The Bible, The Word, The Seed

In thinking about the Bible, about knowing it, reading it, living it; about what the Bible should look like in my life in the coming year, I find myself drawn to the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. As some have pointed out, this teaching of Jesus might be better titled, The Parable of the Seed, for in the parable we see four trajectories that the Word of God can take in our lives – we might call them four frameworks, four storylines. There are three camera angles in the parable, the perspective of the sower, the perspective of the seed, and the perspective of the soil; the soil being those who encounter the seed of the Word of God. How do we, the soil, hear the Word and how do we respond to it? What does that look like in our lives right now?

I am particularly drawn to the third type of soil:

“Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out”, Matthew 13:7.

“Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop,” Mark 4:7.

“Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out”, Luke 8:7.

Now let’s look at Jesus’ explanation of the above:

“And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of this age and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful”, Matthew 13:22.

“And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful”, Mark 4:18-19.

“The see which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity”, Luke 8:14.

There are two elements common to Jesus’ explanation in all three accounts – worry and money. Since wealth means different things to different people, we need not think in terms of the super wealthy, we do better to think of ourselves. I recall the time I received a pay increase from $3.75 per hour to $4.00 per hour – I thought I had arrived! Does my desire for economic security and advancement choke the Word of God in my life? A person making minimum wage can answer “yes” to that question as readily as can someone with millions of dollars. Neither the poor nor the wealthy nor the middle class should deceive themselves into thinking that they need not look in the Biblical mirror on this issue. If I justify my lack of Bible reading and meditation and reflection and prayer on the grounds that I have work to do (a common temptation when we are connected via the internet) then I have a problem, weeds and thorns are growing in my heart and mind and they are choking the Word as a boa construction wraps itself around its prey. The desire for money will swallow us.

Worry is the other element common to Matthew, Mark and Luke. As wisteria kills a host tree by blocking the sunlight, so worry blocks the Word of God, setting itself on the throne of our hearts, infiltrating our minds, so that we function in darkness, groping for direction, groping for peace, groping for rest…and finding none. We choose to worry instead of reading God’s Word, we elect to fret rather than meditating on the Bible, we drink from the tap of worry rather than drink from the cup of God’s love and grace and lordship. We exercise our wills in self-focus rather than on the God who deserves our praise and surrender.

What does the garden of my heart look like? What is growing within me? What fruit am I bearing? What am I cultivating? What am I weeding out? What am I nurturing? How sad to have planted good seed and to see it choked and wasted and unfruitful as a result of weeds. Am I a good and faithful gardener of the Word that Jesus Christ has sown in my life? Where am I in the Parable of the Sower?

To be continued…