotta, Mr. Kevin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 082941472X ISBN 13: 9780829414721

Publisher: Loyola Press, 2003

Synopsis

Through the Bible parables, Jesus reveals who he is and how we are to follow him. Learn how to relate the parables of Jesus to life today in Parables: Stories of the Kingdom. 

A Guided Discovery of the Bible
The Bible invites us to explore God’s word and reflect on how we might respond to it. To do this, we need guidance and the right tools for discovery. The Six Weeks with the Bible series of Bible discussion guides offers both in a concise six-week format. Whether focusing on a specific biblical book or exploring a theme that runs throughout the Bible, these practical guides in this series provide meaningful insights that explain Scripture while helping readers make connections to their own lives. Each guide• is faithful to Church teaching and is guided by sound biblical scholarship
• presents the insights of Church fathers and saints
• includes questions for discussion and reflection
• delivers information in a reader-friendly format
• gives suggestions for prayer that help readers respond to God’s word
• appeals to beginners as well as to advanced students of the Bible
 
By reading Scripture, reflecting on its deeper meanings, and incorporating it into our daily life, we can grow not only in our understanding of God’s word, but also in our relationship with God.

About this title

About the Author

Amy Welborn is the author of several books in the Loyola Kids series, including Loyola Kids Book of Catholic Signs & Symbols, and Loyola Kids Book of Seasons, Feasts, and Celebrations. A former catechetical leader, she is passionate about helping readers understand and live their faith with confidence and joy.

From the Back Cover

A Guided Discovery of the Bible

The Bible invites us to explore God’s word and reflect on how we might respond to it. To do this, we need guidance and the right tools for discovery. This practical series of Bible discussion guides offers both in a concise six-week format. Whether focusing on a specific biblical book or exploring a theme that runs throughout the Bible, the guides in this series provide meaningful insights that explain Scripture while helping readers make connections to their own lives. Each guide

•    is faithful to Church teaching and is guided by sound biblical scholarship
•    presents the insights of Church fathers and saints
•    includes questions for discussion and reflection
•    delivers information in a reader-friendly format
•    gives suggestions for prayer that help readers respond to God’s word
•    appeals to beginners as well as to advanced students of the Bible

By reading Scripture, reflecting on its deeper meanings, and incorporating it into our daily life, we can grow not only in our understanding of God’s word, but also in our relationship with God.

For a complete list of titles in this series, please consult the inside front and back covers. For more information, or to order, call 800-621-1008 or visit www.loyolapress.com/six-weeks.

Kevin Perrotta, series editor, is an award-winning Catholic journalist, the author of Your Invitation to Scripture, and a former editor of God’s Word Today, a magazine for daily reflection on Scripture. He has a master’s degree in theology from the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

