 From the Editor |
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Salvation Begins w/the Word of GodTrue RepentanceGod’s Patience & YouBaptism, Are You Ready?Real SalvationHeaven & HellWill Non-Christians be Saved?Infused at the Feast of Tabernacles |
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Is the Bible Real?What’s Your SeedMy Memories From the Feast of TabernaclesWhat Does Baptism Mean?What’s Wrong With Counting?Q&ABy You: PoetryFinding Financial Peace and Freedom |
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What’s Your Seed?
By Ruth Kerr
I am a hopeless math moron.
I’ve always been that way. In the fifth grade, I could not grasp the concept of “less than” (<) and “greater than” (>) signs. I was so confused about which sign was which that I failed every test. Our teacher, noticing a dismal trend in my grades, pulled me aside one day and explained it to me very simply. “Put two dots beside the bigger number, and one dot beside the smaller number,” he said. “Connect the dots so they form a triangle. See? You will always have the correct greater-than or less-than sign.” His explanation in the simplest terms possible made all the difference. That’s what a good teacher does. Jesus was such a teacher. He came to a physical world to explain spiritual concepts, such as salvation, the kingdom, God the Father. These are not concepts we thick-headed humans grasp easily. So Jesus had to find ways to explain them to us in ways we can understand. He taught by using parables. A parable is a story or illustration that teaches certain lessons or principles. Jesus used examples from everyday life, such as a vineyard or a flock of sheep to teach these lessons. In one parable He compared us to a farmer’s field. Today, we refer to this parable as “The Parable of the Sower” (Luke 8:3-22). | ||
It’s a simple story. A farmer, said Jesus, sows his field by scattering the seed over the ground. Some seeds are eaten by birds. Some fall on poor soil and die quickly. Others fall in a patch of thistles and are soon overpowered by them. But there are those seeds which fall on rich, fertile soil and provide the farmer with a bumper crop.
Jesus is comparing the gospel to a seed, and people who hear the gospel are various types of soil. |
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The most interesting thing about parables is their timelessness. The comparisons Jesus made in the parable of the sower are true today. For example, some people hear the Word but they don’t understand it. The Word is snatched out of their hearts, almost the same way a bird snatches a seed from the ground. Sometimes these people scoff at the resurrection or creation because they don’t understand. They dismiss these things as myths. Some people hear the Word and are excited! Here’s the magic formula! We can achieve Nirvana! Unfortunately many of these folks lose their enthusiasm at the first sign of trouble. Just like a seed that falls on rocky or poor soil – it may sprout, but it can’t sustain itself. It withers and dies, and soon these people are chasing some other life-changing philosophy. Others hear the Word and embrace it, but they allow other things to creep in. Their focus shifts to unimportant things, such as cultivating the perfect wardrobe or setting new records with the latest video game. These things can start to crowd our lives and, like unchecked weeds in a garden, they squeeze the Word out. | ||
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But there are times when people hear the Word and let it change them. They seek to understand it more fully. They become more giving, more humble. Others around them benefit from their “fruit.” These people are like the seed that falls in rich, dark soil and produces a vine ladened with fruit. The vine doesn’t exist for its own sake –it produces fruit that nourishes those around it.
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Of course, the purpose of this parable isn’t for us to try to figure out what kind of soil other people are made of. A parable is meant to challenge us: What kind of soil am I? Will I allow the Word to produce a bumper crop in me? Suddenly a simple story becomes almost urgent. By asking what kind of soil we are, we have to take a hard look at how we live our lives. How we treat others. How closely our lives resemble the standard Jesus set. A plain little story about seeds and dirt makes us evaluate everything about ourselves. It’s explaining a profound concept in the simplest way possible. That’s what a good teacher does. | ||