Parable of the Sower

This morning at Solace we looked at the Parable of the Sower - in fact we were invited to put all the sermons we'd ever heard about it out of heads and to read it for what it was and think about what it was about.

A few things fascinated me:

In Mark 4 - the passage we were looking at (haven't checked the others yet) - in the recording of the parable there is no mention in the Greek of seeds. It is just(kind of ... my tenses in Greek aren't necessarily up to scratch - but the idea is that seed is not mentioned) - The one who sows went out to sow. ... some feel among ... other fell among. Some listeners would have heard "seed" but those listening carefully would have heard that it wasn't there and wodnered about that.

Also - So often we think about what the sower sows as "the word" ... and think of that as "the message", "the news about Jesus" ... maybe the kingdom. And none of those are wrong necessarily. But it really hit me this morning that verse 14 in Mark 4 says: "The sowers sows the word" ... that word for "word" is the same word as in John 1 when Jesus is refered to as the Word. So have a think (and read) about the parable of the sower if the "word" that is sown is Jesus.
Interesting ...