Matthew 13:1-9 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
Large crowds came to Jesus to hear him teach about God, to watch him heal and cast out demons. Many thought Jesus a side show, others believed him a great prophet sent by God, and a few thought of him as perhaps God in the flesh. However they saw him, Jesus’ words and ideas were not easily understood such as his answer to which commandment was most important. To love him, God, with all your heart, with all your understanding and with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself is more important than all burnt offerings and sacrifices. (Mark 12:33) This teaching was readily understood, but at other times He taught using parables and stories that were very hard to discern. Oftentimes Jesus left the hearers to decipher the point of the parable or story. However, sometimes as when Jesus talks about John the Baptist as the greatest of humans but the least in God’s kingdom, He explains what the story means. With a story of children in the marketplace, Jesus shows how people did not recognize John’s role of sensitizing people to the coming Messiah. We played the pipe for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn. (Matthew 11:17) Then He gives the explanation. For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.” But wisdom is proved right by her deeds. (Matthew 11:18-19) Whether He speaking clearly or abstractly in his teachings, Jesus knew the people need spiritual ears to understand his point: God has come down in the flesh to save mankind. Therefore, He emphasizes, Whoever has ears, let them hear. In today’s focus, we see Jesus in a boat, choosing to teach the people with parables rather than explaining the realities of life and the kingdom of heaven clearly. This befuddles the disciples for they are trying to glean Jesus’ meaning. When the disciples asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.” (Matthew 13:11-12) Jesus knew this generation of Israelites were living with hard hearts, following him for the fish and loaves, for the healings, for what He could do for them. They were not necessarily with him to learn more about God and his kingdom. They wanted deliverance from the Roman occupation, to live their lives as they desired, not according to Roman rule. All of this reflects their hard hearts, impervious to the gospel of the Good News. However, God chose twelve apostles to receive his truth, but one of them was worldly in spirit, living for himself. Judas sold out Jesus for thirty pieces of silver because his heart was as hard as the Pharaoh’s heart, unchanged even though witnessing Jesus’ many miraculous acts. His physical senses outweighed his spiritual eyes and ears. He saw the fleshly Jesus who ate, slept, talked, acted, walked, as he did, more than the spiritual Jesus sent from God to earth. Even today, this is the Jesus the world accepts, not the Jesus of the heavenly domain.
Today, God continually sows seed, telling the world about himself and the kingdom of heaven. Many of these seeds from the Divine fall on hard ground. Hearts remain unreceptive to anything other than what occupies their daily lives. As the Israelites of Jesus’ time, people live as if there is no God to honor or respect. Their hearts are closed to anything spiritual, unwilling to contemplate their existence. They fill their lives with personal duties, activities, and responsibilities. Work, play, hobbies, interactions, entertainment, and the like offer reasons for living. They behave as people staring at a wall with no interest to discover what is behind the wall. They have little understanding of why they breathe, why their hearts beat. The only reality they desire is what they experience for the day or what their bucket list contains for tomorrow. Their cherished dreams are earthbound, finite, ethereal in content. The birds of the air quickly devour any thought of a future with God or a need to know God. This of course is the evil one’s desire for the human race. Other seed falls on shallow soil. These people have a limited interest in knowing God, usually in the tender years of youth, but family background, the ridicule of others, and a general lack of spirituality, quickly dissipates their desire to know God. In our day, electronic media and social contacts often mutilate this God-seeking desire. Activity and social contacts can distance God in people’s daily routine. Consequently, the sprouted seed becomes rootless and dies. The rocky soil of individual lives is too meager for a person to live for God. Other seed falls in enough ground to root well and to grow vigorously, but the cares of this world also grow in this soil. The activities, the successes, even the failures in life grow abundantly around the seed that is flourishing, and finally the cares of this world are more healthy than the seed of God that has sprouted in appropriate soil. Eventually, the “Son” is blocked from the sprouted seed’s view, and the once healthy plant dies. Sadly, Christians in our day are consumed by a plethora of activities and entertainment, all blocking out the “Son” in their lives. But God is persistent in his planting: some seed is in good ground, capable of seeing the “Son,” receiving the healthy, refreshing water from the Spirit every day. This lifestyle brings them to maturity, producing seed that will grow new life around them. Jesus in this parable is talking about God’s enduring love for mankind. He never quits planting his word into the hearts of men. Some receive, many do not. Some sprout, many do not. Some walk part way with God, others quickly retreat. Some fight the world with holy living, others give in and die to the weeds, but God never gives up telling his story of love for people. Many find this love with a joy in their hearts, enduring to the end in their affection for God.
Christians have a major part to play in sowing seed. Christ has made us one with him; therefore, one with God, for we are IN HIM AND HE IS IN GOD. Consequently, God’s seed is expressed through our lives. Some of the seed will fall on good ground and will sprout to eternal life. Much of the seed will never germinate, but we are still to express the sower to all people. We are to love God deeply as his servants. We are not here to do our will or to express our ideas about living in the flesh. We are to love others as we love ourselves. The Bible says that sinful man does what is right in his own eyes. This is contrary to God’s will for our lives. We are to be as He is: to love others, to give our lives for others, even if they are far from God. Of course this hurts our idea of freedom. Paul talks to the Corinthians directly, even harshly. They have made divisions in the church based on who is right: Paul or Apollo. This division was so bitter that they were destroying the church of God in Corinth. Paul tells them that they are IMMATURE. He cannot feed them meat because they are but plants that are being choked out by the cares of this world: what they believe or what they do not believe. Rather than feed them meat, he has to go back to the first works of Christ and talk to them about forgiveness, love, grace and mercy. The Corinthians were not valuing the oneness of the body. What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building. (1 Corinthians 3:5-9) Paul tells them God is planting a field. They are part of that field. God’s will not theirs should be done. If they interfere with God’s will by splitting the church, they destroy the work of the planter. Whoever destroys the work of the planter or his house will be destroyed himself. Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple. (1 Corinthians 3:16-17) Christians are to work in unity for unity. We each have a different part or function in the body, but we must be cognizant that God does the planting. We support God’s effort through our individual imaging of him. We do not split the field or tear down part of the house based on our idea of freedom: what we want, what we think, what we do not want. We are servants of the Lord. We can cause the ground around us to be fertile if we display the works and attributes of the Spirit in our lives. The Spirit of God is meek, mild, loving, caring, merciful, gracious, tolerant, patient, and kind. Do we reflect his attributes or are we like the church of Corinth: immature, angry, divisive, hurtful, loveless, bitter, and so on? The Corinthian church talked a good game, even displayed gifts of the Holy Spirit in their worship services, but Paul warns them that their attitude of divisiveness reveals their immaturity and willingness to harm God’s temple. Paul said God would judge them for their lack of maturity. Their worldliness would destroy their own souls and the souls of others. Bad ground will eventually reap a harvest of death, division, and carnality. Let us toil to make good ground for God’s seed. Jesus said some seed fell on good soil; let us be that good soil. Amen.
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