Jesus Teaches in Parables
Jesus tells a story of a reckless farmer scattering seed everywhere, daring us to see a God who sows grace without caution.
Mark 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.”
Jesus is back in his floating pulpit, teaching from a boat to the crowds pressed along the shore. This time, though, he changes tactics. He tells a story—a parable—about a farmer throwing seed. And what a farmer! He doesn’t measure, calculate, or play it safe. He throws seed everywhere—on the path, on the rocks, in the thorns, on the good soil. Any seasoned farmer would scoff: what a waste! But this farmer doesn’t seem to care. He has seed to spare and not a square inch of ground that won’t get a shot at life.
As anyone could predict, results are mixed. Some seed is snatched, some scorched, some choked. But the seed that finds good soil? It yields more than anyone could dream. Then Jesus stops short of explaining. No tidy conclusion, no moral at the end—just the cryptic closer: “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!’”
Later, back at camp, the disciples do what we would all do: “Uh, Jesus…what was that about?” But instead of explaining right away, Jesus first explains why he teaches this way. “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside, everything is said in parables so that they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, ever hearing but never understanding.”
He quotes Isaiah 6, a passage about people hearing God’s words but never really getting it. And here’s the head-scratcher: is Jesus saying he doesn’t want people to understand? That he’s purposely being obscure? It almost sounds like it.
Why doesn’t Jesus just lay it out plain? My short answer: I don’t know. My longer answer: because he’s Jesus and he gets to teach however he wants. If he chooses mystery over bullet points, who am I to argue?
But maybe there’s a clue. Parables aren’t fables with tidy morals, nor are they step-by-step life lessons. They’re riddles meant to crack our skulls open, to dismantle our preconceived notions of God. We want God to be predictable, manageable, and confirm what we already think. Jesus tells parables to disrupt that. To invite us into mystery.
In this parable, God is like a reckless farmer, scattering seed everywhere with wild generosity—even in places any sane farmer would have skipped. That’s not the God people expected, and if we’re honest, not the God we would invent either. Maybe that’s why Jesus says parables leave people “seeing but not perceiving.” If you cling too tightly to the God in your head, you’ll miss the God who’s sowing seed at your feet.
Reflection Question
What expectations about how God should work might be keeping you from noticing the surprising places where life is already being sown?
