That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. Matthew 13:12 (MSG)
Why I Tell Stories – The Seed Series – Part 2
Go to PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3 | PART 4 | PART 5 | PART 6 | PART 7
“What do you make of this? A farmer planted some seeds. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams. “Are you listening to this? Really listening?” (Matt 13:3-9 MSG.)
Jesus invited his audience to consider the story for themselves:
“What do YOU think of this?”
So what DO YOU think of this story?
Perhaps you’ve heard this parable in sermons a thousand times and more, as an encouragement or a warning. A rebuke, or a promise. What does this parable mean to you? What feelings and thoughts does it bring up to your heart and mind? You have permission to engage the text, wrestle with it, let it dig deep into your life, bring up questions and thoughts and feelings.
This is not anything progressive, this is an ancient and sacred practice.
For me, this parable used to be about the soil. Bad soil equals bad person, and you want to be good soil. You want seeds to be able to grow in your life. I’ve thought, am I good soil? Or am I a concrete path, a rocky way, or filled with weeds? I fall into self-deprecation and negative self-criticism.
I also question and judge the condition of other peoples “soil,” assigning them labels – rocky, concrete, weedy.
I don’t think that's what Jesus was trying to communicate. There’s more going on here.
Sometimes it takes the shaking off of old understandings and shallow wisdom to dig deeper into the story.
There’s only so much you can get from a two-dimensional reading. You have to go in search of context, characters, and language, especially when you consider that this book was written in the ancient near east, in a different language, culture, and era, that we know today. We can’t possibly think we can understand the story by simply reading the words.
As with every good story, there’s always more to it than the words on the page.
After he had told this parable, his disciples asked:
“What? Who? Why?” (paraphrased).
Jesus answered, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” Matt 13:11.
Why not them?
It's a secret?
The Kingdom of Heaven is a secret?
The “city on a hill” the “light in the dark” the “salt of the earth?”
Secrets?
It’s not a secret purposefully withheld, given to some and kept from others. It’s a flow you enter into (shout out to our previous series). It’s a secret in as much as buried treasure is. It’s there for us to find, but if we don’t search for it, it stays hidden.
“You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it.” Matt 13:11-12 (MSG).
The secret is yours for the finding, the insight is there for you to discover. It’s a secret The Divine wants to spread like wildfire. Like seeds thrown into every kind of soil you can imagine.
Go to Secrets Often Unravel Slowly – The Seed Series – Part 3
Written by Liz Milani
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