"While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, He told this parable: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." (Luke 8:4-8 NIV)
We are likely all familiar with this parable. We can apply Jesus’ words personally: what kind of soil am I? Francis Chan’s famous sermon on this text has stood with me for years: do not assume you are good soil! Turn over the soil of your own heart, prepare to receive the seed, allow the Holy Spirit to remove the rocks and weeds. Nurture the seed and give it ample opportunity to grow.
We additionally see instructions for the believer to be a seed-caster. I always picture that little wheeled bucket that holds grass or fertilizer and broadcasts it about the yard as we walk behind it. As disciples, we have a directive to spread the seed of the gospel wherever we go – that the whole world may KNOW.
Today I saw something new in this text, though, perhaps you see it, too. Three-fourths of the soil forsakes the seed.
1/4 The seed on the path – trampled and stolen by
1/4 The seed in the rocks – withered without moisture
1/4 The seed in the thorns – choked out
1/4 The seed in good soil – yielded a crop; a hundred fold
Three-fourths of the soil is bad, or rotten as they say in South Texas, and yet, we are not called to be soil inspectors. Only God can judge hearts, He simply requires us to cast seed. It is not our place to make judgments about the quality of the dirt we are working with. We’re reminded that all men and women are made of mud! (Genesis 2:7 Psalm 103:14, Ecclesiastes 3:20) When we miss our task and act like soil inspectors, we aren’t actually advancing the Kingdom. We are criticizing instead of participating in the dirty work of planting.
We are called to be seed-casters. We have one job: faithfully spreading the seed everywhere we go. We cannot afford to get discouraged and drop out in stretches where we don’t yet see a yield. Jesus made it clear, only 25% of our seed will have lasting impact. But that 25% with it’s hundredfold will more than make up for the loss of seed incurred by the bad soil. Isn’t that encouraging?
Years ago, Rob and I were at a board Christmas party when we had the most fascination discourse about weather. The man across the table was arguably a genius and had taken a few meteorology college courses on a whim. He was a pilot, so weather held his attention. The man shared many interesting facts that evening, but the one that stood out the most had to do with precipitation percentages. You know how the forecast will have a hovering cloud with drops or flakes and list a percentage? He explained that the percentage wasn’t a chance of rain as much as it was a percentage of the viewing/listening area that would actually receive rain. If a viewing/listening area is 100 square miles and the forecast for precipition is 40%, that means that forty of the square miles will receive rain/snow while the other sixty square miles will stay dry. Our minds were blown. In the decade that followed, I’ve witnessed the accuracy of his testimony. 90% chance of rain means you can drive and drive all you get is rain for miles. 30% and you might find yourself in a downpour on the freeway but your yard at home is as dry as a bone. (Happened to me just last week, in fact.)
When Jesus shared the parable of soils, it seems like He was telling us how 25% of our seed casting efforts will have lasting Kingdom impact. I suspect this percentage is fulfilled over the course of our lives. There may be long stretches where we see no receptivity to the seed we are casting, no germination, no perceptible growth and certainly no yield. If we don’t understand this idea of overall percentage, we might get discouraged and roll our seed caster into the garage and let it get dusty. If we do, we may miss the critical one or two percent the Lord has assigned us in this season. And we may lower our lifelong yield for lack of sustained effort.
The best way to ensure highest yield in our brief season of Kingdom sowing is the cast seed continually. The more we cast, the greater the eventual harvest. Refuse to tuck the seeder away out of exhaustion, embarrassment or disappointment. As believers, we have an assignment: a commission from the heart of God Himself. Go and make disciples. Disciples grow from seeds. We cannot produce followers without first casting seeds.
"...by persevering produce a crop." (Luke 8:15 NIV)
Lord, You know how we grow weary of casting seed on stubborn soil. Today we see the bigger picture and we are encouraged: keep casting! We will endure. We will do our part and trust You for 25% to produce the yield You promised. Give us the courage to keep showing up, to persevere in planting and to trust Your heavenly process. Amen.