“9 And when his disciples
asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “To you it has
been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are
in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not
understand.’” (Luke 8)
Jesus
tells a parable of a man sowing seed.
A story about the condition of ground in which seed grows best. It occurs to me as we see this story
told, it is a parable within a parable.
The
Son of God went out to tell a parable to a great crowd. On some it fell on deaf ears. Their hearts were hard and it only made
them angry since the man would not speak plain and the devil came and took the
words away. Some latched onto it
quickly, it tickled their fancy, but the meaning never sank in and they could
not recall the story by the time they got home. Some received the story eagerly, even understanding what it
meant. Mostly. They could recite it for a while, even
discuss what it might mean, but their own viewpoints and hot button issues
colored their interpretation of it and so it did not change their lives. Some grabbed hold of the story, turned
it inside out, looked at it from every angle, loved it, loved the Son of God
who told it to them. They did not
try to change it, but let it change them.
People noticed.
What
kind of ground receives seed best?
What kind of ground is best for farming and producing a crop? Broken ground. Plowed, furrowed, all the rocks
removed, soft, not growing anything else.
Ground
doesn’t often, if ever, get in this condition by itself. The farmer tears at it, drives sharp,
hard, heavy steel through it, digging at it, turning it over, exposing the
roots of weeds. It’s a violent,
dirty business.
What
kind of heart receives Jesus best?
What kind of heart is best for the Spirit to grow fruit? A soft heart. A humble heart.
One not confused with lies, already full with pride or hardened by fear,
doubt and worry. Like the rocks,
like the weeds, these must be removed.
The heart must be turned over, broken, softened. This is a violent, dirty business. It’s done through trial and testing and
discipline. It’s exposed in
prosperity and poverty, plowed in adversity and suffering.
But
all these trials are preparing us for the Word! So they are Grace!
They are Good. They are
gifts! “2 Count it all joy, my
brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the
testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness
have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in
nothing.” (James 1) The parable cannot be
received by the indifferent listener.
It cannot be understood by the closed mind. It cannot be understood correctly by the narrow mind. What kind of heart receives without
judgment? Without anger? Without preconceived notions?
“2 And calling to him a
child, he put him in the midst of them 3 and said, “Truly, I say
to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the
kingdom of heaven. 4 Whoever humbles himself like this child is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 19)
Jesus
is clear. The Word will never take
root in us if we do not allow ourselves to be molded by the Potter. Plowed by the Planter. Weeded by the Lover of our souls. How much is our effort and how much is Grace? I would suggest we lack the powers of
perception to answer this. The man
treading water is working very hard and feels as if no one is helping. He is alone in this. Yet, he did not make his body, nor give
it the ability to move. He did not
create the laws of buoyancy or Newtonian physics. Everything keeping him afloat is from God… but it’s near
impossible to realize this when treading water.
Jesus’
parable makes it clear God is the farmer, we’re but dirt. Dirt has no power to affect change upon
itself. Yet in the same story,
Jesus uses action verbs in his warnings to the disciples. “hold it fast”, “18 Take care then
how you hear,”
finally summing it up with, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear
the word of God and do it.”
And
there are no shortage of calls to action elsewhere: strive, turn, become, obey,
open, enter, come, serve, labor.
From our vantage point then, it may always look like we’re doing all the
work, but don’t give pride any purchase!
When we have the advantage of paradise-based points of view and heavenly
hindsight, we will see clearly God was in all. Picture the child with their plastic lawnmower out in front
of dad with the real one. When the
child looks at the last row, he sees it mowed. So he feels he is accomplishing something. Dad however is just enjoying the scene
and the time together. Submission,
the beginnings of love. It’s not a
divvying up of chores, we’ll do this and God does that. It’s the wheel within the wheel. We know not if we turn because we’re
pushing forward, being pushed forward or the ground is moving underneath
us. We are in Him and He in
us!
Can
we see this as Caleb did? ““You
know what the Lord said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you
and me. …10 And now, behold, the Lord has kept me alive, just as he
said, these forty-five years since the time that the Lord spoke this word to
Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day
eighty-five years old. 11 I am still as strong today as I was in the day
that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for
going and coming. 12 So now give me this hill country of which the
Lord spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there,
with great fortified cities. It may be that the Lord will be with me, and I
shall drive them out just as the Lord said.” (Josh 14)
Or
as Jonathan? “6 Jonathan said to the
young man who carried his armor, “Come, let us go over to the garrison of these
uncircumcised. It may be that the Lord will work for us, for nothing can hinder
the Lord from saving by many or by few.”
(1Sam 14)
Notice,
neither of them knew, they suspected, but only the outcome would tell the
tale. Can we this day, pray for
this childlike faith then get up, go to the shed, grab our plastic rakes and
hoes and go till some ground? It
may be that the Lord will work for us.
