Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

When I read the gospels, I often wonder if Jesus was ever able to relax. I mean, I know he took time to be by himself, but the gospel writers often show that he was praying and diligently seeking the will of the Father during those times. We read that he enjoyed great times of food and fellowship with his disciples and other people, but he was usually asked to work, to teach, or to bless them in some way. Was Jesus ever able to just sit and relax? Just pause for a moment to take in God’s beautiful creation as scripture asks us to do?

Well I think we see Jesus trying to do that very thing in this passage from Matthew. In verse one it says, “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.” Sounds relaxing and peaceful. Moreover, keeping this passage in context, if there was a day he needed to relax, it was that day. Chapter 12 shows us that he and his disciples were accused of breaking the sabbath by the pharisees in a pretty hostile way. Matthew tells us that it was “that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.” (V1) Unfortunately, Jesus does not get to relax by the lake for long.

As popular and sought after as Jesus was, it wasn’t long before a great crowed had formed around him. A crowd so large, that Jesus had to step into a boat on the lake to be able to even speak to them all. I don’t know about you, but in reading this, I am again left in awe of Jesus’ pastoral persistence. if I had just gotten into an intense squabble with a bunch of stubborn pharisees accusing me and my congregation of breaking the law, the last thing I would want is a huge crowd of people disrupting my time to relax in front of the lake. But what does Jesus do? Not only does he turn to speak to the people, he finds the best vantage point from which to do so.

Jesus chose a boat out on the very lake by which he sat to take in. Intentional, determined, and creative. Do you know what this says to me? This says to me that there was no separation between how Jesus spoke and how Jesus lived. Relaxing is about being refreshed, rejuvenated, and reenergized. It is about doing things that are life giving. Those life giving things are so important to balance out the things that seem to zap the life from us. The trick is to have life giving things as part of your life as much as possible. Jesus lived his life peaching about the most life-giving thing: being apart of the kingdom of God. But here again, he shows that it’s not just something he says! No, he practices what he preaches. He took no time between relaxing by the lake and teaching from a boat on the lake. Even after having a dispute with the Pharisees, Jesus intentionally and creatively began to preach about the kingdom of God.

As Jesus sits in that boat and begins to speak to the people, he shows us that the most refreshing, rejuvenating, energizing and life-giving thing we can be doing is proclaiming the kingdom of God. Proclaiming the kingdom of God is unlike proclaiming anything else. It is as life-giving to the one who proclaims it as it is to those who hear the proclamation. So, we see Jesus get up from sitting by the lake and get into a boat on the lake to speak to the people. Like I said before, this is intentional and creative move so that he could be heard by the people. But Jesus takes that intentionality and creativity a step further.

He speaks to the crowd using a parable.

Parables are fascinating because they use simple ordinary things, like seeds and ground, to convey deep truths. Parables do not really give you the answer but leads the mind into finding the answer on its own. Parables draws the listener to think about, to discover, and to make the truth their own. Jesus uses parables so often that one could say that he sees them as a verbal form of what he is: the living breathing word of God, constantly drawing those who would listen into the truth of the life he lives. Much like how we see scripture today. Those who read scripture are not invited only into a future reality, but a very real and present reality of God. Jesus is often heard starting his preaching in the book of Matthew as saying, “the kingdom of God is like…” Not, “the kingdom of God will be…” He clearly states what we are called to believe clearly; that through him, the kingdom of God has come.

This particular parable is about a farmer, seed, and ground. Jesus said, “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” (VV 3-9) Such simple and common imagery, but our mind cannot help but be engaged, ponder this imagery, and to search to make sense of this story. I am sure the people who heard Jesus speaking that day were enthralled by these images. We read these words in our Bibles, but I think we are invited to imagine what it would be like hearing them directly from the mouth of Christ.

Well, I am sure just like the people then, we have some idea of what Jesus meant by this parable. We can get at least a general grasp on the imagery. We immediately explore the four places where seeds fell. The first three seem hazardous and the fourth place seems good. We seem to be encouraged to aim to be the fourth place where the seeds landed. While this is very true, Jesus goes on to explain the details of what he meant behind some of the images in his parable in verses 18-23. Here is where it gets even more interesting.

Notice the verses between 9 and 18. Christ speaks the parable to the crowd and then someone in verse 10 asked Jesus, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” (VV13:10) Who asked that? Was it someone from the crowd? Was it those stubborn Pharisees again? No, it was the disciples! They came to him and ask him this after he has spoken the parable to the crowd. He has finished speaking to the crowd and the disciples have a little pow-wow with him behind the scenes to ask why he uses parables as much as he does.

