Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Savoir Jesus Christ.
I’ve heard sermons on the parable of the sower a few times over the years. I always became focused on the last few verses where Jesus explains the parable to His disciples. Since I locked in on the verses I probably missed much of the message presented those mornings. From what I remember the message seemed to be about being the good soil.
My focus most of my life has definitely been what I am going to do to be the good soil. I want to be the good dirt with lots of nutrients so the Holy Spirit can take root. I want to be of just the right consistency that the rain doesn’t wash me away and the sun doesn’t quickly dry me out. The seed of the Holy Spirit isn’t going to escape me if I can help it.
Of course the flip side of that is that I’m going to till the soil of others and make them good soil. The Holy Spirit needs my helping hand to make sure the people I talk to follow through and become good soil.
The problem with all of this is that I am the center of the universe. The truth is that the Holy Spirit really does the work He doesn’t need me to get in the way.
Maybe if we step back to get an understanding of why Jesus used parables we might have a better appreciation of the sower. Parables are stories to share a message in terms of real life experiences. Jesus used nature as His basis for parables because the people were living in an agrarian society. Nature was their life experience. The interesting thing about a parable is that in some respects it shrouds the underlying truth from the casual listener. If the listener is lazy or stubborn the listener never realizes the underlying truth. The meaning goes no deeper than the story on the surface. However the true seeker of knowledge and wisdom digs deeper to the underlying truth. The Spirit really takes root and exposes the meaning of the parable. Further the Spirit encourages further learning the more you understand the more you want to know.
If we dig for the truth underlying this parable we find it’s really not about being good dirt. It’s really about encouraging and warning the sowers of the Word.
The opening of the gospel reading tells us there were large crowds. So large that Jesus put out on a boat to speak to them. Who do you think were in the crowds? My guess is there were Pharisees, Sadducees, merchants, farmers, women, children, soldiers, Romans, to name just a few. All kinds of people representing all types of soil. Jesus was sowing the Word knowing that only a portion who heard it would really dig for the truth.
We and all followers of Christ are sowers. We are encouraged to share the Word everywhere among all people. We don’t know where the seed we sow will take root. It often takes root in the most unlikely places. Only the Spirit knows where the Word will take root and grow. Our job is to do the best we can as sowers seeding as much ground as possible; the rest is out of our hands.
On the other hand we do have a warning against discouragement. Since we don’t know where the Word will take root we shouldn’t be discouraged by results. To my knowledge there is no formula that precisely correlates our efforts to a percentage of return. In business, marketing comes up with expectations on the rate of return based on previous experience. As far as I know nothing like that has been developed for churches. And I think it’s a good thing that it can’t be easily boiled down to a formula. If that were the case we would only sow the Word where the formula told us to do so. It’s difficult enough to overcome our prejudices let alone having a plan targeting specific groups. Clearly that is not what Jesus expects of us.
Now I’ll share with you how not to be a sower of the Word.
Just this week I failed miserably as a sower. I was on a Southwest Airlines flight. On Southwest there are no assigned seats, you board according to a group and number assigned at check-in. Since I fly weekly I always get a low boarding number. This particular flight I put my Bible on the seat and slid my backpack under the seat and went to the rear of the plane to use the lavatory. When I returned a man had taken my items put them in the center seat and sat in the seat I selected. Well after a little upper decibel discussion I sat in the center seat. As I sat down the man said I should read my Bible, alluding to a bad attitude on my part. I replied it says that even Jesus rebuked the disciples. He stated He didn’t know who Jesus was and something to the effect he thought it was going to be a quiet flight. I think I replied I’m sorry to hear that, but the heat of the moment makes that a bit hazy. Perhaps that’s what I hoped I said. At that moment the gate agent asked me to move to another seat. Out of respect to the agent I obeyed without complaint.
Although I lost my seat, the blessing of that whole event was that I ended up sitting among a group of young people returning from a church gathering and a gentlemen that helped me work through the anger and guilt of not handling the encounter in a better manner.
The attendants apologized profusely that I was moved and not the other person which also helped. But the crowning moment was a realization that a true sower would seek out the man after we deplaned and forgive the offense and ask for forgiveness. No matter what the result a seed was planted either by me or other people around the man that witnessed the encounter.
As it turns out I didn’t see the man again until I was boarding the parking shuttle. He was crossing from the individual passenger pickup area back to baggage claim where I expected to find him.
The lesson in all of this is that we must be on guard at all times to be an example of Jesus’ love and to resist the temptation of our sinful bodies to act otherwise. And even when we fail Jesus puts us among His people who can help us heal.
So our task is really quite small in the scheme of things and yet can seem daunting. All we are asked to do is spread seeds over the ground no matter how unfit it may appear to us.
In the name of our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
