You heard Jesus’ parable of the soils as part of the Prayer for Learning offered before the scripture readings. One interpretation of the seed is that it is the word of scripture. In the end only the good soil produced a harvest. The seed that fell on the hard, shallow, rocky, weedy areas was wasted, producing nothing, but the seed that fell on the good soil produced abundantly. This abundance more than made up for the seed that failed.
The farmer had to be fearless in sowing the seed, not only for the differences in the land—he didn’t deliberately waste seed on non-productive soils, but it was hard to avoid them. And beside the soil issue, the farmer had to contend with the weather. Because seed normally produced many seeds for every seed that grew, farmers were able to save back a portion of a crop to be planted the next season. In lean years, the amount of grain available for home usage might be reduced, and in very lean years, even some of the grain reserved for the next year’s planting might have to be eaten.
Farming has been a game of chance from the very beginning. Farmers’ attitudes range from the very negative (“The crop won’t amount to anything”) to the very positive (“We’re going to have the best crop ever”). The degree of optimism is based it on experience. They remember the great harvests and believe the next one will be like that last great one. They are willing to let go of the reserved seed in the storehouse (which they could be eating right now) believing that if planted it will bring in the great harvest. Farmers fearlessly sowed, even following terrible years. So the psalmist can say in Psalm 126:
Let those who plant with tears
reap the harvest with joyful shouts.
Let those who go out, crying and carrying their seed,
come home with joyful shouts, carrying bales of grain! (Psalm 126:5-6)
Our scripture readings today don’t mention farming or sowing, but they all speak of the same fearless quality that farmers have.
The time is the day after the triumphant palm-strewn, raucous “Hosanna” parade down Mount of Olives Avenue into Jerusalem. Jesus silenced a Sadducee who had raised a theological question. The Sadducees and the Pharisees were rival sects within the Jewish faith community. The Sadducees usually interpreted religious laws narrowly and the Pharisees were generally the progressive group. I can envision them telling jokes at each other’s expense, much in the way Baptists and Presbyterians like to tell jokes about each other’s religious idiosyncracies.
The ego balloon of the Sadducee’s question had been quickly popped by Jesus. A Pharisee picked up the task. “Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the Law?” This wasn’t a new question. Rabbis had debates about the Law. There were several views: the issue of making portions of the Law into a super canon, or distilling the Law to a handful of precepts, or maintaining that each of the over six hundred pieces of the ceremonial Law had equal value.
We don’t know the Pharisee’s motive in asking. Perhaps he was showing that he too was opposed to Jesus. Perhaps he was showing the Sadducees that the Pharisees weren’t ignorant of the Law and that a Pharisee could succeed where a Sadducee had failed in outwitting Jesus. Maybe he just wanted to prove that Pharisees could ask better questions. Or, maybe, he was genuinely seeking to discern what the Law required of him, and, being impressed with Jesus’ knowledge and understanding, he believed that Jesus could give him a powerful insight into the faith.
The tension is mounting. The opposition of the religious leaders had increased throughout Jesus’ three-year ministry and was at a fevered pitch in the days leading to his execution. Jesus was no longer touring the countryside which was at arm’s length from or even outside the ceremonial reach of the Temple guardians. He was sparring with those very guardians on their own turf and besting them at their own game. Jesus was on a journey to the heart of a people’s faith.
While Jesus had deflected previous questions or avoided them with questions of his own, Jesus paused in the heat of the debate to give a concise and solid answer to a question that went to the very heart of what really matters in life.
I can’t speak for you, but I know that I have participated in discussions by asking flippant, throw-away, off-putting questions. Yet the conversation moved towards a deeper, more honest questioning which stopped abusing the issue and started getting at the real meat. Sometimes we have to wait out the superficial to get to the real. That’s when the deepest, sincerest, most meaningful revelations occur, when minds begin to articulate the yearnings of the Spirit.
Questions are strewn around like the farmer’s seed. The empty ones bounce off the hardened earth. The flippant ones land among the rocks and the weeds. The deepest questions land in the nourishing soil and yield illuminating answers, “aha!” moments, and life-changing revelations.
The question that the legal expert asked was one of the seed-in-the-good-soil questions. And Jesus honored it. He began with the holy words, the “Shema,” that began every synagogue worship service (Deuteronomy 6:5), added the Levitical expansion (Leviticus 19:18), and then capped it off with his own imprint: “All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
In this final sentence Jesus asserts his own authority as the one who is privileged to unite these two commandments together as the theme of the whole. It is his final sentence that makes his answer messianic and in its own way becomes a witness to the fact that Jesus is the Messiah now in their presence.(1)The legal expert’s question bore a hundred-fold answer in the good soil of Jesus’ teaching.
Faith is an enquiring mind. Faith fearlessly sows the daily living questions in the good soil mixture of scripture and personal, prayerful interaction with the Savior. Faith sows the deep questions and knows that through the steady growth cycle of each seed there will come a meaningful harvest of awe and wonder at the breadth and depth of God’s generous grace. The farmer relinquishes the known seed in her hand in order to gain a harvest of seeds for herself and for the world.
Think of all the seeds that we plant as a congregation.
- We are planting the seed of the gospel in soil of the women in the Recovery Council addiction rehab program. Those seeds are growing and producing. One of the joys of some seeds that is they grow and produce seed that then seed themselves to grow more plants and produce more seeds.
- We are planting the seed of gracious dignity as we give food and money to the Outreach Council through our budgeted giving as well as through our generous Deacons’ Fund gifts.
- We are planting the seeds of God’s love through the One Great Hour, Pentecost, Peacemaking, and Christmas Joy special offerings that we receive during each year.
- We are planting the seeds of a mission-focused community as we develop the possibilities generated by the New Beginnings assessment and cluster group discussions.
- We are planting the seeds of a welcoming, nurturing community as we continue to develop our internet and social media presence.
- We are planting seeds of extended caring as we hear from, pray for, and support Mark and Jenny Hare’s ministry in Haiti and the Dominican Republic, and Esther Wakeman and Rob Collins’ ministry at Payap University.
- We are planting seeds of caring as we pray for and work with our deacons and session members to care for and support in times of need our own neighbors and friends
- We are planting seeds of connection as we prayerfully remember sister congregations in Scioto Valley Presbytery and in presbyteries, synods and mission fields around the world.
- We are learning to plant our faith seeds more deeply as we study God’s word in women’s circles and Sunday morning classes and as we sing, listen, pray, and respond in worship.
We are fearlessly sowing the gospel in the way Paul described to the Thessalonian faithful:
We have been examined and approved by God to be trusted with the good news....We aren’t trying to please people, but we are trying to please God, who continues to examine our hearts....We were glad to share not only God’s good news with you but also our very lives because we cared....All the persecutions and criticisms didn’t deter Paul. Nor should they deter us. Jesus invites us to the work of fearlessly sowing the Good News he brought to the world. As we prepare our time, talent, and financial commitments for next year, let us go and sow fearlessly. Amen.
(1) Earl Palmer, “Matthew 22:34-46 – Pastoral Perspective,” Feasting on the Word (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), Year A, vol. 4, pp. 214, 216.
Unless noted otherwise, all scripture references are from The Common English Bible, © 2011 www.commonenglishbible.com.
Copyright 2014 First Presbyterian Church of Waverly, Ohio. Reprinted by permission.
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