Wednesday, March 3
John & Charles Wesley, Priests (1791, 1788)
Mark 4:1-20
I’m no cook. I can barely boil water. I do know that every recipe has an “essential” ingredient. Without flour there is no gumbo. Without ground beef there is no chili (perhaps you were thinking beans. I cite my great grandfather, an East Texas connoisseur of chili who used to say, ‘If you know beans about chili, you know chili ain't got no beans.’) In today’s reading from Mark’s Gospel, Jesus teaches the Parable of the Sower. This parable appears in all four Gospels, but here in Mark it is the very first recorded teaching of Jesus. Mark intends for it to serve as a foreshadowing of Jesus’ ministry – some would hear and be deaf, some would hear and be tempted but fall away, and some would hear and bear good fruit. I find the second part of today’s reading more interesting however. There is considerable debate about whether this “explanation of the parable” truly originates with Mark. Many scholars believe it to be the work of an overzealous scribe, nervous by the ambiguity of parables. But in between the parable and its explanation, Jesus says to the disciples, “To you has been given the mystery 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.’”
Jesus’ words sound harsh at first. Really they are about the essential ingredient for a holy life. Just like you can’t make chili without beef, or gumbo without flour, you can’t respond to the world appropriately without knowing what God is up to. The essential ingredient for wisdom is knowledge. Nothing makes sense the way it is supposed to, until we learn of God’s universe-wide restoration project carried forward by Jesus. You’ll miss the truth every time, until you have spent some time at the feet of Love-in-Flesh or God-With-Us.
Fr. Patrick Hall