How to Use This Guide
You might compare the Bible to a national park. The park is so large that you could spend months, even years, getting to know it. But a brief visit, if carefully planned, can be enjoyable and worthwhile. In a few hours you can drive through the park and pull over at a handful of sites. At each stop you can get out of the car, take a short trail through the woods, listen to the wind blowing through the trees, get a feel for the place.
 In this booklet we will read some of the parables of Jesus that were recorded in the Gospels. The Bible contains more parables than we will have an opportunity to study, but those that have been selected will give you a good introduction to the style and purpose of Jesus’ parables in general.
 This guide provides everything you need to explore the parables in six discussions—or to do a six-part exploration on your own. The introduction on page 6 will prepare you to get the most out of your reading. The weekly sections provide cultural and religious background information on the parables and on those who listened to them. Equally important, each section supplies questions that will launch your group into fruitful discussion, helping you to both investigate the parables for yourself and learn from one another. If you’re using the booklet by yourself, the questions will spur your personal reflection.
 Each discussion is meant to be a guided discovery.
 Guided. None of us is equipped to read the Bible without help. We read the Bible for ourselves but not by ourselves. Scripture was written to be understood and applied in the community of faith. So each week “A Guide to the Reading,” drawing on the work of both modern biblical scholars and Christian writers of the past, supplies background and explanations. The guide will help you grasp the message of the parables. Think of it as a friendly park ranger who points out noteworthy details and explains what you’re looking at so you can appreciate things for yourself.
 Discovery. The purpose is for you to interact with these parables that Jesus told. “Questions for Careful Reading” is a tool to help you dig into the text and examine it carefully. “Questions for Application” will help you consider what these words mean for your life here and now. Each week concludes with an “Approach to Prayer” section that helps you respond to God’s word. Supplementary “Living Tradition” and “Saints in the Making” sections offer the thoughts and experiences of Christians past and present. By showing what the parables have meant to others, these sections will help you consider what they mean for you.
 How long are the discussion sessions? We’ve assumed you will have about an hour and a half when you get together. If you have less time, you’ll find that most of the elements can be shortened somewhat.
 Is homework necessary? You will get the most out of your discussions if you read the weekly material and prepare the answers to the questions in advance of each meeting. If participants are not able to prepare, have someone read the “Guide to the Reading” sections aloud to the group at the points where they appear.
 What about leadership? If you happen to have a world-class biblical scholar in your group, by all means ask him or her to lead the discussions. In the absence of any professional Scripture scholars, or even accomplished amateur biblical scholars, you can still have a first-class Bible discussion. Choose two or three people to take turns as facilitators, and have everyone read “Suggestions for Bible Discussion Groups” (page 76) before beginning.
 Does everyone need a guide? a Bible? Everyone in the group will need his or her own copy of this booklet. It contains the entire text of every parable discussed, so a Bible is not absolutely necessary—but each participant will find it useful to have one. You should have at least one Bible on hand for your discussions. (See page 80 for recommendations.)
 How do we get started? Before you begin, take a look at the suggestions for Bible discussion groups (page 76) or individuals (page 79).Why Do You Speak to Them in Parables?
When we think of the ministry of Jesus, we probably
think of great miracles and small moments of grace.
We think of shared meals, healed bodies, and grateful, forgiven hearts.
 We probably think of parables as well.
 Jesus taught his disciples and the crowds that followed him in both actions and words. Sometimes he spoke in simple statements—“Blessed are the poor”—and at other times he issued warnings. Stern ones too, mostly to religious leaders: “Woe to you Pharisees . . .” At other times—a great many other times—he told stories. Not just any kind of stories, mind you, not anecdotes, epics, or fables. What Jesus told were parables.
 The word parable is derived from a Greek word that means “comparison.” We call Jesus’ stories parables because they invite us to see a comparison: between the kingdom of God and a banquet, between God and a landowner, between ourselves and . . . which are we, anyway? The Pharisee or the tax collector? The older son or the younger? The bridesmaids who are prepared or those who are caught short? The workers who toil all day or the latecomers?
 If you are already familiar with these parables, your response to those questions might well be different today than it was five or ten years ago. That is because Jesus’ parables, like the rest of God’s word, are living words. They speak to us now in a different way than they did in the past. The way we hear them changes as our lives change and as our understanding of life deepens. Jesus told the parables to crowds gathered in Palestine hundreds of years ago. But he also tells them to us, today. Our willingness to clear away the obstacles to heartfelt, open listening to their message for us will determine how fruitful our reading of the parables will be.
