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BACKGROUND INFORMATION Matthew’s church context: Jesus’ parables were about kingdom of God, that which was to come and that which was experienced now. Keep in mind that Matthew’s church was already experiencing this kingdom when this gospel was being written. {1} That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. {2} Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. It’s interesting to note that the traditional position of a rabbi when teaching was not standing, but sitting. By now Jesus was so popular that he was forced into a boat in order to speak to the crowd. And he teaches them a parable. In the Greek the word, parable, literally means "something cast beside," something else to explain or clarify…a comparison or analogy. One scholar defines a parable this way. "At its simplest the parable is a metaphor or simile drawn from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought." A parable is like a piece of music, a poem, or a painting. It tries to move you into a new way of understanding God. {3} And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. {4} And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. {5} Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. {6} But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. {7} Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. {8} Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. {9} Let anyone with ears listen!" In this parable there are basically 4 kinds of dirt: hardened dirt, rocky dirt, thorn-infested dirt, and good dirt. In First century Palestine, fields could be sown in the fall or spring. Sometimes the field was first prepared by plowing, and sometimes the seed was sown first and then plowed in. "Sowing" was a common metaphor for teaching or preaching. The word of God goes forth into human souls like seeds into soil. It was common for one bushel of wheat to yield ten bushels of wheat. So the yield of 30, 60, or 100-fold was absolutely amazing. These kinds of yields would be impossible for a farm, but very possible in God’s kingdom. {18} "Hear then the parable of the sower. {19} When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. {20} As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; {21} yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. {22} As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. {23} But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty." "Parable of the sower" The inclusion of a title here suggests that Jesus’ parable had become quite popular by the time it was written. Notice that this interpretation is given, not to the crowds, but to the disciples who came to him and asked for an explanation. Keep in mind that Matthew had Mark’s gospel when he wrote this. And he changes some things. Mark uses the singular, "seed." Matthew uses "seeds." Matthew changes the collective nouns to singular, emphasizing individual responsibility. For Matthew it was very important to understand what God was doing in the world. Last week we learned that only those who have a childlike faith will understand and receive the kingdom of God. Those who hear the word and understand will bear all kinds of fruit in their lives, fruit that will point to the power of God.
WHAT GOD MIGHT BE SAYING TO US TODAY So Jesus steps into a boat, sits down, and speaks to the crowd standing on the beach. Instead of being very plain and direct, he uses parables, a kind of mystery language designed to get people thinking about the kingdom of God. Jesus was a master at the art of communicating spiritual truths to common people. People didn’t need to adhere to the many laws of the scribes and Pharisees. It was easy to listen to this man who spoke their language, knew their customs, and understood their hearts. Everyone understood farming and gardening. Working the earth, planting seeds, and harvesting fruit was central to life in those days. If Jesus were to tell me a parable he would have to compare the kingdom of God to a sport like tennis, golf, or baseball, but not gardening. I am the world’s worst gardener. Even as I say this I am aware that if I had the desire, I could actually learn to grow things. And there are many who have learned to grow all kinds of plants. Allen Rumble offers the top ten things he has learned from gardening. 10. We really do "reap what we sow". Good seeds bear good fruit. 9. Without rains and storms there is no growth - no fruit is produced. 8. When weeding, be careful! We can't always tell the difference between a nasty weed and a beautiful flower. 7. Deep roots are a good thing. Without them, we'll wither and die. 6. Pruning and trimming, as painful as it seems, actually works to our advantage. 5. In gardening, as in life, cheating does not work. Short-cuts and neglect always show up in the quality of our garden. 4. Like anything worthwhile, beautiful gardens require attention, hard work, and commitment. 