Text: Matt 13:8,& 23
"Other seeds fell on good soil, and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" ...v.23 "As for what was sown on good soil, this is he who hears the word and understands it; he indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another, sixty, and in another, thirty."
Prayer:
Lord, Your Word is good, and brings wonderful fruit wherever it is well received. Help us to receive Your word this morning, with understanding. We need You to help us do this, so we ask that Your Holy Spirit would give us clear minds and open hearts, so that Your Word will bring forth the harvest You seek in our lives and in our world. Amen!
How do you understand a teenager? How can teenagers understand their parents? How do we understand anyone? There's really only one way: we need to listen carefully. We need to hear each other out. How often do we start thinking about what we are going to say back to someone, instead of just staying quiet and listening? Our usual pattern is that we are more interested in what we ourselves have to say, than in what the other person has to say. Have you ever heard a teenager say, "But you just don't understand!" Have you said that to someone you've been trying to get through to, but end up frustrated?! Maybe you haven't said it, but possibly you've thought it.
What's it like to be truly understood? When two people come to understand each other, the result is delightful! Sad to say, in human relationships, we usually misunderstand each other. Learning to listen is a good thing. Something we can all try to do better, and we can certainly ask God for help.
In our sower series, we've now come to the best part! The good earth! So, what's it like? Firstly, it's not hard.With the hard path, there was no understanding. The seeds did not get below the surface. The kernals of God's love and goodness were quickly removed by the devil and his agents (signified by the birds, in the parable). But the good earth is soft and receptive. The seeds enter ground that has been ploughed, and is ready to receive. Secondly, the good earth is deep. There is room for a full root system to grow and develop. The heart signified by the good earth does not place limits on which areas of a person's life are addressed through God's Word. Thirdly, thorns are not allowed to grow in the good earth. The young plants have room to grow, and air to breathe. The pressures of daily life are not allowed to choke the precious life that has come from the Word.
Soft, deep, uncluttered. This is the good soil, soil that becomes covered with a wonderful crop.
Jesus is the Sower, the seed is his Word. The different types of soil are different responses people give to His Word. His Word is life-giving. It will produce the harvest of faith and love wherever it is received. What does it mean to receive God's Word? Our Lord calls for people to both hear and understand.
After Jesus told the parable of the Sower , Jesus' disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"This is in Matthew 13, and is sometimes left out when we read the parable and its explanation in Church. But it's important to hear this interlude, because it tells us something about hearing and understanding:
Matthew 13, continuing from verse 11: [Jesus] replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand. In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah: "`You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.
Throughout history, God has been speaking to his world. He has put a revelation of himself in creation itself, but Romans chapter 1 tells us that sinful humanity refuses to see this. Hebrews 1:1 says, "In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways..." What was the response? God told Isaiah in the passage that Jesus quotes here, "this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes." RSV puts it like this: "this people's heart has grown dull, and their ears are heavy of hearing, and their eyes they have closed..."
So why did Jesus speak in parables? Sometimes we say he used parables to help the ordinary person understand things, because the parables use things from everyday life to explain spiritual truth. The parables do explain spiritual truth, but not to everyone. He said to his disciples, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them." and then went on to quote from Isaiah, about dull hearts and refusal to hear. The parables reveal truth to those who have soft, receptive hearts, but won't help those who don't want to hear.
At the end of the parable of the sower, Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" There is a way of hearing that is idle hearing. That is, a person might hear, but not be interested. We have a saying - "in one ear and out the other!" That's not what happens when God's Word is sown into the heart of a person who is soft and receptive. Water may run off a duck's back, but God's life-giving truth enters the parched soul of every needy person whom God enables to hear and understand the good news of Christ. When the Word is given a place in our lives, the harvest is assured. It may vary in different people, but there will be a harvest. God's Word has the power to make us fruitful. We can't produce the harvest our selves, nor need we: it is God's work in our lives. What God wants us to do, is to make sure we take His Word to heart. Think about what we are hearing, and how we are listening. (The best way is on our knees. That is, with a humble, prayerful attitude.)
St Paul, a man who was taught by the Spirit of Jesus, writes:
"We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words."
Jesus told his disciples: "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you." True understanding is a gift from God. It is a gift that can be rejected, and often is. But where it is received with joy, believed, and put into practice, this gift brings abundant blessing!
Today our Lord is sowing the seed of his holy life-giving word, into our lives. If you have been hard, or shallow, or allowed other things to get in the way of God's Word, admit this to Him. Confess it, and He will forgive you, and lead you into a better way: He will help you to listen carefully to His Word, and as you take time to hear him out, you will come to understand Him much better. (Let us pray:)
Lord, give us ears to hear, and hearts to receive, all that You wants to tell us through Your precious Word. You know and understand us completely. Help us to understand You. Amen!
The peace of God which is beyond all human understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.