A few years ago we were holidaying at Caloundra. The younger
members of the party had been at a Scripture Union Camp during the first week
and wanted to go fishing in the second week. So we set off along
A number of others were already there. All were doing basically the same thing. Some bait – it might be a prawn or yabby, or some worm or whitebait, some squid… – was carefully put on a hook and the line was then cast into the water. After some time, during which the fishermen exchanged comments like, “Not much out there today” or “I think my bait’s gone” or “I wonder what the cricket score is”…, the fisherman would wind in the clean hook and start the process all over again.
Now, apart from the people who load cartons of beverage into their boats before the fishing trip, why do people go fishing? I was thankful to have taught a younger member of our party how to cast a line, but nobody on that jetty caught a thing! We may have had dozens of interesting conversations, enjoyed the fresh air and the scenery, but… we weren’t successful in what we had set out to do! Why do people go fishing? To catch fish! In this district, the aim – during the right season – may be to catch barramundi!
The Sower
Today’s reading isn’t about the cane farmer who was planting cane, though I am sure Jesus would have found, from our experience, all the elements he needed for his parable. Today’s reading is about the sower who went out sowing wheat seed.
For planting wheat today they have a clever machine that opens the furrows, drops the seed down tubes, then covers the furrows again. As a boy in Allora I saw a farmer do it the old way in a one-acre paddock! He was wearing a kind of apron, held up the bottom with his left hand so that it would hold a lot of seed which he could then scatter in handfuls with his right hand. That method of sowing seed is called “broadcasting”. This farmer certainly knew how to do it. He planted half the paddock with wheat and half with oats. We watched a nice even growth of wheat and oats.
It seems the sower in the story of Jesus was not nearly as careful as my old friend of long ago! Some of the seed fell on the pathway – hardened by people’s feet. The crows were there – greedily waiting for a feed!
Some of the seed fell on part of the paddock where the rocks hadn’t been properly cleared. No doubt the farmer had chosen a time when the ground was moist. But on the rocky ground the sun soon dried it out and the little shoots withered away.
Then some seed fell in a patch of weeds – someone hadn’t done the chipping properly, had they? Little spindly stalks struggled up towards the light and didn’t produce anything at all!
But then there was the seed that fell into the good soil – cleared of rocks, chipped of weeds, cultivated, ready and waiting! The seed sprouted, grew, had nice big heads of grain and produced a good harvest! The farmer noticed the yield. In some areas a bag of wheat seed had produced a hundred bags. He was very happy about that! Some other parts had produced sixty bags for every bag he had sown. That was good too! And some produced thirty bags. He seemed content enough about that.
Whatever did the Sower Expect?
Now comes our big question – “Why did the sower plant the seeds? Whatever did he expect?” I mean to say – surely he wanted something better than crow food along the pathway, didn’t he? He wasn’t looking for a crop from that rocky ground, I hope! And what better could he expect from the seed he wasted among the thorns?
Do you think the first hearers of Jesus had these same questions? I think they did! All their villages were close to the farm land. I think they were natural questions to ask. Perhaps they knew some farmer foolish enough to plant like that!
Someone has said that this should be called the parable of the soils. In every case it is the same sower and the same seed. The difference is in the soil. Each grain has the potential for a good crop! The sower is looking for a good crop from each grain – at least thirty times as much, possibly sixty, preferably a hundred! By his unlikely reference to what no good farmer would do, Jesus is emphasising that each person – however unlikely! – is given an opportunity to respond to the Word of God. The Word of God has the same potential within each of us to enable us to grow and mature and be vital Christians in this world. It is only in the ways we respond to the Word that we are like the pathway, the rocky ground, the thorny patch, the good soil…
So the story isn’t about how to plant wheat! His first hearers already knew that! It is about people – about us! We are the soil! Jesus is the sower, and the seed is his Word.
Sometimes we are all set to blame the Sower! Look, Lord, it’s all your fault! You know about all the distractions I face – and all the pressures I live with – and you know me! So why do you expect anything of me?
But in lots of ways we’re just not like soil at all! We can think, respond, make decisions! We are responsible. It’s not the Sower’s fault! His Word of love, of forgiveness, of a new beginning, of a whole new way of life – comes to all of us. The soils represent, not what the Sower intends, but our response to him and to his Word.
So – whatever did the sower expect? A good crop, of course! Hopefully, but not necessarily, a hundred times as much grain as he sowed! Certainly some reasonable return for his effort!
And what does Jesus, the Sower, expect of us? Not our excuses – or accusations (it’s your fault, Lord!). To translate it into the Herbert, why does he plant his Word in us? Surely he knows we have a problem with seasonal conditions in our lives!
The Sower expects us to trust him, to welcome his Word, to accept his forgiveness and his help, to live as his person every day, to obey him in all our relationships and in all we do. He does everything necessary to produce a good crop. How do we respond to him?
He forgives us so we can make a new beginning. He gives us life so we can be new creatures. He dwells within us by his Spirit. Are we co-operating with him? Are we good soil? When he looks at our lives, does he see the “good crop” he is looking for?
© Peter J. Blackburn, 13 July 2005, Blue
Haven, Ingham
Except where otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from
the New International Version, © International Bible Society, 1984.
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