3. We cannot rush the harvest. Bearing fruit takes time and patience. Premature fruit is almost always sour. 2. Gardening and growing is a lifetime experience. We can experience growth and beauty until the day we die. 1. Fertilizer happens! In fact, nothing much grows without it. Maybe Jesus was right. There is much to learn about God, about life and love when we grow plants. Jesus compared the human soul to dirt. God’s word is the seed scattered on human hearts. How is that word received? It depends on the condition of our hearts. Our heart may be hard like the crusty, packed-down earth of the path. There are times when we receive God’s word with great joy, only to see it shrivel and die because we failed to nurture deep roots. Sometimes we hear God’s word, see it planted in our lives and grow. But because we allow the thorns and weeds to grow also, that word is choked and strangled. And yes, God, we hope there are times when we hear your word. We do the necessary work to grow deep roots. We keep the soil worked up and fertilized. We get on our knees and pull out the weeds. Which kind of dirt are you today? Which kind of dirt do you want to be? The good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that we don’t have to live with the crust, or the rocks, or the weeds. We can be the good soil where God’s word can yield so much fruit that it absolutely astounds others! Have you ever been amazed at what God has done in your life? The following story comes from Mr. Del Tarr, a missionary who served fourteen years in West Africa. His story points out the price some people pay to sow the seed of the gospel in hard soil. "I was always perplexed by Psalm 126 until I went to the Sahel, that vast stretch of savanna more than four thousand miles wide just under the Sahara Desert. In the Sahel, all the moisture comes in a four month period: May, June, July, and August. After that, not a drop of rain falls for eight months. The ground cracks from dryness, and so do your hands and feet. The winds of the Sahara pick up the dust and throw it thousands of feet into the air. It then comes slowly drifting across West Africa as a fine grit. It gets inside your mouth. It gets inside your watch and stops it. The year's food, of course, must all be grown in those four months. People grow sorghum or milo in small fields. October and November...these are beautiful months. The granaries are full -- the harvest has come. People sing and dance. They eat two meals a day. The sorghum is ground between two stones to make flour and then a mush. The sticky mush is eaten hot; they roll it into little balls between their fingers, drop it into a bit of sauce and then pop it into their mouths. The meal lies heavy on their stomachs so they can sleep. December comes, and the granaries start to recede. Many families omit the morning meal. Certainly by January not one family in fifty is still eating two meals a day. By February, the evening meal diminishes. The meal shrinks even more during March and children succumb to sickness. You don't stay well on half a meal a day. April is the month that haunts my memory. In it you hear the babies crying in the twilight. Most of the days are passed with only an evening cup of gruel. Then, inevitably, it happens. A six-or seven-year-old boy comes running to his father one day with sudden excitement. "Daddy! Daddy! We've got grain!" he shouts. "Son, you know we haven't had grain for weeks." "Yes, we have!" the boy insists. "Out in the hut where we keep the goats -- there's a leather sack hanging up on the wall -- I reached up and put my hand down in there -- Daddy, there's grain in there! Give it to Mommy so she can make flour, and tonight our tummies can sleep!" The father stands motionless. "Son, we can't do that," he softly explains. "That's next year's seed grain. It's the only thing between starvation and us. We're waiting for the rains, and then we must use it." The rains finally arrive in May, and when they do the young boy watches as his father takes the sack from the wall and does the most unreasonable thing imaginable. Instead of feeding his desperately weakened family, he goes to the field and with tears streaming down his face, he takes the precious seed and throws it away. He scatters it in the dirt! Why? Because he believes in the harvest. The seed is his; he owns it. He can do anything with it he wants. The act of sowing it hurts so much that he cries. But as the African pastors say when they preach on Psalm 126, "Brother and sisters, this is God's law of the harvest. Don't expect to rejoice later on unless you have been willing to sow in tears." Do you believe in the harvest? Do you trust that God will bless our church and that the resources to build our new building will be provided? Do you have faith that God and you can remove the rocks and weeds from your heart? It takes faith to sow seeds in soil that doesn’t seem fertile. But the seeds of God’s word have already been sown in your life and in mine. Your spiritual work…my spiritual work is to remove the rocks and thorns. It is to spread the manure that someone dumps in one tender spot on our soul. Be assured…there is some pain involved in this growth process. There is struggle and difficulty. But we are a people who believe in the harvest. What is sown today may make no sense. But we believe in the harvest…we are a people of eternal hope…we have been given a vision of the future. And we believe that someday that future will come to fruition and we will celebrate with songs of joy.
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07.14.02 - BYOB (Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23)
