Sowing Seed
We’ve been studying the New Testament chapter by chapter. We finished Matthew a few weeks ago and started Mark. What we do is read through the chapter the week before our study time and note anything that “shines” for us (good ol’ Lectio Divina and Spiritual Directions classes). My notes are more in depth as I refer to the cultures and customs of the time, compare different translations, and point out Greek words, their meanings, and how sometimes they don’t line up with the New Living Translation we’re using. By doing this, we get a better view of the scene in a passage and how theological views influence translations of words.
Recently we finished Mark 4. One of the themes that crops up again and again is “seed” (pun intended). In a very familiar story, Jesus talks about a farmer sowing some seed. Some seeds fell on a path, others on shallow soil, some fell among thorns, but others fell on fertile soil. Again, it’s a familiar story.
My daughter stated that, while she knows the story, she looked at it differently from how we studied it in Matthew’s version. This time, instead of seeing the “seed” as “God’s word” (verse 14), she saw the seed as people and the “soil” represents the circumstances of our lives — when and where we’re born, our sex, our cultural heritage, our skin color, our family’s economic situation, etc. By looking at the story in this way, we can see that some people are “better off” than others. That is, some people have more and, oftentimes, better opportunities than others.
I took this metaphor and turned it. Keeping with the idea that people are the seeds — we are “sown” into the “soil” of other people’s lives, into their circumstances. We might call this our “circle of influence.” No matter if we’re at work, or home, or shopping, or wherever, we can affect the lives of others, whether we realize it or not.
I turn the metaphor again.
Something that a lot of people miss (I did for a very long time) is when the writers of the New Testament refer to the “Word of God,” most of the time they don’t mean the Bible — they mean Jesus. As we see in John’s Gospel, Jesus was God’s Word made human:
John 1.1, 14 (CEB):[1] In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. … The Word became flesh and made his home among us. We have seen his glory, glory like that of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
Another way of looking at Jesus’ story about sowing seed, then, is sowing Jesus himself. If we take these two together — Jesus being the seed and the lives of others being the soil — we get something like we’re sowing Jesus into the lives and circumstances of other people.
My wife and I had a similar conversation the other day.
My wife’s really into Mary Magdalene, and rightly so. In a lot of people’s minds, Mary is viewed as a prostitute (wrongfully), a former demon possessed person, or anything other than what she truly is — the Apostle to the Apostles and (most likely) Jesus’ closest companion. She was the one who anointed Jesus’ feet (an act usually performed by a wife or intimate partner). She was the one who stood by him during his flogging and murder, while the male disciples abandoned him and hid (save John). She was the one who helped at his burial. She was the one who discovered the empty tomb. She was the one to whom Jesus revealed himself after the resurrection. And she was the one sent to the disciples to tell them Jesus was raised from the dead. To have seen the resurrected Jesus and to be sent is the very definition of an Apostle, thus, Mary Magdalene was the Apostle to the Apostles.
In studying about Mary Magdalene, my wife is reading the Gospel of Mary, a non-canonical text written anywhere between the late first century to the middle second century. Mary’s gospel is more of a wisdom tradition, similar to others around this time (think Proverbs, but not too closely). It’s mostly about the sayings of Jesus with very little context.
However, like the ancient Celtic Christians, what’s important in my mind is Mary’s gospel removes the duality that permeated much of the ancient world and continues to this day. The Gospel of Mary is about Oneness. The idea that, not only is all of humanity connected to each other and nature, we’re all connected with or part of God. In fact, the whole cosmos is (somehow) part of God. Of course, this is very reminiscent of Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane — “ … that they will be one just as we are one … I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. … that they can be one just as we are one. I’m in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one” (John 17.11, 21-23; CEB). And Paul’s statement to the Areopagus, the council at Mars Hill, “In God we live, move, and exist” (Acts 17.28; CEB).
During our conversation, I was reminded of what I feel is the scariest passage in the entire Bible —
John 20.21 (NET):[2] So Jesus said to [the disciples] again, “Peace be with you. Just as the Father has sent me, I also send you” (emphasis added).
This statement begs the question — “How did the Father send Jesus?” We read it above, Jesus was sent into the world as God’s Word. That means Jesus is sending us out into the world as God’s word.
To tie all of this together, then, is to say that we are in God and Christ, that we’re one with God and Christ. Jesus has sent us out into the world just as God sent him, as God’s word. In Jesus’ story, then, we are both farmer and seed. We are God’s word sown into the soil of people’s lives and circumstances. As we pray in the Lindisfarne Community, “May we be as Christ to those we meet, may we find Christ within them.”
And, just for good measure, here’s my favorite band singing about this very thing:
~~~
In the Love of the Three in One,
Br. Jack+, LC
_________
[1] Scripture quotations marked (CEB) are taken from The Common English Bible. Copyright © 2011 by Common English Bible. Used by permission.
[2] Scripture quotations marked (NET) are taken from The New English Translation. Copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. https://netbible.com. All rights reserved.
[2] Scripture quotations marked (NET) are taken from The New English Translation. Copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. https://netbible.com. All rights reserved.
Comments