Pastor Tom Johnson,
July 13, 2014
Listen! Pay careful attention. I am speaking in parables. What I am about to tell you is metaphorical. Instead of trying to explain spiritual reality in propositional statements, I am going to tell you truth through a story. The Bible is not a service manual or a handbook on living. My thoughts are not your thoughts. My ways are not your ways. The Word is living and active. It is sharper than a two-edged sword. The Word performs what it describes. And so, I will illustrate the truth. It’s going to take effort on your part. Listening is hard work. To make things even more dynamic, stand there in the soft, unstable sand while I bob up and down and drift back and forth in this boat on the water. Maybe the shifting sand and your buckling knees will keep you alert. Maybe the constant motion of me on the waters and the movement of your eyeballs in their sockets will help hold every thought captive to the Word of God. I am the son of a carpenter. You don’t have to remind me that I grew up in the woodshed not a farm. The picture I am about to paint is ridiculous. I know it is not sound agronomy. But bear with me. The foolishness of the sower is deliberate.
A farmer went out to plant some seed. He does not plant seed in the soil like you were taught in school. You’ll remember hearing about how the Native Americans taught European settlers put plant seed beneath the soil—deep enough so that wild turkeys and birds would not easily find them or be dried up and blow away—how a good farmer makes a trough, adds some food scraps like dead fish for fertilizer, buries the seed precisely in a row with equal spacing in between, adds water, and goes home with the confidence of a job well done. No, this farmer thrusts his hands deep into the sack and tosses wildly in the air. Seed flies here and there. Seed goes way beyond the boundaries of the farmland. The farmer’s seed falls on the roads surrounding the field where people, horses, and camels prevent growth by their constant stomping feet which pack down the dirt into a hard clay. Birds hear the seed hit the pavement a mile away. They immediately come and eat this easy meal at no cost to them and thanks to a reckless farmer. Seed is scattered on the rock that borders the farmland. These rocks were carefully removed from the soil to make it more fertile. This heavy work took countless hours. The rock is used to make a wall around the farmland and mark the territory. The farmer throws seed into the wild outside the field filled with thorny overgrowth. Seed that sprouts there is way behind and easily overwhelmed by the other plants and bushes. It would be a miracle if this farmer had any return on his crop. With such waste and reckless planting of seed, he should hardly be rewarded. How can he ever recover all that was lost? How could he possibly have a bountiful harvest?
So God sends his Word out into the world. He love is lavish. He appears to be as reckless as the farmer who wildly and aimlessly tosses seed. His Word goes way beyond our borders and into forbidden territory. Yet God knows exactly where the seed of his Word will land. The Word falls on the ignorant. The powers of evil robs the hearts of those who have yet to understand like the birds which gobble up the seed on the paths. Yet God continues to rain seed upon their hearts. The Word falls on the immature. There is some initial excitement over the good news of Jesus Christ. But as soon as that excitement is confronted by difficulty or the more challenging aspects of the faith, what little growth there was is lost. Yet God continues to rain seed upon their hearts. The Word falls on the worldly. The love of money and anxiety over daily living distracts them from the more spiritual aspects of life. For where their treasure is, there will be their heart also. Yet God continues to rain seed upon their hearts.
God is the relentless and extravagant Sower. He appears to send his Word out recklessly and aimlessly. He seems to be unaware of the quality of the soil. He looks like he doesn’t know that we cannot change the soil of our own hearts. Who among us can understand all the wonders of God’s Word? Who among us is not challenged by difficult questions and challenging aspects of the Christian faith? Who among us is not distracted by the cares and riches of this world? The grace of God is a risky business. The ministry of the Word may appear to be a complete waste of time and resources on human hearts that lack the quality and fertility that God requires. It would be a miracle if the Word produced a harvest of plenty.
But what is impossible with human beings
is possible with God. Seed fails on good soil, bears fruit, and multiplies.
Sometimes by a factor of 100! Sometimes by a factor of 60 or 30. Just as Paul says, “I planted, Apollos
watered, but God gives the growth.” Just as Isaiah said ages ago that “My Word
goes out like rain and snow and will not come back to me empty.” So God’s Word
does the miraculous. Like the farmer who wildly and
recklessly sows seed with confidence in the results, so God often has more
faith in our potential for spiritual growth than we do ourselves. God will send
his Son, sow him into the soil of death, and he will rise again on the third
day. He will produce a bounty of forgiveness and eternal life. “For as the earth brings forth its
shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God
will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations” (Isaiah
61:11).Listen! Pay careful attention. God is out again tossing seed wildly and recklessly into our dull, hard, and greedy hearts. Don’t be alarmed. Don’t be anxious. Do not fear. This is how it is always done. There will be a great gain and a bountiful harvest—lots of bread for the eater and seed for the sower. Just wait and see. God has faith in you—even we who appear to be outside the boundary of good soil.
