Perhaps, like me, you’ve sometimes been arrogant enough to think or even say, “If I were God, I would certainly do things such-and-such a way…”
As if we could know better.
Jesus’ parable here, like many of his parables, confronts us
with absurdity. Sure it’s an everyday
action people can all relate to – a sower goes out to sow some seeds in his
field. But this guy doesn’t seem too bright. He’s not very careful. You might call him sloppy. He just takes handful after handful and
tosses seed wherever. No two inch deep
holes, nicely spaced apart. Not even
careful to make sure the seed all gets into the garden. Some falls on the path, here and there, he
doesn’t seem to be bothered by any of this.
Maybe he doesn’t really know what he’s doing. Maybe he doesn’t care if any of this seed
grows or not. Maybe he’s just a fool.
But like all Jesus’ parables, the point is deep. The absurdity is the very lesson. God’s ways are not our ways. His wisdom is beyond ours.
Far more than just a funny story about a foolish farmer,
Jesus is really teaching us about how the Word of God works in the Kingdom of
God. And thanks be to God he explains
this parable to his disciples, and to us.
The sower is the one who brings the seed, which is the word
of God. So any pastor or teacher of the
word could be the sower. Jesus himself,
is the sower, or God the Father who sent him. That’s not really the point.
The seed, the word of God, goes out freely, far and
wide. It’s not a secret, or a riddle,
something you have to search far and wide to unearth. It simply is cast out there into the world –
freely – for all to see and hear. That’s
why there’s no entrance fee to churches.
That’s why there’s no set of hoops to jump through or secret
handshake. The Word of God is like
sunlight that washes the earth or rain that comes down on everyone and
everything. Or, here, like a seed that
is recklessly cast in all directions.
Now, Jesus doesn’t explain why he does it this way. We might think we know better but we surely
do not. But rather than direct our
attention to the motivations of the sower, or to critique his methods, Jesus
rather points to the various kinds of soil on which the seed falls.
It’s not like everyone who hears the Gospel automatically becomes
and remains a believer. We know that
from our own experience. In fact, you’ve
probably seen many examples of each of these kinds of soil if you think about
it. The word generally gets four
reactions or four kinds of hearing (and four, in Scripture, is the number of
“the world” – as in the four points of the compass). We might describe these four reactions as: hardened,
shallow, conflicted, repentant.
Take the first – the seed that falls on the hardened path. Out there, completely exposed to everything,
the seed is quickly devoured by the birds.
Jesus later explains this is the work of the Evil One, who snatches the
word away quickly at times. The Devil
does not want us to hear God’s word, or believe in it. He wants to snatch it away, squelch it, drown
it out with a cacophony of other messages.
He has his many birds, his various tactics, and sometimes he is so
successful at this that a person never believes at all. Sometimes even for Christians, the word is
planted in us, spoken to us, and the devil somehow keeps us from hearing it. “Oh, that law is speaking to other people,
and no to me.” Or “Oh, this part is just too difficult I think I’ll skip it for
something easier.” Beware the birds,
Christian. They’re always trying to peck
away at the Word God would plant in you.
Then there’s the rocky, or shallow soil. These hear the word and receive it with joy,
but have no root – and so when trouble and persecution come, they quickly
wither. We might call these fair weather
Christians. People who are ok with the
happy talk of religion, the sweet-sounding promises and nice ideas about love
and heaven and peace. But their roots
run shallow. They don’t go very
deep. Either through lack of study or
attention, or not taking the word seriously, they easily wither under
persecution and trouble. These are not
the Christians who embrace cross-bearing, suffering, and patient humility under
God’s wisdom and in God’s time. And
often we are tempted to be the same.
Every Christian can get a little wobbly in faith when persecution and
trouble comes. There is much that is
against us in this world, against us hearing the word, receiving the word, and
growing in the word.