 A simple question before we begin our readings: What kind of stories are Jesus’ parables? They are not literary short stories like those we read in anthologies or magazines. Short stories give attention to plot and character development. Jesus’ parables are rarely longer than a couple hundred words, and the motives of the characters are often not explained at all. Why, for example, would a landowner hire workers throughout the day rather than hiring all he needed in the morning? Was he so shortsighted that he failed to gauge how many workers he would need and found himself having to hire more during the day? Jesus doesn’t explain the landowner’s odd behavior. His motive, it seems, is not important. Something else must be, but what?
 Jesus’ parables are not fables either. We are all familiar with Aesop’s fables, such as the race of the tortoise and the hare, in which the characters are often animals and the narrative ends with an enlightening or cautionary lesson. We might be tempted to place Jesus’ parables in the same category: short tales with a moral at the end. Jesus, however, doesn’t tell stories about animals. And besides, his stories are not always constructed as narratives that provide an obvious moral. Often Jesus does not explain his stories at all, much less provide an easily understood lesson. If Jesus doesn’t provide us with an application, how are we to respond? If the moral isn’t the key to understanding Jesus’ parables, what is?
 The point of Jesus’ parables, as the name implies, is the comparison. In listening to a parable, we are invited to perceive the God we cannot see through a comparison of him and his ways with that which we can see. Jesus compares and then invites us to compare. He calls us not just to listen but also to respond to his invitation to encounter—right here, right now—the reality of God and his reign over human beings.
 Jesus was not the first Jewish teacher to tell parables. As was the case with much of his ministry, he drew on a tradition that was familiar to his hearers and transformed it into something new.
 In the Old Testament, we find about ten stories that are similar to Jesus’ parables. One of the most famous is the story that the prophet Nathan told to King David (2 Samuel 12:1–4). David, the great king of Israel, fell in love with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, an officer in his army. In order to have Bathsheba to himself, David had Uriah sent to make a foolhardy attack on the enemy so that he would be killed, and he was.
 Nathan was David’s chief spiritual adviser. Hearing of David’s act, Nathan entered David’s court and told him about a wealthy man who had stolen a poor man’s only sheep. After telling the story, Nathan asked David what should be done about such an act. David, enraged, said that the wealthy man should be killed. His rage turned to grief and repentance when Nathan told him, “You are the man!” David realized that his taking Bathsheba was like the wealthy man’s theft of the poor man’s sheep. The comparison—the parable—shocked him into a realization of his sin.
 Rabbis who lived in the period during and after Jesus’ time also told parables. Many feature a king, who almost always represents God, and refer to God’s kingdom. Characters often behave in unusual ways, and some of the language used in these parables is similar to Jesus’ way of speaking—for example, the use of introductory formulas such as “To what shall we compare . . .” and a phrase indicating the conclusion, “thus it is . . .” Even if you’re only slightly familiar with Jesus’ parables, you can see some similarities. Some of Jesus’ parables feature a king who represents God. Characters sometimes behave strangely, such as the master who pays all of his workers the same wage no matter what time of the day they began their labor (Matthew 20:1–16).
 But there is an important difference between Jesus’ parables and those of the rabbis. The parables told by the rabbis most often illustrated a point in Scripture. These parables were usually tied into a broader argument. Although Jesus’ parables are obviously tied into his broader message about God’s kingdom and our place in it, their purpose is not exactly that of an anecdote inserted in a larger discussion to illustrate certain points. Jesus’ parables are not designed to reinforce interpretations of Scripture. Jesus tells parables in specific situations. Sometimes they are responses to specific questions. On occasion, Jesus directs a parable to a particular person—as Nathan hurled his parable at David. Thus while Jesus’ parables contain lessons, they are more than that. Jesus spoke directly to his first followers with his parables, and through them he continues to address us directly today. As we encounter the parables, we are challenged to a deeper kind of listening, a listening in which we allow ourselves to be confronted by Jesus’ words in the present.
 But why parables? Why doesn’t Jesus simply speak directly, without the comparisons of parables? Why doesn’t he present his message about God’s kingdom in a more straightforward way and tell us how we should respond to it? Why these stories?
