Sunday Readings: Isaiah 55.10-11; Romans 8.18-23; Matthew 13.1-23
Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched: and since they had no roots, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen (Matthew 13.3-9).
Jesus’ parable of the sower promises that Jesus’ word will yield a thirty, sixty, and hundredfold harvest. This yield, however, does not happen within the gospel narrative.
The disciples who flee when Jesus is arrested are like the seeds on the path that the birds eat. They vanish. Peter, whose name means Rock, is first and enthusiastic in affirming Jesus as messiah but also first in rejecting Jesus as a suffering messiah, even denying he knows Jesus during his trial. The rich young man of Matthew 19.16-23 is like the seeds sown among thorns. The lure of wealth spoils his yield.
As a parable of promise, the parable of the sower looks beyond the failures of discipleship narrated in the gospel to the post-Easter community whose members recognize God’s Son in the risen Jesus and who live in the Spirit. They hear and spread the good news that was hidden in Jesus in his lifetime.
Which kind of ground are you most like? What gospel seed is growing in you?