The Parable of the Sower

Mark 4: 1-20

Knowledge of “the mysteries of the kingdom”…are made known through parables so that they may look but not see ... and hear but not understand.”

Jesus Christ, Parable of the Sower, Luke 8:10

The Parable of the Sower appears in all three synoptic gospels, Mark 4, Matthew (13:1-23) and Luke (8:4-15). Mark's first two verses set the scene, verses 3-9 tell the story, verses 10-13 declare a “mystery,” and verses 14-20 give the apparent solution to the mystery.

Each version says it contains “mysteries” and each one boasts about how well they are hidden. Matthew even congratulates any person who can "see the mysteries that prophets and righteous people have longed to see but were not clever enough to comprehend.” Many people over the centuries have tried to discover the “mysteries” that the gospel authors so proudly boasted were hidden within their parables and miracle stories. Everyone has failed because no one could figure out the encryption method they used to conceal their secrets.

In Mark’s parable, “the one” goes out to sow but he doesn’t immediately say what he is sowing. The stem of the Greek verbs speiron and speirai meaning “sowing” and “to sow” use the same stem as the Greek noun sperma meaning “seed” so by implication one assumes the Parable is talking about sowing “seed.” This interpretation is then reinforced when he later says that “birds ate some” and “others were scorched by the sun or choked by thorn bushes” but he never actually says the word “seed.”

Then Jesus later explains that the Sower is not sowing seed, he is sowing “the word.” This is one of the most important keys to solving the riddle because each verse contains key “words” and many of these key words are innocuous pronouns, words that are used to point at or refer to words that should be understood by the context of the story but are never stated. A key word is like a variable in mathematics such as the expression “x + 2 =3” where by implication “x” is obviously the number “1.”

The parable of the Sower, is a story with many levels of interpretation. Mark’s version says that the Sower sows seeds in “the way” and that they bear fruit ... in thirty, sixty, and one-hundred. Jesus then says “Who has ears to hear, let him hear!” When the twelve ask Jesus to explain the parable, he answers them with the question “Didn’t you understand this parable? How will you understand any of the parables?”

The parable of the Sower is really a story about the power of “words.” The power to say one thing at the outside level but also mean another at the inside level. “The One” who “sows” has two identities. On one level, “the Sower” is the historical Jesus, but on another, the sower is the metaphorical Jesus, the author who is proving everything Jesus says with gematria. Mark wrote his gospel the same way Jesus taught, through parables sprinkled with metaphors, puns, synonyms, ironies, allegories, riddles, and words having more than one meaning. The ones on the outside only hear the parable with their ears, but the initiate on the inside gets to see the mystery of the parable with his own eyes!!

Mark’s first three chapters introduce Jesus as an itinerant prophet, teacher, and healer. In Mark 2:13 for instance, Jesus goes beside a lake, a crowd comes to him, and he teaches, but Mark gives no details as to what Jesus taught. That incident sets up the current story where Jesus returns to the lake to teach a huge crowd. This time Mark tells the reader what and how Jesus taught in the form of four parables titled the Sower, the Lamp, the Growing of Seed, and the Mustard Seed. Each story is a riddle about Jesus and how the Gospel is written. The chapter ends like it started, with Jesus teaching by the Sea. Let’s take a closer look at the structure of the first story and take Mark at his word that the parable is “a mystery,” meaning “a riddle,” a Sacred Geometry riddle!!

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The Sacred Geometry Story

The Scene: shore Sea of Galilee near Capernaum.

4 unique Characters: Jesus, God the Father, a crowd, the twelve disiples, the ones.

The Signs of 25 objects in the story: 4 characters, a small boat, land, sea, the flyers, the way, rock formation, earth, sun, a root, thorn bushes, fruit. thirty, sixty, a hundred, parables, a mystery, Kingdom of God, the word, eternity, wealth, ideal earth.

| 1a 1b 1c 1d | 2a 2b | 3 | 4a 4b | 5a 5b | 6a 6b | 7a 7b 7c | 8a 8b 8c 8d 8e |
| 9 | 10 | 11a 11b | 12a 12b 12c 12d 12e | 13a 13b | 14 | 15a 15b 15c 15d |
| 16a 16b 16c | 17a 17b 17c | 18a 18b | 19a 19b 19c 19d 19e | 20a 20b 20c 20d 20e 20f |