 If we ask this question, we’re not alone. The Gospels tell us that the disciples asked this very question of Jesus, as we will see in our reading in week 1. There we will examine the question more closely, but it is helpful to cite Jesus’ words now, right up front, so we are attuned to Jesus’ approach from the beginning.
 Why, his disciples asked Jesus, was he instructing the crowd in parables? The question implies that he did not use parables in his conversations with the disciples. They were understandably puzzled by this. Jesus answered: “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.-.-.-. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand’” (Matthew 13:11, 13).
 We may easily feel frustrated by Jesus’ explanation. What on earth could he mean? He tells stories because we are spiritually blind? But the parables are so confusing at times. How could they help to clarify things?
 Our bafflement may only get worse when we turn to Mark’s version of Jesus’ words in this incident: “For those outside, everything comes in parables; in order that ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive, and may indeed listen, but not understand; so that they may not turn again and be forgiven’” (Mark 4:11–12, emphasis added). Now, this is really distressing. Is Jesus saying that he speaks in parables because he wants to confuse us and direct us away from, instead of toward, the truth? How could that be?
 There is no easy way of interpreting Jesus’ answer to his disciples. The passage in Mark in particular is one of the most discussed verses in the Bible. We will come back to and consider his words in more depth in week 1. But for now, perhaps you are experiencing a vague disorientation, a creeping impression that all is not what you believed it to be—that maybe there’s more to these parables and to the Jesus who told them than you thought . . .
 Then maybe you’re ready to start reading, thinking about, and talking about Jesus’ parables! For that feeling of disturbance and perplexity is exactly what Jesus’ parables are intended to provoke. They often leave us wondering if all is really as it seems to be. That moment when we start wondering is the moment when our eyes become uncomfortably opened to perceive something beyond the familiar, to catch a glimpse of the God who never runs out of surprises.
 The parables in this study guide are found in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, or Luke. None of them are from the Gospel of John. The reason? Although there are comparisons in John—Jesus compares himself to a vine, a door, and a shepherd—there are no narrative parables in his Gospel. Scholars debate the reasons for this, and since John didn’t care to leave an explanation behind, we can be certain that the debate will continue for a very long time.
 While some parables that we will read are found in only one or two of the Gospels, many are found in all of the first three Gospels—Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These three Gospels are sometimes called the synoptic Gospels. Synoptic is from a Greek word that means “seeing together.” These three Gospels have so many parallels that it is possible to set them side by side and look at them together, comparing the episodes in them with one another. The term synoptic Gospels is a bit technical, but it is so convenient that we will sometimes use it in our discussions.
 If you choose to enter the study of the parables more deeply, you will also find that there are sometimes differences between the versions of the parables in the synoptic Gospels. The parable of the sower, for example, is found in all three synoptic Gospels, and each version is slightly different. How are we to understand these differences?
 First, it is possible, even likely, that in the course of his teaching Jesus used each parable more than once and gave it slightly different twists and details for various audiences. That is what any good speaker would do. Thus, some of the differences may have originated with Jesus himself.
 Second, some differences in the parables would have arisen as Jesus’ disciples told and retold them after his death and resurrection. These earliest Christian teachers probably adapted their accounts to the particular groups of people to whom they preached in order to bring out the message most effectively for each group. Thus, some of the differences arose during the period of oral tradition between Jesus’ resurrection and the Gospel writers’ composition of the Gospels—a period that probably lasted thirty years or more.
 Third, the Gospel writers themselves revised the oral and written material that came to them. Most scholars think that
some of the variations between the synoptics are the work of the evangelists themselves, as one Gospel writer drew on the work of another. The most widely held theory is that Mark wrote first and Matthew and Luke, probably unknown to each other, used Mark’s Gospel as a source for their own. What was the basis of the changes Matthew and Luke made? To some extent they may have been guided by the variant traditions that were available to them. At points, they may have wished to convey the parable in a form that would have been more easily comprehensible to their particular readers.