Jesus tells them why he uses parables using a prophecy of Isaiah (Isa 6:9-10) and then something fascinating happens in verse 18. He explains the meaning of the parable to the disciples. You see, he is not talking to the crowd anymore, he is still in his little side discussion with his disciples. They are not only told the parable with the rest of the crowd. They were among the ones drawn in to engage, to ponder, and search, but in verse 18, they are also told the meaning of what they are engaging, pondering, and searching for! This again shows how strong discipleship is in Jesus ministry. Through their time with Jesus, they have been given the gift of interpretation. Even here he is explaining how to interpret his parable. The disciples will be the ones who will cary the message of the kingdom into all the world. The disciples will be the ones who continue to carry the name of Christ after he has ascended into heaven. Jesus entrusts the meaning of his words to his disciples whom he will command to “go into all the world.”

The disciples are the good soil on which the seeds of the kingdom have been spread. We know that the disciples were the good soil because if they were not, we would not be the church of Jesus Christ. We exist because the disciples under the care of the Holy Spirit proved to be adequate witnesses. The soil the disciples were was only fertile soil because they were not afraid to ask Jesus to explain why he teaches in parables. Jesus explains that this parable of the sower is to help the disciples discern what they have been given. (Hauerwas, ‘Matthew’ pg. 129) This not only contrasts between the crowd and the disciples, but it also puts a question before us and our congregations.

Are we willing to be intentional about following and listening to Jesus? Are we willing to discern what we have been given by Christ? Are we willing to think critically about what Christ says? Even be willing enough to ask Jesus to explain why he teaches the way he does? Because it would seem that without such willingness to listen, to think critically, to ask Jesus to explain himself, we will simply be among the crowd rather than the disciples. The crowd who are left wide-eyed and inspired by the words of Jesus, but they do not take it further. The crowd seems content not asking Jesus to explain why he taught the way he did. The crowd seems fine with just hearing a good word for the sake of hearing a good word. After hearing the parable, the crowd did not step out and engage Jesus in a thoughtful, deep, and intentional way. The disciples did. This is why they are disciples.

It might be helpful to ask our people this coming Sunday where do we find ourselves. Do we find ourselves among the crowd or among the disciples? We can help ourselves to answer this question by using Jesus’ parable as a gauge of how receptive we are to God’s word. We can draw our people in to listen anew as Christ describes what the parable of the sower means. We can expound on these four types of soil where seed is thrown as representing different aspects of our practice of faith.

Jesus says in verse 18 that “when anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart.” Jesus seems to emphasize to us that how we understand the message of the kingdom should be very important to us. Do we work to understand the message of the kingdom? Are we intentional about thinking critically about the gospel? For it would seem that if we do not work to understand, it will not be buried in the depths of our minds and hearts and something else might threaten to come along and uproot it.

This leads right into the second by saying that some seed fall on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It springs up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Without working to understand the message of the kingdom, to take hold of it in a deep and serious way, the message of the kingdom cannot take root. It may cause joy, but only for a while because there is nothing deeply rooted to hold onto that joy. A shallow understanding of the gospel message then will leave us baseless and sounding like we have been out in the sun for too long, like a scorched plant.

I think the third place where the seeds are thrown is the one our Christian culture struggles with the most. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the message and cause it to be unfruitful. The obvious meaning here is that we can allow wealth to become what we depend on. To be that which we depend on for our daily bread and the way we forgive our trespassers. But that is not the only thing that the worries of this life brings about to choke out the word in our hearts and minds. No, we allow the worries of this life to lead us to rely on other things that seem more practical in our present time of need. Things that shape truth in our lives other than God and his word.

We can get so fearful about things like death, the apocalypse, heaven, and hell that we can rush to our politics, popular movies, and best selling books to shape what we believe about those things. We can allow our worry over these important parts of our faith to treat the latest Christian trends, spiritual pop culture, and political agendas with a higher authority over these matters than time tested scripture. If we allow the worries and fears of this life to take our focus off of scripture and onto something else that seems closer at hand, that is when thorns will truly grow and our beliefs will be reduced to mere sentimentality alone.

The last place where the seeds were thrown is on good soil. Good soil is like someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown (V23). The person who takes the message of the kingdom seriously, who does not settle for a shallow faith, who does not allow worry to make other things superior authorities to scripture, but who desires nothing but a deeply rooted, committed, and thought out faith.

Perhaps you might invite your congregation this week to explore how the seeds of this parable fall on their soil. Is it a soil that is so rigid that it does not allow anything to break through the surface? Is it a soil that is so rocky that it hears the message but does not allow it to take root? Is it a soil of worry and fear that is full of thorns of competing authorities? Or it is a fertile soil, tilled, cultivated, and ready to be dug deeply into by the roots of the gospel message?

May we follow the God so courageously that when we hear the gospel message, we will show our soil to be the type that deeply engages Christ as true disciples.