Tuesday, 12 July 2011

Agnosticism / Atheism: What's Hot Now: Jesus' Parable of the Seeds

Agnosticism / Atheism: What's Hot Now
These articles that had the largest increase in popularity over the last week

Jesus' Parable of the Seeds
12 Jul 2011, 11:01 am

13 And he said unto them, Know ye not this parable? And how then will ye know all parables?

14 The sower soweth the word. 15 And these are they by the way side, where the word is sown; but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. 16 And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground; who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness; 17 And have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time: afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word’s sake, immediately they are offended. 18 And these are they which are sown among thorns; such as hear the word, 19 And the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. 20 And these are they which are sown on good ground; such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred.

Compare: Matthew 13:1-23; Luke 8:4-15

Jesus on the Fate of his Message

Finally, Jesus explains to his inner circle of twelve apostles what the parable of the seeds means. This “true” meaning is supposed to remain hidden from everyone else, but the reason for this is not explained. Readers should wonder about this because there is nothing obvious about why the true meaning should be limited to just a few â€" especially in light of the fact that, when all is said and done, this isn’t an earth-shattering message.

Indeed, it arguably isn’t Jesus’ “message” to begin with, but rather a meta-message. What that means is that Jesus isn’t so much telling his followers about how they should believe or act, but instead about how his actual message will be received by people. As explained previously, the parable of the seeds describes four fates that await seeds which are sown:

1. Some fall off to the side and are taken away by birds.
2. Some fall onto stony ground, grow quickly, but then die just as quickly when things turn bad.
3. Some fall among thorns and grow a bit, but then are choked off by the vines.
4. Some fall onto fertile ground and deliver a massive return to the sower of the seeds.

These four fates roughly correspond to four different fates that await Jesus’ message:
1. Some hear, but Satan will take away what they learn, leaving them as they were.
2. Some hear, but the message cannot take firm root due to lack of depth and so the message does not endure.
3. Some hear, but they have many other distractions that overwhelm the message, choking it off.
4. Some hear and the message takes root with them, resulting in a positive return for themselves and others.

None of this is Jesus’ ministry or God’s message to humanity â€" it’s just an assessment of how the message will be received. Moreover, it isn’t an assessment that is unique to Jesus’ message. If you think about it, the exact same thing can be said about any philosophical or religious message. At the very least, it’s true of any message delivered for the purpose of getting people to change their behavior.

It’s all true and worth keeping in mind, but there’s nothing special about it. Thus my question above about wondering why this assessment should be kept secret from most of those coming to hear Jesus. If all he’s saying is “Some of you aren’t going to end up paying attention to me, some will believe for a while and then drift off, some will let yourselves be distracted from this message, and some will actually heed my words,” then why not just say so? How could they be harmed from learning this â€" assuming that they didn’t already know something so obvious on their own?

I also wonder about how Jesus starts out his explanation. The words he uses suggests a bit of exasperation over the fact that the apostles haven’t figured out the true meaning of the parable on their own. This would be consistent with the portrayal of the apostles as rather dense, especially in Mark.

It’s been argued that the interpretation of the parable stems from the early church rather than Jesus because, for example, it relies on terminology like “the word” as a designation for the gospel which dates to the early church but not to Jesus. The fates Jesus describes would have been familiar to early church leaders.

If this interpretation comes from the early church, though, what reason is there to think the parable itself comes from Jesus? If the parable does come from Jesus, then what could he possibly have meant if not the above interpretation?

Giving any interpretation at all, whether this or another, would be inconsistent with Jesus’ words a few verses earlier when he stated that the parables are used to keep the true meaning hidden. If he is expressing his ideas in a way designed to be obscure and difficult to fathom, shouldn’t he have assumed that his apostles would be confused as well â€" especially here, the very first time he employed a parable for such a purpose?

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