1 Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: 3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on a path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” 9 And he said, “If you have ears to hear, then hear!”
Prayer Focus: As we enter chapter four of Mark’s Gospel, the focus of Jesus’ ministry takes on an additional character. He begins to teach the crowds in parables. The first parable Jesus tells is the sower, the seeds, and the soil. Parables invite us in, cause us to think and question because of something unusual or strange. What strikes you as odd in this parable? Pray that your mind might be, as one New Testament scholar once suggested, “teased into active thought” by Jesus’ teaching today.
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