A farmer went out to sow his seed… Matt 13:3 (NIV)
Thorns and Seeds – Parable Series 2 – Part 4
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3
(OR go to Parable Series 1)
Jesus audience in Matthew 13 would have loved talking about who was who – who were those who were like the well-worn path? Or were full of rocks and stones? Or whose lives were riddled with weeds and thorns? I’m sure the disciples, and perhaps even myself when I read this parable, thought they were those whose hearts were ready for the seed. They were the good soil. A place where the word would grow strong, and tall, and beautiful.
But the point really isn’t whose heart contains what, or what is in my heart… the point is to be receptive. To receive.
No matter what…
In every instance, in every place Jesus described, there was soil underneath it all; receptive hearts waiting to be planted in. Sure, some of us, all of us, have various things within us that threaten the growth of God’s word, his Kingdom, in our hearts and lives. But to become obsessed with pointing out these obstacles in ourselves, and in others, is part of the blindness that keeps us from seeing the one who sows. Those whose hearts are like the path don’t care much what's in your heart, or their’s, they just want to go with the flow. Those whose hearts are stoney and immature can’t wait to compare themselves with the condition of your heart. Those whose hearts are full of weeds and thorns are desperately worried about the weeds and thorns they don’t have the capacity for much else.
And all the while, the good soil waits. Our hearts are like untended ground just waiting for us to see its potential, to still our striving and worries and look up and see the one who sows… and keeps on sowing.
In and out of season, he scatters his seed. He sows relentlessly, generously, regardless of whether or not we are ready to receive. He sows while we’re too busy chasing our career to notice. He sows while we lack the discipline to stick it out. He sows in the midst of our pain. Pain so deep we’re sure nothing can grow.
Until sure enough, there comes a day when a little shoot of green breaks through a crack in the pavement, a vine appears wrapping itself around the rocks, and the thorns make way for the most beautiful rose you’ve ever seen.
This Parable is not about seed or soil. It's about The Sower.
You may think this makes him a careless farmer. One who wastes his seed and energy on ground that he knows will not yield a harvest. But God “sends rain on the just and on the unjust.” (Matt 5:45). He is in the business of calling what is not yet into being. He has faith and hope that what is not yet showing any signs of receptivity, will one day burst forth with more green growth that you can imagine. (faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Heb 11:1). He believes in the possibility of growth even in the most impossible places.
Our hope is the extravagant outpouring of his seed.
Jesus told this parable and explains it in the way that he does to see who will get stuck on what kind of soil everyone has, and to find out who really has eyes to see and ears to hear that God himself, in his great love, is always and ever sowing his seed, his word, the good news. Jesus.
And when he sees that some don’t understand, even still, he never gives up sowing.
Go to Part 5 – Pearl of Great Price
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