Sunday 22 October, 2017

4 Again Jesus began to teach by the Sea of Galilee. The crowd that gathered around him was very large. So he got into a boat. He sat down in it out on the lake. All the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He taught them many things using stories. In his teaching he said, 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to plant his seed. 4 He scattered the seed on the ground. Some fell on a path. Birds came and ate it up. 5 Some seed fell on rocky places, where there wasn’t much soil. The plants came up quickly, because the soil wasn’t deep. 6 When the sun came up, it burned the plants. They dried up because they had no roots. 7 Other seed fell among thorns. The thorns grew up and crowded out the plants. So the plants did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It grew up and produced a crop 30, 60, or even 100 times more than the farmer planted.” 9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears should listen.”

The Message translation writes that Jesus asked the crowd, what do you make of this?

And Jesus tells a story about a farmer who scattered seed on four types of ground. Hard, Rocky, shallow and fertile.

What do I make of this?

What kind of a farmer scatters seed on hard, rocky and shallow ground?

That seems to me like a waste. This farmer is careless. The farmer should have been more careful so that the seed had a better chance of producing a crop. But the seed being scattered by this farmer is not a grain of wheat that is in limited supply. The seed being sown here is the gospel which never runs out.

It doesn’t matter that it lands on rocky soil, or hard soil, the farmer scatters the seed anyway.

What do I make of this? Don’t worry about the condition of the heart, scatter the seed, scatter the Word anyway. We don’t make the seed grow anyway, it is God who makes it grow.

Father, thank you that you make the seed grow. You can also change the condition of the heart, so I pray that those who appear to have a hard heart towards your word, will have a soft heart, ready to receive your word.

Written by Andrew Martin