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. He who has ears, let him hear."
This story about the farmer sowing seed seems obvious to us, probably because we read it knowing that Jesus was speaking parables and metaphors and that what He was teaching had spiritual significance. We wonder why His disciples after hearing this had to ask Him what it meant. Of course Jesus explained it to them -more on that in a moment.
First, let's understand why His disciples may have had a difficult time discerning the spiritual meaning. This actually was a fairly common sight in rural Palestine and Jesus described what literally happened. A farmer plows a patch of ground -hard stony ground with a thin layer of topsoil. Often the farmer left unplowed paths in the field -plowing by hand was very hard work and it was expedient to leave unplowed paths to walk through the fields; why do the difficult labor of plowing walkways? So, as the farmer manually cast seed, some fell into the plowed soil and some fell on the hard path. Some of the seed fell into areas of shallow topsoil and some fell into the unplowed edges where weeds and thorns grew and some fell into areas where the top soil was so thin that it was mostly rocks and some fell onto good, plowed topsoil. This was farming in Jesus' time. This was not a crazy, unlikely scenario; Jesus may have simply repeated what they witnessed as they were walking. So, when Jesus tells this story, His disciples are somewhat confused. What's Your point, Jesus?
Jesus gives the point; He tells His disciples what He wants them to learn from the story.
“Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”
What was true then is certainly still true now. How many people hear the message of the Kingdom and God's redeeming love, but just can't grasp it? They hear it, but they never get it. And many hear the message and enter in a nominal way -but their roots never go deep, they remain perpetual baby Christians. Others enter in and seem to be growing, but eventually get seduced back into worldly thinking and worldly living. But a few hear the message and receive it and put down roots and grow strong and reproduce and become Kingdom people.
God, please let my heart always be good, fertile soil. Let Your Kingdom grow in me. Let my life make a Kingdom difference. Amen.
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