I love the parable of the sower.
I have written about the soil aspects of it when I reflected on Luke’s version here. In Mark’s I spent some time looking at the process of sowing this seed here.
I find the parable of the Sower one of the most comprehensive teachings that:
· communicates the power of God’s Word,
· the reality of the varied states of the human heart,
· and the pathway for Jesus’ followers to take as they seek to “go & make”.
Do you know it is the only parable found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke? In this story Jesus likens the way His Message, indeed the very Kingdom of God spreads, to a farmer sowing seed.
How powerful is God’s Word? As powerful as a seed. A seed is small. It can be crushed. It can be eaten by birds. Yet when it is buried, when it is treated like something dead, its potential to release its power begins.
Rather than spend time on the different ground conditions the seed in this story encounters, I want to point out that regardless of the soil:
THE SEED ALWAYS GROWS
That statement, that in the parable, except for the seed that is eaten, the seed always grows, communicates the latent potential in the seed. It is tremendous. The seed, the very Word of God, can return 30x, 60x, 100x. This means the seed, the Word of God, planted in the heart of a person has huge potential to not only transform one life, but many!
Yet the Word of God, like a seed, can be treated as small. People say, “Isn’t it just a book written by a bunch of men?” This is often the reaction when there is a portion of it that people either cannot understand or find especially challenging. They want to dismiss it. Thomas Jefferson is reported to have cut out the portions of the Bible he disagreed with.[i] A sort of cafeteria plan to the Bible; pick and choose what you like, leave behind what you do not.
The Word of God, like a seed, can also be crushed. World leaders, throughout history, have banned it and burned it. Today, Voice of the Martyrs reports that in 52 countries the Bible is either dangerous to obtain, highly restricted, or completely illegal.[ii]
It is not just despots outside the church. Church leaders have told those under their charge not to read it.[iii]They, the church leaders, would interpret it for them. It can be used to crush the very people it came to free. The Word of God has been used to replace the Gospel of freedom from sin, to instead enslave people to legalistic rules and traditions. And, in one of the worst chapters in the Bible’s history, actually used to justify the physical enslavement of humans.[iv]
Today, some of the most damaging treatment of the Scripture has been by theologians. Like modern geneticists who modify seeds to produce a different plant, these theologians have morphed the meaning of plainly written words. They have twisted and contorted the Word to at times mean the exact opposite.
Why? Why go to all this trouble to something Jesus describes as a small little seed? Because the Word of God has power. Something that is powerless is ignored. Something that is powerful is a threat.
It has the power of life within it: new life. Those who oppose the Gospel say it is weak. Yet their actions betray their rhetoric. They openly seek to discredit it. They mock it. They work at modifying it. When they have the power they even try to crush and ban it or twist it for their own ends. Why? Because they too know of its power. They cannot stop it.
How do you feel about God’s Word? Do you think it has power?
[i]What is the Jefferson Bible? By Alyssa Roat Christianity.com https://www.christianity.com/wiki/bible/what-is-the-jefferson-bible.html. Accessed Februay 27,2021
[ii] Bible: Dangerous, Illegal, Covert by Love Packages. April 20,2019. https://lovepackages.org/bibles-dangerous-illegal-covert/. Accessed February 27,2021
[iii] Vatican Achieves Reveal Bible was Once a Banned Book by Jude Weber. January 22, 1998. https://www.withchrist.org/archives.htm. Accessed February 25, 2021
[iv] The Religious Defense of American Slavery before 1830 by Larry R. Morrison. https://www.kingscollege.net/gbrodie/The%20religious%20justification%20of%20slavery%20before%201830.pdf.