Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Mike Herman was a Saint Louis Cardinals baseball fan. From the time he was a little boy, he went to ball games hoping that he could catch a souvenir baseball. Grown to adulthood, he’d go to batting practices before games just to have a shot at grabbing a big-league ball.
Back in the mid-90s, during one batting practice, Herman got to know a five year old boy named James. James was on the same quest for a souvenir and after a time, Herman found himself telling James “he could have my ball if I caught one.” The promise may have been hollow in light of the fact that Mike Herman had been unsuccessful at retrieving a big league baseball for twenty-eight years! But, five minutes later, Herman explains, “I caught a ball, and yes, I gave it to James.” “I wonder,” Mike Herman asks, “how often God waits to give us something until we are willing to give it away?”Today, Jesus tells one of His most famous stories. It’s called the Parable of the Sower. You know it well. A farmer, representing Christ or you and me with Christ working in us, sows or scatters seeds. Farmers planted seeds back in Jesus’ day by simply tossing them everywhere. This method of farming wasn’t so efficient, as you can imagine. Even top-notch seeds flung in the wrong places aren't likely to grow.
Some of the seeds flung by Jesus' fictional farmer, He says, fell along a path and birds quickly ate them up.
Other seeds fell onto rocky ground and warmed by the stones, sprouted quickly and died just as quickly for lack of soil depth and the sun being able to fry them, roots and all.
Another bunch of the seeds fell among weeds and thorns. As the thorns grew, they choked the life out of the good seeds.
Finally, one last batch of seeds fell into good soil and Jesus says that they gave yields of thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.
To show you how impressive that is, in first century Judea where Jesus lived, harvests of four- to tenfold were the norm. Harvests yielding fifteen times the seeds sown were considered really great. So, the seeds that landed in good soil in Jesus’ story gave a bumper crop!
Later, Jesus explained His story. The seeds are the message about Him, the good news that, because He died and rose for us, we can have our sins forgiven and enjoy right relationships with God and live with Him forever. That happens when we entrust our lives to Him.
The different spots in which the seeds in Jesus’ story lands represents different sorts of reactions you and I may receive when we share the Good News of Jesus with others. We may encounter people who simply refuse to listen; those who who will be enthusiastic about Christ at first and then leave Him behind; those who allow themselves to get preoccupied with other things like money or family worries; and finally, those who receive the Good News of Jesus and strive to live for Him from that moment forward.
Jesus is telling us that the Word about Him is always a good seed, whether people let it take root in their lives or not! We’re to keep spreading the word about Jesus all around us, no matter what reaction we may get.
One evening back when I was in seminary, Ann and I had dinner with two other couples, all people with whom we’d gone to high school. We were being silly when the conversation turned serious. “Mark, what do you think needs to happen for a person to go to heaven?” one person asked me.
I have to tell you that I was afraid. I wanted these people to accept me and I was fearful of being written off as some religious fanatic. What would they think of me if I said that getting to heaven involved simply entrusting your life to Jesus Christ and letting Him be their Lord and King? So, instead of telling them this truth, I made a joke.
About a year-and-a-half later, the man who asked that question of me left his marriage. I have often wondered what might have happened had I planted the seed of Jesus’ message in his life that night. Maybe nothing. Maybe his heart and will would have proved to be bad soil. But I’ll never know this side of heaven because I chickened out and failed to scatter the good seed among my friends!
I guess that I was waiting for a "better time." I was hoping that maybe later, I would have a little more courage and "success," whatever that is. But Jesus tells us that we should keep scattering His Word, whether it’s convenient or even if we see little prospect of our message being welcomed.
I try to always remember that. Just this past week, I was talking with a person I’ve gotten to know here in Logan. I’ve sensed that he and God haven’t exactly been on speaking terms. But I’ve been praying for him and his family and have tried to treat him with Christian friendliness and dignity. “Do you think that it would be okay if I came to your church sometime?” he asked me the other day. “Absolutely!” I told him.
Like the farmer in Jesus’ parable, we’re to recklessly scatter the Word about the God Who is for the whole human race! I pray that in God’s good grace, I never blow an opportunity to share the message of Jesus again. First Peter 3:15, one of my favorite passages of the Bible, says: "Be prepared always to give an account for the hope that is in you, but do it with gentleness and reverence." In other words, 'Don't beat people over the head with the message of Jesus; but never be afraid to share it! Just as it gives life and hope to you, it can give life and hope to others!'
When we commit ourselves to scattering the Word about God, God will orchestrate amazing coincidences that give us the opportunity to do that.
Just yesterday, I got an email from a blogging buddy, Andy. A resident of Arizona, he’s spent the last four months in Turkey and is getting ready to return home soon. In Istanbul on Friday, he ran into a group from Arizona State University’s School of Global Management and Leadership. Andy explained that he’s working on a book comparing Christianity and Islam a bit like an earlier book he wrote comparing Christianity and Mormonism. The professors, one Buddhist and the other Jewish, asked him to teach a class on Saturday on Islam. Andy did that. “You have a gift for teaching,” one of the professors said and at dinner that night, Andy was able to further scatter the Word about Jesus Christ!
The fact is that, whether they try to conceal it or not, all people have a hunger to be reconciled with God, to have the God revealed to all the world through Jesus Christ in their lives. I was struck several years ago when in some of the interviews I heard with survivors of terrorist bombings in London, they reported that almost all of the passengers, fearing that their lives would end, cried out to God.
People want God in their lives, even the people who in recent polling—I’m not making this up—called themselves atheists, but reported that they believed there was a God.
When we share the Word about Jesus, we’re telling people that in every time of need and through every day of their lives, they can call to the God of love and goodness we know through Jesus and that they can do so with confidence and hope, knowing that He is with them and able to take the world's worst circumstances and turn them into heaven's best.
Through the Word about Jesus Christ, they can experience a hope that endures forever!
Keep scattering the seed of the message about Jesus, whether it seems to make a difference or not. Just as you can’t see the ways in which seeds are taking root beneath the soil, we sometimes can’t see the ways in which the Word about Jesus is taking hold and transforming people’s lives.
Are you looking for blessings in your life? Then resolve to be a blessing to others; bless people with the word about Christ! Let the seed of God's Word grow strong within you by giving it away.
As Mike Herman, the fellow who wanted a major league baseball found out, you just don’t know what blessings God is willing to give to you when you are willing to give them away. Resolve to do it this week: To spread the message of Jesus and then trust God to do good things with the seeds you scatter!
[Mike Herman's true story is contained in the book, Perfect Illustrations for Every Topic and Occasion.]
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