The disciples ask Jesus, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” Why indeed? Jesus answers that question in a section between the two halves of today’s Gospel. He says, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given…. The reason I speak to them in parables is that ‘seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’” I wonder. To whom is Jesus referring? Jesus goes on to quote from the prophet Isaiah. So perhaps he’s referring to those “wise and intelligent” folks we heard about last week, the ones who don’t think they need any guidance from him. But I still wonder. Jesus was so inclusive and expansive in his ministry. He welcomed all kinds of people, and, of course, he was a gifted teacher. Like any good teacher, he knew that you he had to use different methods to reach different people. So why did Jesus speak in parables? Did he really want to confuse people? I think it was to get his disciples – and us – to think out of the box, to look at spiritual realities in a new way. This parable, familiar as it is, surely does that.
We are now in chapter 13, in the middle of Matthew’s Gospel. Jesus has begun his third great discourse or sermon. Today we hear the first of several parables that address the growth of the Reign of God. This parable also gives us another chance to think about how people greet prophets, and how they respond when they hear the good news of God’s kingdom. For, as we already know, not everyone greets prophets with enthusiasm. In sending out his disciples, Jesus has warned them about possible rejection: “When they persecute you in one town,” he advises them, “flee to the next.” In chapter 12, he spars with the religious leadership. And, as we heard last week, many in the crowds rejected both John the Baptist and Jesus. How to explain people’s rejection of good news? The community for whom Matthew was writing may have asked the same question. They were still a small vulnerable community, rejected by the Jewish religious leadership and discriminated against by the Gentiles around them. Surely they too wondered why the good news wasn’t more attractive.
As he gazed out on the rich farmland of Galilee, perhaps Jesus found an image to begin explaining divine realities to his friends. Perhaps he saw a farmer broadcasting seed, flinging it out by handfuls onto the land. He reminded his friends that the seed goes where it will, but that the sower keeps flinging it out, left and right, left and right. Although the seed won’t produce grain in every square inch of land, the sower doesn’t take special care to see where it goes. He doesn’t care whether some of it lands in the part of the field where there is a layer of rock underneath or a part with weeds left over from last year’s harvest, or even whether some of it lands on the paths between fields. He just keeps flinging until the seed has been spread all over the available land, and his seed bag is empty. Then he trusts God to provide an abundant harvest, perhaps seven-fold, or even ten-fold, if the harvest is exceedingly abundant.
So what is Jesus telling the disciples about possible rejection? What is Matthew’s Gospel telling that early Christian community about rejection? Jesus is telling them to keep flinging the good news around, in every direction, without worrying about where it lands, or where or in whom it bears fruit. Realize that not all the good news will land in places where it will be productive. Never mind, just keep at it. Share what you have experienced with others and trust God to give the harvest. Because if God gives the harvest, it won’t just be seven-fold or ten-fold, it will be thirty, sixty, or even a hundred-fold! As we watch Jesus, it’s clear that Jesus didn’t worry about how his proclamations and teachings were being received, or even whether the people he healed were sufficiently grateful. Everywhere he went, he just kept preaching, teaching, and healing, right to the end. Both this parable and Jesus’ own example became powerful models for Matthew’s community. The message was clear: keep sharing the good news and trust God to make good on God’s promises.
And so for us. We are now Jesus’ disciples. We are now heirs of Matthew’s community and of all the communities of the early church. The bag of seeds is now around our shoulders, and we are now the sowers of the good, life-changing news. And what does God expect us to do as sowers of the word? First of all, the word has to be at work in us. Like the members of Matthew’s community, we too must study our Scriptures, must know the word. By God’s grace, the word will be at work in us, changing our lives in ways that will make others sit up and take notice. Second, we can “practice random acts of kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” I know that sounds trite. What I mean is, we can act in such a way that the only explanation for our behavior is that we have been captured by God, that we have put ourselves under Jesus’ yoke, and that we have become fools for Christ. With such witness, and the pull of the Holy Spirit, by God’s grace, the seed flung out by our acts of love will take root and flourish in another person.
Most important, we must give no thought to the outcome of our flinging out of the seed. Yes, I know we’re supposed to be planful, survey the needs of our community, monitor our results, and pay attention to what works and what doesn’t. Our participation in the Common Ministry program will surely help us do all that. We will try to do everything with courage and conscientiousness that the Holy Spirit prompts us to do through the program. But sometimes we have to do what this parable suggests: fling seed everywhere and not worry about where it’s going. Sure, some kinds of soil are more productive than others. But it’s not given to us to know what kinds of soil individual people are. Only God knows that, and ultimately, as the psalmist and Jesus himself remind us, it is God who gives the harvest, not us.
Scottish writer Tom Gordon tells the story of Jill, a pupil in Miss Caruthers’s seventh-grade class.1 Every Monday morning Miss Caruthers would fling out the “word of the week.” In some ways Jill didn’t care much for Miss Caruthers. She was matronly, she slammed down a desk lid to get the children’s attention, and every Friday she gave tests that determined where the children would sit the following week. But Jill loved the words. All those wonderful words, a new one each week: “automaton,” “braggart,” “misanthrope,” “hovercraft,” “Wurlitizer,” Jill found a treasure trove in each one. Jill also liked how Miss Caruthers explained the Greek or Latin derivation of the words and compared them with their synonyms, antonyms, or homonyms. She liked the crosswords and games that the children were allowed to make up using the words. Most of all, she loved it when Miss Caruthers would make the children sit down around her, and she would read a story or passage containing the word of the week. When the word of the week was “slough,” Jill discovered Pilgrim’s Progress through the Slough of Despond. Hearing the word “tottering” on the first page of Treasure Island made her want immediately to read the whole book. Every week Miss Carothers flung out her words, and unbeknownst to her, Jill took them all in. From all those words a great love of literature was born in Jill that year. Years later, when Jill interviewed for a new job, she mentioned the effect that Miss Caruthers and her words had had on her. Jill got the job – as a faculty member in English literature at an Oxford college. She wondered what Miss Caruthers would think if she knew that now one of her students had a new word of the week: “professor.”
Miss Caruthers probably never did know where the seeds of her words of the week would sprout, grow, and produce abundantly. She just kept flinging them out, left and right, week after week, trusting in the Spirit to do its work. We’re all like Miss Caruthers. Neither do we know where the seeds that we fling out will sprout, grow, and produce abundantly. Only God knows that. But as God’s sowers, we too must continue to keep flinging the seed, left and right, here and there, day in and day out, not worrying about the outcome, but continuing to trust in God’s abundance.
So as God’s faithful sowers, we must surely pray,
Almighty God, we thank you for planting in us the seed of your word. By your Holy Spirit help us to receive it with joy, grow in love, and share it with others, through Jesus Christ our Savior, who flung out your word to whomever would hear it. Amen.
1. Tom Gordon, “The Word of the Week,” in Welcoming Each Wonder, (Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications, 2010), 203-206.
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