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Daily Lenten Meditation
By Ember Baker
Mark 4 1-20
Again Jesus 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. He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 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. And when the sun rose, it was scorched; and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold." And he said, "Let anyone with ears to hear listen!" When he was alone, those who were around him along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 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; 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.' "And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. 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. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 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. And others are those sown among the thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 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. 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." NRSV
Many sermons have been preached, and even songs written based on this text. It presents a spiritual truth only thinly veiled in a description of a very ordinary everyday image of a sower scattering seed. The seed, Jesus explains, represents the word, the truth He offers, and the various types of ground represents people who hear that word. Some can take it in deeply, and some cannot.
For me, this passage begs the question, "How does one become good soil?" How does one prepare one's heart and mind to receive deeply the radical message that Jesus' life and death are offering us? Only ground that has been broken, that has been opened up, can receive the seed deeply and let it take root.
In his book, Everything Belongs, Fr. Richard Rohr explains the meaning of this passage in this way.
Most spiritual work is readying the student. Both soil and soul have to be a bit unsettled and loosened up a bit. As long as we're too comfortable, too opinionated, too sure we have the whole truth, we're just rock and thorns. Anybody throwing us seed is just wasting time. Pg 38.
This unsettling of the soil and the soul is what the season of Lent is all about. It calls us to dig into ourselves a bit and look honestly at how we have been living. We must break through the crust, the façade of our ego self, the image we project of who we think we are, or of who we want others to think we are. It's a time when we hold ourselves responsible and accountable for our own feelings, choices, and actions. It is a time when we embrace our own brokenness as humans in preparation for our descent with Christ into death and resurrection.
The unsettled soul, the broken heart, the opened mind are the good soil that can take in the message of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection, and allow that seed to grow strong and bear lasting fruit. Through self examination, study, and prayer we can become rich soil for God's word. And we can bear nourishing fruit into a hungry world.
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