The third soil are those who are choked out by the thorns –
the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches. We might call this conflicted or distracted
soil. When other cares and concerns seem
more pressing than the word. When
perhaps slowly, over time, other priorities supplant our first love. All the other things, get in the way, and
slowly choke out the one thing needful.
This is why the Christian life must always be one of repentance,
re-orientation toward Christ, confessing our sins and receiving his grace daily.
With so much against us, it’s a wonder that anything grows
at all. With the birds out pecking, the
sun scorching feeble sprouts, and the weeds choking out the crops, it’s a
wonder that anything good comes from the sowing. But Jesus tells us of that final soil – the
good soil. To say that it’s good – well,
this is not Jesus saying that people who receive the word are without sin, not
good in and of themselves. But this soil
is good in the sense that it does what the farmer desires – it receives the
seed and the seed grows in it. The soil
doesn’t make a decision to believe, or accept the seed. The soil just sits there, and passively
receives the gift of the seed. So too
the heart of the believer.
And then Jesus uses this word, that in this case the person
“hears the word and understands it”.
Again, let’s catch the shade of meaning.
The Greek is something like, literally, “puts it together”. We’re not talking so much about intellectual
understanding here. Rather, this is the
understanding of wisdom, the understanding of the heart, that receives God’s
word as it is intended – both the word of law that shows our sin, and the word
of life that shows us Christ!
So many bad sermons simply amount to a challenge, “which
kind of soil are you?” When the reality
is, we may all be all four kinds.
Sometimes we are distracted, sometimes hardened, sometimes choked by
worry and care. And sometimes
faithful. But there still stands the
picture of the sower, casting his seed again and again, here and there, to and
fro. He may seem careless, but he cares
more than we can know. He may seem foolish, but his foolishness is wiser than
the wisdom of this world.
His word goes forth – to all places and all people –
indiscriminately. Because it is a word
of grace. His call to repentance and
faith is for everyone, and that, dear friend, means it is for you.
Finally, this parable has implications for the work of the
church, as well. For together we work to
sow the gospel that we have received, indeed, we wish to bear much fruit –
perhaps a hundred fold. The church follows
the pattern of her Lord Jesus, in sowing the word freely, broadly, openly, even
(some might say) recklessly. Because we
have been loved by God without deserving a bit of it – we share that love with
all other poor, undeserving sinners.
We do it collectively, and individually. We do it through the formal Sunday service
and the preaching of Christ crucified, and through the humble everyday witness
of faith, and good works done in Christian love. We bear fruit when the word that has taken
root in our hearts convicts us of sin and consoles us with grace, and moves us
to love our neighbor.
Sometimes we see that fruit.
Sometimes we don’t. Sometimes the
word seems to work, sometimes it seems to fail.
But like the sower in the hymn based on this reading, the sower’s heart
cries out either way, “Oh what of that, oh what of that!” In other words, ours is just to be faithful,
and leave the results to God the Holy Spirit.
We can’t make the word work any more than we can make a seed grow. We can only sow the seed generously, and pray
the Lord of the Harvest that it not return void, according to his promise.
Jesus doesn’t answer the question of why some believe and
others do not. But he does assure us, by
this parable. He teaches us how it is –
and that he knows how it is – and that means we can trust him to know what he’s
doing.
The Sower is not reckless or stupid or powerless as some may
say. Nor is he uncaring or apathetic
about the success of his farming. Just
as Jesus wasn’t crucified because he was weak, or unlucky, or the victim of
circumstance. But he laid down his life
of his own accord, in perfect obedience to the Father, to complete his mission
of saving the world from sin. As strange
and reckless as it may seem.
So also his
gospel – he knows exactly what he’s doing, strange as it may seem. He sows the seed, plants the word, proclaims
the Gospel freely and fully – intent that all would hear and believe, sprout
and bear fruit. That some seed falls on
bad soil of whatever kind – we recognize, but leave it for the mystery that it
is.
Trust the
sower. Believe the word, and bear the
blessed fruit he will bring forth in you.
Amen.
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