 Throughout the process of teaching and writing about Jesus, the Holy Spirit was at work. The Spirit guided Jesus’ disciples to understand him better after his resurrection than they had been able to do before. Their subsequent experience of Christian life in the Spirit probably helped them see more clearly the importance of certain elements of Jesus’ parables. The Gospel writers had the special help of the Spirit as they composed their accounts of Jesus. The writing of the Gospels was a complex and in some ways mysterious process. But we can be confident that the resulting four portraits of Jesus are historically authentic and convey Jesus’ teaching in a way that is consistent with his intentions.
 We face challenges to understanding Jesus’ parables and grasping their message for us. One problem is familiarity. Many of us have heard Jesus’ parables since we were children. We have a tendency to zone out as soon as we hear the well-worn introductions: “A sower went out to sow . . . ,” “A man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho . . .” Ah yes, we think. Some seed will grow; some will not. The man will be robbed; the hated one will assist him. Be good soil, be tolerant, be helpful. We’ve got it. Next story, please.
 They look but do not see. They hear but do not listen.
 How can we be sure that our eyes and ears are indeed open to the living word in Jesus’ parables, not dulled by familiarity?
 A couple of tactics may be of use.
 First, it is helpful to try to make a fresh attempt to see the parables against their cultural background. We don’t need to become scholars in the history and sociology of ancient Palestine, but it is useful to learn a little about the world in which Jesus delivered his parables in order to get an idea of how the parables might have sounded to the people who lived in that world. Thus this guide will offer some background information, not to weigh us down with historical data but to help us hear Jesus’ words with more clarity and with an appreciation of the sometimes startling effect they had on his first listeners.
 Second, as we read and listen to the parables, it is crucial to keep God himself at the center of our thinking. Many of us have a tendency to dilute the parables down to bland, general exhortations to treat other people more kindly. As Christians, we must ask ourselves: If that was all Jesus was up to, why did he bother? Wasn’t kindness already covered in Jewish law and tradition?
 It was. The Judaism of Jesus’ time, which formed his listeners’ thinking and behavior, was a deeply compassionate tradition, mindful of God’s instructions through the prophets to care for the poor, the widowed, and the orphaned.
 So while the right treatment of others is surely an element of the parables of Jesus, often it is not the only point. Jesus is about much more than suggestions for right living. He began his ministry by proclaiming “good news”—and this good news, embodied in Jesus’ miracles and vividly illustrated in his parables, is about the activity of God, God’s expression of love and mercy. The good news is also about living right, but that right living is not a matter of following abstract rules—it is about responding to the God who is in action now, right here among us, and shaping our lives in relationship to him.
 As we go through life, we develop an impression of who God is and expectations for how he will act toward us. Many of our expectations may be solidly grounded in the truth we have been taught and in our own experience, but some are not. Some of our expectations about God flow from ideas we have absorbed from our less-than-Christian culture. Some of our pictures of God may be distorted by negative experiences we have had—negligent or abusive parenting, unanswered prayers, the loss of those we love.
 In the parables, Jesus offers a corrective to our mistaken notions. Whenever we find ourselves confused about who God is, how he relates to us, and what he expects from us, it is good to turn to these parables, for in them we find the truth.
 When we listen to Jesus’ parables, we hear stories told long ago, but told anew to us, this minute. If we pay attention, the ancient images will interact with our own expectations and needs and we will hear good news about the God who lives and moves among us here and now.  Week 1
Ready to Listen?Questions to Begin
15 minutes
Use a question or two to get warmed up for the reading.
 1 What is your favorite flower? tree? houseplant?
 2 Do you enjoy gardening? Why or why not?Opening the Bible5 minutes
Read the passage aloud. Let individuals take turns reading paragraphs.What’s Happened
The Gospel of Mark moves at almost breakneck pace. There is little room for reflections or explanations; the Gospel centers simply on Jesus moving from place to place, healing, teaching, and confounding almost everyone who comes in contact with him. The first three chapters of Mark take us immediately to the heart of Jesus’ ministry. There is no account of Jesus’ birth, as we find in Matthew and Luke. Mark introduces us to Jesus as an adult, in connection with John the Baptist, and then shows Jesus beginning to preach his message of repentance and the coming of God’s kingdom.
 It is clear from these first three chapters that Jesus is a startling figure to all who encounter him. He heals the ill and infirm. He forgives sins. He and his disciples disregard the Sabbath regulations as interpreted by influential religious leaders called Pharisees. Jesus’ healing of a man on the Sabbath in a synagogue (3:1–6), for example, violates the Pharisees’ sensibilities about appropriate Sabbath behavior.
