Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.
-henry.david.thoreau
Some fall on the road – and the birds come and gobble them up.
These seeds yield a crop. Some even bear one hundred new seeds to be planted.
Jesus leaves the story as it is until the disciples probe him for the meaning.
He explains that seed is the Word of God – the Gospel of the Kingdom and of Christ – and that the condition of the soil is actually the state of our hearts – how well we receive the Word and how deeply it takes root in our hearts.
For some, the truth of the gospel is gone as soon as it falls. The enemy comes and devours the seed when it has barely even touched their heart.
For some, the gospel stirs them up and inspires them, but nothing takes root and nothing changes. There is a moment of excitement: “This is a great idea!” – but there is not change of heart, and soon the idea runs out of steam.
For some, the gospel is received and takes root, but the worries and distractions and obsessions of the world – the good and the bad – cloud and distract the heart. The busyness, tragedy, idolatry, to-do lists, and bent desires grow up and choke out the hope of the gospel.
Then there are the hearts that take the gospel seed in deep. They are soft hearts, tended in hope, and they receive the gospel desperately aware of both the brokenness of the soil and the power of the seed.
So here is our real work as followers of Jesus: tending the soil of our hearts, and the soil of the hearts around us. Our Father, out of His deep grace, has been strewing his seed indiscriminately, carefully and without caution since the beginning. Speaking his word into the darkness, bringing life and light where there was none. And His word does not return void, but accomplishes his intentions and purpose perfectly. Always has. Always will (Isaiah 55.10-11). He spoke his Word into flesh and accomplished salvation and redemption – inaugurated his Kingdom and brought us near by the blood of Christ.
There are men who mow their yards with machetes in this country. Roam their lawns and gardens leveling weeds and high grass in even, mechanical strokes.
We are an army of saintly gardeners. We level the thorns, weeds, and lies of this world with heavenly weedwackers. We keep a careful rifle sight on the Crow that would gobble the word of our Father before it takes root – the thief who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. We remain wary of our often hard hearts and stiff necks – aware of our deep need for the Gospel. This keeps our hearts fertile and ready to receive Good News.
Jesus assures his disciples that the Kingdom of God is like that mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. It is a small seed, smaller than any other seed, but when it is full grown it towers over every other plant in the garden. And the birds of the air come and nest in the result of a seed that they once could have gobbled up.
So the Kingdom, the reign and rule of God, comes in our lives as He plants the seed of faith in our hearts and causes it to grow (as he speaks his word, for faith comes by hearing).
As the redemptive seed and life of the crucified and resurrected Jesus take root – we can expect a slow sprouting of towering trees. The Kingdom comes.
After the resurrection, Mary Magdalene mistook Jesus for the gardener,
but maybe she was not too far off –
as he helps us tend our soil and plants himself as the seed.
The world will mistake him until the end,
but in the end he will take off his leather gloves and coveralls.
He will beat his ploughshare into a sword
and there will be no mistaking him.
The world will hit its knees to the chorus of, “Surely this is the Son of God!”
He will call us by name, as sons and daughters of God,
and we will cry out, “Rabboni!”
The chaff will be burned, the wheat will be harvested and brought into the barn, ‘and then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears let him hear.’
For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable, but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.
1 Peter 1.23
References:
Matthew 13
1-9 The Parable of the Sower
18-23 The Parable of the Sower Explained
24-30 The Weat and the Chaff
31-32 The Kingdom of Heaven as a mustard seed.
John 20:15 –
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, my dear Teacher).
i like it.