This coming Sunday, we will hear Jesus tell us the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23). The Sower in the parable uses farming methods that seem strange to us — just letting the seeds fly! Seventy-five percent of his seed stock is being thrown away on bad soil.
There are more than a few people in his time, who called Jesus a fool. There were many respectable people who saw Jesus wasting his time, wasting God’s Word on people who were “bad soil,” not worth God’s time of day: prostitutes, lepers, tax collectors and so on. It was believed that such people had already condemned themselves. They had already separated themselves from God’s love; why in the world would Jesus bother himself with them?
At first glance it does seem that Jesus is suggesting a foolish thing. All I can say is that is what love does to us. Sometimes love causes us to do things that don’t make sense to the people around us.
What Jesus is doing is actually filled with grace. He does not pre-judge people before he speaks God’s loving Word to them, because he knows of the power of God’s love to change people — whether they appear to be God-material or not, whether they appear to be good soil or not, he lets fly with the seeds, which is to say he speaks of God’s love for them.
Why? Because God does, indeed, love them! And that is very good news for us, because we are them! If we are truthful as we look at our own lives, we can see ourselves in all of those soils. We are blessed then, by Jesus’ unusual farming methods. And we are called not to spend our time worrying about where he is planting…judging whether others are good prospects to receive God’s love and grow.
Rather, God’s kingdom is better served by us spending our time giving thanks that Jesus is willing to plant God’s love in our lives. God’s kingdom is better served by us spending our time praying over our own field: Lord, let my heart be good soil.
+BJST