 Throughout these first three chapters, Mark invites us to consider the knotty question of just who this Jesus might be. Jesus not only speaks of God; he seems to speak for God. He claims intimacy with God, yet he challenges some people’s sense of what being religious means. For these reasons, Mark lets us know, many were puzzled by Jesus’ identity. In the last verses of chapter 3, Jesus asserts that there is something about his identity that might even be incomprehensible to his own blood relations, though it will be under­stood by all—family, friends, or strangers—who do the will of God.
 After all this urgent activity, all of these wondrous acts and implicit yet astonishing claims about himself, Jesus settles down in a boat and begins to speak at length. He tells a parable.The Reading: Mark 4:1–20A Story about Sowing
1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, 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 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”Why Parables?
10 When he was alone, those who were around him along 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 comes in parables; 12 in order that
 ‘they may indeed look, but not perceive,
  and may indeed listen, but not understand;
 so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’”Jesus Explains
13 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on 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: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root, and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the world, and the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20 And these are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”Questions for Careful Reading
10 minutes
Choose questions according to your interest and time.
 1 Reread the parable (verses 3–8). Does it mention God or religion? Imagine yourself hearing it for the first time, knowing nothing about Jesus. What do you hear in the parable?
 2 To whom does Jesus address his words in verses 3 through 9? in verses 11 through 20? What is the significance of the difference?
 3 What does Jesus seem to be saying about the purpose of parables in verses 11 and 12?
 4 In his explanation (verses 14 through 20), what does Jesus imply about the role of those in whom the seed is planted? Is it active? passive? both?A Guide to the Reading
If participants have not read this section already, read it aloud. Otherwise go on to “Questions for Application.”
The parable of the sower is found in all three of the synoptic Gospels, and in all three it is the first narrative parable that Jesus tells. The synoptic evangelists obviously saw this parable not only as an excellent introduction to the parables of Jesus but also as the key to understanding all of them (4:13) and, in the process, Jesus as well.
 The story Jesus tells in verses 3 to 9 would have been at once familiar and strange to his first listeners. He takes an experience from their everyday life—the risks of sowing—and gives it a twist. The rhythm of the parable leads us to expect some yield at the end, certainly, as the story moves from sowing that is a total loss to sowing that is briefly promising to sowing that grows to a point before dying. The audience would have expected that the final step would be a successful harvest. But they would not have expected what Jesus describes: an almost miraculous harvest, far beyond what any Galilean farmer could have ever hoped to achieve.
 After the crowd hears the parable, “those who were around him along with the twelve” (4:10) ask him about it. Notice that Jesus’ answer and his explanation of the parable are offered to these people, not to the crowd. The people in the crowd are left to consider the story of the seeds on their own. As they did not seek to know more of the storyteller, it is quite possible that many of them missed the point completely, given the fact that the parable says nothing explicitly about God or faith.
 This difficulty in understanding the parable is addressed by Jesus in verses 10 through 12. Yet Jesus’ explanation raises more questions than it answers. For in these words, quoted from the prophet Isaiah (Isaiah 6:9–10), Jesus seems to be saying that he tells parables in order to confuse his hearers. He uses parables because they are obstacles to understanding! How can that be?
 In part, Jesus may mean that he uses parables because they spur listeners to respond to him. Parables are a puzzling form of teaching, and unless a person is interested enough to follow Jesus and inquire into the meaning of his parables—like the Twelve and “those who were around him”—the parables will remain puzzling. Thus, each of Jesus’ parables contains an unstated challenge to the listener: Will you come and follow me in order to understand?
 In part, also, Jesus’ explanation is probably a way of saying that the failure of many of his listeners to understand him and follow him is somehow within God’s plan. On other occasions Jesus speaks about bad things happening “so that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John 17:12). He does not mean that God has willed evil. Rather, this is a way of saying that God has foreseen people’s sin and has taken it into account in his plan. Just as people rejected the prophet Isaiah, Jesus is saying to his disciples, so people will reject him—but God’s plan will move on to fulfillment nevertheless. The quotation from Isaiah and the parable, taken together, express Jesus’ conviction that while many people will close their ears to his message, their refusal will not derail God’s plan, and his ministry will nonetheless have tremendous effect on those who respond to him.
