The parable of the Sower is fundamental for understanding all parables. And Jesus just gave the disciples the answer key (4:13-20). To understand Jesus, you don’t need a certain IQ or a background in Middle Eastern studies. You need to be quick to hear, willing to suffer, and to desire him more than everything else. One fundamental mark of spiritual health is a desire to know. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing, but the glory of kings is to search a thing out” (Prov. 25:2). Parables—riddles, sayings, paradoxes—are revelation, small sayings with big consequences about God and us. God reveals himself metaphorically—what He is like in otherwise unlike things. If Jesus is divine, we should expect his teaching to reflect the simplicity and subtlety of creation, and be ready to be surprised.