If you have ears? Listen!
Pay close attention to what you hear. The closer you listen, the more understanding you will be given--and you will receive even more. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them.
Mark 4:24-25 NLT
After successfully fulfilling the requirements for a doctorate, it is tempting to put the work on a shelf and turn your attention to something new. I'm taking the opposite posture. Rather, I'm investing even more into the work of biblical storytelling. Over the past year and a half I have begun focusing my energy into projects and relationships which will support improving my skills and repertoire. My next project involves committing to memory a variety of Jesus' stories. My starting point is Mark 4. Follow my journey through portions of this text as I wrestle with bringing the text to life in the telling of the story.
"Shema"
The bedrock of Hebrew faith is wrapped up in a prayer called the shema. It gets its name from the first Hebrew word in the prayer. The people at The Bible Project have done some great work on teasing out the significance of this word and the prayer.
Teasing out the three meanings of shema provides a deeper insight into the significance of the line, "If you've got ears, then listen!" As a result, obedience, not just understanding, becomes a primary expectation and response to the story. Throughout the text, Jesus' teaching compels the the audience to obey the story. Perhaps, for this reason, the disciples eagerly desired to understand precisely what Jesus meant within the stories.
Obedience to what?
I've often understood this passage within the context of evangelism. The meta-narrative sounds like this: "Get out there and sow the gospel; scattering the seeds of good news everywhere because you don't know what the soil is like only God can know." While I agree that we are called to be witnesses to the world, that is not what this passage is primarily teaching. Jesus explains this passage. God carries the role of sower; we function as the soil. Therefore, the call to obedience revolves around our being a good soil into which the seed of God produces a harvest. This story ultimately draws us into self-reflection.
The next post will examine the significance of storytelling as understood through Jesus' teachings in this passage. Until then, if you have ears, listen.