“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.” (Mark 4:3 NIV)
Jesus begins this familiar parable with a basic fact: farmer’s sow seeds. We read on as He talks about types of soil: hard-packed, rocky, thorny and good. He reminds us that good soil is reproductive: multiplying the seed many times over. We might still be scratching our heads over this quick farming instruction amidst the sermons of Jesus if it weren’t for His patient explanation a few verses later.
“The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop – some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.” (Mark 4:13-20 NIV)
So often this scripture is preached and the emphasis is on the soil: be good soil, they say! Keep your heart tender and tended and ready to receive God’s Word. All of this is good and true, but we are called to be more than dirt. That’s what the imago dei and the restoration of man is all about; we are called to be children of God, about His business, and His business is farming for souls.
Return to the establishing statement of this parable: “Listen, a farmer went out to sow his seed.” While we all begin as soil, the acceptance of Christ’s work on the cross transforms us into so much more; we are recreated into the Father’s image. And He’s a Farmer; patiently steadily sowing His gospel seed into the dark earth. “The farmer sows the word.” We recognize we are most like Him when we take to the fields alongside Him, with seeds in hand, ready to sew the gospel into any ground that will receive it.
I look at the American church and I wonder if we haven’t lost sight of the main thing. A farmer isn’t a farmer if he forgets to plant seed. He can be busy about everything else: securing the fence line, tilling the soil, tending the chickens, watching the weather, but if the farmer fails to have the courage to put seed in the ground, he’ll never see a crop come harvest-time.
If we don’t plant, we aren’t farmers. We’re lawn-mowers and chore-doers and tree-trimmers at best. God calls us to be FARMERS, to scatter seed and grow the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
If Christ’s blood has adopted us as sons and daughters and Father God is a Farmer, well, then we’re called to farming too. We act most like Him when we faithfully scatter the seeds of the gospel with the wild hope that they might take root and grow into something good and life-giving.
“The farmer sows the word.” Mark 4:14 NIV)
Lord, forgive us for being about the farm, tending to everything but the sowing of seed. We recognize that seed scattering is central to the farm’s way of life. Give us courage as we carry the word in our hearts and share it wherever we go. We want to be faithful to the Kingdom cause, propagating the gospel anywhere it might take root. Amen.