Nicolas Campbell
“The Old Man and the Mason Ferguson”
Luke 8:4-18
First Christian Church Rock Hill
A. FAS- Broken shovel story
B. Farming. It’s everywhere in the Bible and today we have a story about farming.
I. Retelling the Biblical story.
A. Here we have Jesus and he’s walking from town to town and village to village. People are coming out of their homes and shops to walk with Jesus and hear what he has to say. Good news is what they were hearing, and they were eager to learn more. Imagine how it must have looked people pleading to Jesus, “Tell us more!” “We want to know more!” So Jesus must have sat down on a rock or just on the ground and told a story.
“One cool spring morning a old man got up and opened the back door to his little farm house. It’s early in the morning and there are still a couple stars out; the grass is covered in dew. He walks over to the barn and pulls the large doors open to see his old Massey Ferguson. He walks over to the machine the smell of old grease, diesel fuel, and dust filled the air. The old man climbs on the old red rusty machine and turns the key. The motor turns over and black smoke starts billowing out from the exhaust. He puts the tractor in gear and heads toward the fields. It’s planting day.
As he drives down the dusty road he hits a bump and turns around to see some of the seed he was planting that day laying among the gravel. The old man thinks to himself, “Well there goes a lot of valuable seed.” A car drives past and runs over the spilled seed. The old man knew that soon the crows would be there to clean up the mess. He continues to drive toward his fields. As the old man gets closer he looks at all the work that had been done and he thought about the work to come as well. His field was perfectly tilled, straight lines and not a weed in sight. He pulls up to the gate and climbs down off of his machine. The dew is now soaking through his boots and he can feel the cold on his toes. He swings the gate open and pulls the Massey Ferguson into position. The old man lumbers his tractor along the rows and he starts to scatter the seed along the first row. He knows that he is getting good coverage because little bits of the seed are falling of to the side among the rocks and thorns in the ditch. He worked all day stopping only to refuel. The seed was planted.
As the weeks went by the old man would check on his field. He drove the same dusty lane as before, but this time in his pickup. He stops and looks at where he had spilled the seed before. There wasn’t anything left, not a single grain. The old man thinks to himself, “I wish those plants could have been saved,” but he just rolls his window back up and drives down to the gate that lead to the field. This time the old man backs the truck in. The tailgate groans as he sits down and looks at his work. His eyes gaze over the field and something catches his attention. There in a ditch there was some of his crop. He walks over to one of the plants, which now is brown and dead, and plucks it from between the rocks. “Not enough water,” the old man mutters to himself. Then he looks further down the ditch and notices some other of his plants but they are in among the weeds and thistles. They were brown and shriveled too. The old man knew that the other plants had taken the nutrients that his crop needed and had choked the young plants to death.
The old man stands up and walks to the top of the ditch. The sun is starting to peak over the trees and he can see his entire field. His crop had taken better than he had ever seen it. This was going to be the biggest harvest he had ever had. His crop had taken over the entire field, and the old man knew that he was looking at more plants than he could even imagine. He hadn’t planted this much, but the seed was incredibly good and so was the soil.
B. Complications
C. Resolution-
D. Jesus gives us the point of this story to his listeners. He tells them in verse 11ff “The seed is the word of God. (ADD THE REST OF SCRIPTURE THROUGH V.15) I can imagine there were several reactions in the crowd. Maybe there was a man who closed his eyes and nodded receiving the message. Maybe some people just smiled and others said, “Ahhhh okay.”
E. It’s easy for all of us to fall in to that same mindset. God as the farmer came and did all the work for us and all we have to do is grow. We get lots of good sunshine, enough rain, and lots of good soil. So we just grow where we are planted and God will bring us into the storehouse when the time comes. Well lets keep reading one more verse. “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.” I imagine that some of the people in the crowd stopped. They may have just cocked their head to the side and thought, “Wait I thought we were talking about farming. What is this lamp business? What are you talking about Jesus?”
Jesus transitions this story so well. He lures the masses of people from every town in then throws out a large net to catch them all. He is saying, “Yes you who have heard the word of God and hidden it in your hearts are the good crop that is exploding all over the field, but you have a purpose bigger than the field. You are now the beacon of light, of the good news. It’s time to find your place where you are to shine out to the masses. God did the first planting, but now it is up to you to till, plant, and harvest more. It’s time to get to work.”
II. Apply the Biblical Story- It’s time to get to work.
A. Those that receive the gift must minister the same. God has sown the seed of the Gospel in our hearts, which means that we also have to become farmers. Now I’m not saying that we are to equate ourselves with God, but instead God is showing us what we are supposed to do, by doing it first. He looks at us and he says, “See how I did this? Any questions? Okay now go and do it the same.” Now stop for a moment. Does it say anywhere that this is going to be easy? Listen, farming is hard work. I had to dig a stump of a shrub out of our yard and it broke two shovels and took me about 4 hours total for one stump! That’s just preparing the ground for the garden we are building. I have not tilled the soil or even planted a single seed. It’s the same way with spreading the seed of the Gospel. The people around us sometimes need hard work. The stumps and boulders in their lives can hang them up. The stumps and boulders are what prevents us from getting good soil. And they need help to get rid of that junk. With God we can dig those out and cast them away and have good soil. So friends it’s time to grab a shovel.
B. We plant the seed God makes it grow.
Now we understand that we are the workers now. We are supposed to sew the Gospel into the hearts of men. That’s what we are commissioned to do. We sew seeds in this neighborhood. We sew seeds with the people we meet in the supermarket. We sew seeds with everyone that we meet. We till soil. We break our backs trying to share the good news of Jesus Christ wherever we go. Now pay attention, God does not call for us to make the seeds grow. The seeds grow because of God. What we are called to do is give that seed every opportunity that we can for it to grow. God takes care of the rest. There are times where you will see the wonderful miracle of the Gospel taking root in the hearts of those around you, but there are also times where you may not. That’s okay. God is working in them.
C. Jesus wraps up his talk with a couple statements that seem out of place. (Add v. 17-18) This seems really out of place because we do not have the explanation like we did with the parable. Essentially we have him identifying that God will see your good works in the field, but also he will see if you just drive past the field and not do any work. He who gets to work with his talents will be given more, but he who buries his talent will lose it. If we take our talents, or in churchy terms “our spiritual gifts” or “our ministry,” and put it in place God tells us that we will be given more. This means that our seed within our hearts will grow bigger than we can comprehend.
Conclusion
A. Central Theme- It’s time to get to work. Make today be the day that you reach out and plant some seeds. God will bless it. Jesus tells us that.
B. Closing Remarks- You may be here today and still have not had the seed of the Gospel flourish in your life. Maybe today you have finally felt the stir of a sprout in your heart. If that is you then I invite you to come forward today as we sing our song of invitation.
