Reading: Matthew 13: 18-23
Verse 23: Good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it.
In our passage, Jesus explains the parable of the sower. He is providing ‘ears’ so we can ‘hear the word and understand it’. It is not really just an agricultural lesson! Application comes in seeing how or where we fit in the story. So… soil, seed, or sower?
We most easily see ourselves as the soil and hopefully as the good soil. As followers of Jesus Christ we all want to be receptive to and to understand His Word. Most of the time we are good soil. But not always. Don’t tell me your mind hasn’t wandered during the message or during your quiet time! The concerns of life and the distractions of the world make us all thorny soil sometimes. At other times we can be rocky soil – where we receive the Word but allow something else to quickly crowd it out. Sometimes we are hard as the path – allowing our anger or heartache to be a wall between us and God.
Next we see ourselves, at times, as the sower. I think we all want to be seen as Christians in our day to day lives. We want to be the light and love of Jesus out there in the world. We want to be “the only Bible some people will ever read”. At times our actions also require words. We stop and share a prayer and some words of encouragement with a co-worker or friend we know is struggling or hurting. We offer words of hope and trust with the meal w bring to our neighbor in a time of crisis. We are prepared to tell of the good news of Jesus Christ when someone asks about the peace and joy that we have in our life.
We are seeds in this sense too – our witness is what plants the seeds of faith in others. Living as a Christian, we should constantly be dropping off seeds in people’s lives, seeds that the Holy Spirit can bring to life. By action, word, and deed our faith is seeds being planted in other people’s hearts and minds.
Soil, seed, or sower? All three! May we ever be willing servants of our Lord and Savior – hearing, sharing, and planting each day.
pastorjohnb 