 The parable of the sower is unusual among Jesus’ parables because he offers an explanation for its meaning. His explanation raises the issue of receptivity. Jesus makes it clear that our receptivity to his word can be limited by many factors: our shallowness, our fear, and our greed. New Testament scholar Morna Hooker writes that after each of the descriptions of the bad soil and frustrated growth, “as with the account of Nathan’s parable in 2 Samuel 12, we detect . . . the warning . . . : ‘This could mean you!’” The word of God is freely sown, but it is only fruitful in a lasting way when the ground is fertile and receptive.
 But Jesus’ parable is not just an exhortation to us to examine ourselves. It is, perhaps primarily, a declaration of confidence that God himself is acting. Many people will hear Jesus—and in later centuries, hear about him—without becoming his followers. Others will make some response, but not the sort that brings about a transformation of their lives. Yet, the parable promises, the inherent power of God’s word is unlimited in the heart of a person who receives it with faith.Questions for Application40 minutes
Choose questions according to your interest and time.
 1 Describe times in your life when you have been “rocky” soil. What made you so? Did you change? How?
 2 Describe a time in your life when either pressures from other people or distractions of work or money or recreation limited your openness to God. Again, did you change? What have you learned from your experience?
 3 What good effects have you experienced when you have been open to God’s work in your life? How can this experience be an encouragement to you now?
 4 How has God sown his seed in your life? Has it come through other people, prayer, books, family, nature, or other means?
 5 What practical step can you take to help communicate the gospel to at least one other person?
 6 In the view of one commentator, this parable suggests that God sows his word in every corner of the earth. What do you think of that view? What does it mean for evangelization?Don’t be afraid of silences: Some questions take time to answer and some people need time to gather courage to speak.
Stephen Board, Great Doctrines of the BibleApproach to Prayer
15 minutes
Use this approach—or create your own!
 ? Ask someone to read Mark 4:3–9 aloud. Reflect on the reading in silence. Then ask another group member to read the following prayer, pausing for a moment after each line.Loving God, you sow your seed in all of our hearts. We offer you these hearts today.
Take the hard paths in our hearts, the places that are closed to love.
Take the rocky places in our hearts, the places that are shallow and faithless.
Take the thorny places in our hearts, the places that are choked by selfishness.
Take the fertile places in our hearts, the places where your word has taken root.
Take all of these places and make them your own.
Open what is closed, deepen what is shallow, water what is dry, and nurture what is fertile and rich.
We pray this through your Word, Jesus our Lord. Amen.Saints in the Making
The Seed of the Church
This section is a supplement for individual reading.
Missionaries answer the Christians’ call to spread the seeds of faith by traveling to other places to plant those seeds. As Jesus indicates, not all of the seeds will sprout and grow into lasting fruit. Some missionaries never see which seeds will and will not take root. They must serve in faith and hope.
 Such was the case with some of the French Jesuit missionaries to Native American communities in Canada in the seventeenth century. The “black robes,” as they were called, were welcomed by some of the Native Americans but were objects of suspicion and fear to others. Their presence was blamed for poor crops and epidemics, and they were often used as pawns in the conflicts between warring tribes.
 St. Isaac Jogues (1607–46) is one of the better-known of these missionaries. He carried out a mission to the Hurons who lived west of Quebec. In 1642, he journeyed to Montreal to obtain supplies for the sick and hungry people at the mission station. On the way, he was captured by Mohawks, who enslaved him and subjected him to horrific torture. He escaped and returned to Europe with the aid of Dutch tradesmen, but in 1644 he was back in Canada. He even ventured back among the Mohawks as part of a peace mission. On the return trip from this peace mission, some Mohawks captured and killed him, blaming a box of personal belongings he had left behind for an epidemic that had broken out among them. Jogues was martyred in a village called Ossernenon, in what is now northern New York. By all appearances, his time among the Mohawks was fruitless.
 But in 1656, a girl was born in Ossernenon to a Mohawk chief and an Algonquin Christian woman. This girl grew up nourished by the small, struggling seedlings of Christianity that had been planted around her by the French missionaries. She was eventually baptized and took the name Catherine—in her language, Kateri. Rejected by her own community for her Christian faith, she moved to a small village of Native American Christians near Montreal, and there she died, after a short but devout life, at the age of twenty-four. In 1980, Kateri Tekakwitha was beatified by the Church. Her faith and virtue were living confirmation of the words of Tertullian in the second century: “The blood of the martyrs is seed”—the seed of the Church.

Edition details

• Publisher: Loyola Press
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 082941472X
• ISBN 13: 9780829414721
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 80