Preachrblog

One Seed.   Four Kinds of Soil. Ah, the Parable of the Sower.   One of my own personal favorites, and maybe yours, too.   Jesus tells this parable first to the crowd, and then in the next part of our reading, explains its meaning to the disciples.   This alone is a bit unusual for Jesus – but it serves as a sort of Rosetta Stone for us to interpret not only this parable, but to teach us about the parables of Jesus in general. The word we use for these stories, “parable”, or “Para-Bola” in the Greek, means something like “thrown along side” – as Jesus throws earthly elements alongside his heavenly or spiritual meaning.   The things in the stories are common enough – everyday things and people like brothers, sheep and coins, kings and servants, or in this parable as in so many – we have a picture of agriculture. It seems like every child learns about the power of a seed from that Kindergarten project when you put a bean in a wet paper towel, and then watch i...