Gen. 25:19-34; Psalm 119:105-112; Rom. 8:1-11; Matt. 13:1-9,18-23
Along with the parable of the Good Samaritan, the parable of the Sower is one of the most recognizable stories in all the Gospels. Even those of us who aren’t farmers or gardeners can understand the metaphor – why some who hear the Word of God are successful in “bearing fruit”, and why some who hear the Word are not successful and “bear no fruit”.
As I look at the various ways that the Word is received and responded to in Jesus’ parable, it seems to me that some just can’t respond to the Word that’s been given to them. It appears that, through no fault of their own, some in this parable have little or no control over the fact that they can’t respond successfully. Not everyone who hears the Word will bear fruit; not everyone who hears the Word can bear fruit. That’s a little disconcerting.
So what’s with this parable of the Sower then, where there’s no guarantee that the Word of God will bear fruit in me, or in you, or in anyone else? What kind of soil am I? How do I know if I’m one of the lucky ones that will bear fruit? Does luck have anything to do with it? What if I’m not good soil; what do I do then, just accept the fact that I won’t bear fruit, that I can’t bear fruit? Ever?
In the parable Jesus speaks directly to our humanity, and the ways in which our flawed humanity can leave us deaf and speechless in the face of God’s Good News. He knows that being a human means being vulnerable: vulnerable to misunderstanding the message of the Gospel and having that confusion twisted by evil forces; vulnerable to thinking that I can change my life and who I am over a weekend; vulnerable to the power of possessions, pleasures of the flesh, and meaningless wealth to possess the human soul.
One thing in the parable is undeniable – God the cosmic gardener is constantly throwing seed, his Good News, upon creation. The reality is that, because of the way God has made us, our ability to hear and to act accordingly to the Word is sometimes impaired, and we’re not always ready to receive Good News and to properly digest it. Here’s my take on Jesus’ parable of the Sower.
Some of that seed falls upon the path, a place that’s not prepared for seed to grow. The path is hard. The path has been hardened by relentless pressure, by being constantly pounded, literally having the life pummeled out of it. We of the soil of the path have been so pounded and hardened by life that any Good News that’s thrown at us can’t possibly stick, much less get inside us. Life has taught us that real love is a dangerous extravagance. We don’t love ourselves, so we are incapable of feeling love and reflecting love. We of the soil of the path have no hope, and therefore no faith. Good News lies on our surface, but we can’t take the chance of letting it in. The hardness of the path is our Kevlar, body armor to protect us from any more hurt or disappointment in our lives, and so we make sure nothing gets into our hopeless hearts. Until we are brave enough to start living again and to learn to hope again, God’s Good News will never grow in us because we will never allow it in. Add to that the fact that those people and things in life that have hardened and enslaved and benefited from our hardness will snap up any Good News that does fall on us long before we can even consider responding. Until something changes, we of the soil of the path will never bear fruit for God – but there is hope.
Some of the seed falls upon the rocky ground, another place that’s not prepared for seed to grow. The rocky ground is in transition. The rocky ground has crevices, patches where seed can at least take hold, but those cervices, those windows in, have no depth for long term growth to happen. We of the rocky soil have begun to crack open, to soften up, to break open pockets for grown, to begin to hope. Good News finds those pockets of hope in us and may actually begin to grow. But we of the rocky soil have deluded ourselves into thinking that we can open ourselves up partially and still fully receive Good News. We think we can listen to the Good News and talk about the Good News and allow the Good News to change us without actually changing us – we’re lying to ourselves. Any trouble that comes up, anything that challenges our shallow faith causes us to lose our nerve and to close up our hearts again. So long as we remain hard under those soft pockets, so long as we allow hope to burrow only so deep, we will not have the depth of hope for true faith to grow. Until something changes, we of the rocky ground will never bear fruit for God – but there is hope.
Some of the seed falls among thorns, another place that’s not prepared for seed to grow. This soil is fertile but is also contaminated. This soil can receive two kinds of seed, two kinds of Good News – the good news of this world or the Good News of God. We of the thorny soil are fertile for growth, but we can only grow hope in one kind of Good News. We of the thorny soil believe that we can serve two masters, both God and the cares of this world. The problem is these two kinds of good news cannot grow together because they are mutually exclusive. Because we of the thorny soil are only concerned with growth in and of itself, we are distracted by the rapid growth of worldly things and forget about the slow and steady growth of God’s Good News. While our bank accounts grow and our toys multiply, we don’t notice that our faith has died of malnutrition because our hope in God has been replaced by hope in this world. Until something changes, we of the thorny soil will never bear fruit for God – but there is hope.
Finally, some of the seed falls on good soil. This soil has been specially tilled, softened up, rocks removed, weeds pulled vigilantly. This soil is ready for only one kind of growth. We of the good soil have been able to open ourselves up, not just on the surface but deeply. It can be scary how deeply we have opened ourselves, all the way to our core. We of the fertile soil have made ourselves vulnerable, the only way to become fertile for growth. We of the fertile soil are similar to those of the thorny soil, but we have taken deliberate steps and have gone to great lengths to make sure only one kind of Good News takes root in us: God’s Good News. The cares of this world and the lure of goodies do tempt us, but the depth of our faith allows us to recognize the “weeds” of the world that try to grow in faith’s place. And so we are able to rip out those weeds and only allow God’s Good News to grow in our hearts. The fruit that grows in us is bursting with life, producing love a hundred-fold – love that cannot be choked out, love that cannot be contained, love that will change the world.
Of course God is the sower in this story; it’s always God who acts, so His Word, His Good News is the seed, and our faith and our ability to love decides how rich we are as soil. The seed, you see, is not for us – we are the soil, but we are not the result – the seed grows in us, but the fruit we grow is for someone else. Some of us may not yet be able to open ourselves up to the Good News, to let the Good News past our defenses, and it may be taken away from us before we recognize it. Some of us may rejoice at the Good News we are given before we have the depth of faith to make it a part of our life, so that when our faith is jarred we stop nurturing the Good News and it withers in us before it takes root in our hearts. Some of us may think we can nurture both God’s Good News and Worldly values equally, not realizing that in obeying the cares of the world we allow the Good News within us to wither and die. And some of us are fully prepared to receive the Good News, and when we do, that Good News not only thrives in our hearts, we bear fruit ourselves that sows God’s Good News in the hearts of others around us.
The Good news in today’s parable of the Sower is that, no matter what kind of soil I am today, hard or patchy or confused or fertile, I won’t necessarily be the same kind of soil tomorrow. And the kind of soil we are is nothing to be disappointed about or ashamed of. God’s Good News continues to fall on us every day, and even if I’m not ready to receive it right now, and even if I can’t sustain its growth today, and even if I’m not able to commit to it exclusively, that doesn’t mean all is lost. God continues to spread the seeds of love indiscriminately and no matter how prepared we are to receive it – God’s constant gift of grace poured out on all of creation. When I have opened my heart to God, when I’m brave enough to become vulnerable to my very core, when I surrender the lie that I control my own life, when I am fertile – that Good News will be there, waiting to take root deep in my heart. And the good fruit that I bear for God, thirty or sixty or a hundred-fold, will be a blessing to all those who come and partake of it.
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