July 14, 2002 -- EIGHTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST --Proper 10
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
Color: Green
Matthew 13: 1-23
Title: “The Gospel is God’s favorite “joke,” to tell humankind.”
The Parable of the Sower
13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he told them many things in parables, saying: "Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. 6But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9Let anyone with ears listen!"
The Purpose of the Parables
10 Then the disciples came and asked him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" 11He answered, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12For to those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. 13The reason I speak to them in parables is that ’seeing they do not perceive, and hearing they do not listen, nor do they understand.’ 14With them indeed is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah that says:
’You will indeed listen, but never understand,
and you will indeed look, but never perceive.
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull,
and their ears are hard of hearing,
and they have shut their eyes;
so that they might not look with their eyes,and listen with their ears,
and understand with their heart and turn--
and I would heal them.’
16But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17Truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.
The Parable of the Sower Explained
18 "Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.c 22As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. 23But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."
Matthew has collected a series of parables and presents them as a single sermon, the third such one in his work.
Jesus’ claim that he was from the Father, that he was the long-expected Messiah, was not accepted by all Jews. By the time Matthew writes, that same claim has been translated to a larger context. On one level, most Jews still did not accept Jesus’ claims and teaching, even after the resurrection. On another level, those who did accept Jesus at first did not remain faithful in the long term. This problem, beginning with Jesus, continued in the early church and remains today. Those who do accept Jesus do not all remain faithful to him, his vision, his way of life.
Chapter thirteen, comes to grips with this issue. Matthew has assembled seven, or eight, of Jesus’ parables and presents them as if they were one continuous discourse, the third one of five such discourses in Matthew. The essence of Jesus’ whole point in being sent by the Father is captured under the rubric of “the kingdom of heaven,” Every parable but the parable of the sower begins with the phrase, “The kingdom of heaven is like….”, a rich concept, an image really, around which are clustered the main themes of Jesus’ teaching. It has an “already,” here aspect and a “not yet,” fully realized, aspect. In almost defiance of western logic wherein something cannot be both true and not true at the same time, these two aspects are simultaneously true. That alone goes a long way in explaining why some accept Jesus’ teaching and claims of Messiahship and why some either do not or do not remain committed to him. The parables in this chapter spell out this conundrum in more detail.
“Parable” means “comparison” or “analogy.” It uses something known to get at, explain, elucidate something unknown. One thing is compared to another, is likened to another in some fashion. A parable can range from a simple simile, this is like that, to a metaphor, an extended simile, to an allegory, where each detail equals, represents, stands for something else, to a story a realistic example illustrating a behavior or attitude to be either followed or avoided. While “parable,” would include proverbs, riddles, fables and other picturesque forms of expression and, thus, be roughly equivalent to the Hebrew mashal as used in the Old Testament, “parable” in the New Testament is specifically applied to example stories or illustrations such as we find in Matthew chapter thirteen or Mark four.
Jesus was quite fond of using “parables,” to teach. In the Synoptics we find about sixty separate parables. They are analogies, comparing something from daily life or nature to illustrate a religious or moral truth and provoke in the hearer a challenge to accept or reject its point. Even though a parable may have only one point and usually has but one, it has the capacity to apply that point in more than one real life setting. That two of the parables in this chapter are given titles, The Parable of the Sower and the Parable of the Weeds, and that they are later explained by Jesus, shows that parables are capable of having multiple applications without being untrue to their original intent. The same, of course, is true of proverbs, another form of “parable,” where a general saying is applied to a specific situation.
This periscope divides nicely into three parts: verses one to nine, the parable proper; verses ten to seventeen, the reason for teaching in parables; and verses eighteen to twenty-three, the parable is explained.
In verses one to nine, The Parable Proper
In verse three, a sower went out to sow: Although this is traditionally called the “Parable of the Sower,” the real focus is on the seeds and their respective yields. The sower merely initiates the action. In an agricultural economy everyone would understand what Jesus was talking about, at least on the physical, earthly level.
In verse four to seven, as he sowed some seed fell on: The sower, like Jesus and Christian preachers after him, sowed on some unpromising soils: the path where people walk verse four, the rocky ground without depth of soil, topsoil covering limestone verse five, and among thorns verse seven. In Palestine, then and now, the custom is to sow first and plow afterwards, a procedure that wastes much seed upon unprepared soil. In the story, the farmer never gets around to coming back and plowing the seeds into the soil. Once the seed is sown- in the story- it is on its own. The emphasis is on the generosity or broadcast of the sower not unlike the dragnet parable where fishermen catch every kind of fish and separate the desirable from the undesirable later. Remember Jesus is teaching from a fishing boat.
In verse eight, “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” In contrast to the other three kinds of seeds and soils that fail to produce anything of lasting value, the good seed and soil produce a quantity of fruitfulness beyond imagining, the yield representing the ideal disciple. While all the seeds are good, all the soils are not. Such a yield, especially the hundredfold, is outrageously extravagant and part of the parable’s point, namely, that the slightest response from humans provoke an abundant response from God in return. Although seven- to- tenfold was considered an average yield, a hundredfold would not be impossible. Isaac’s crops are said to have reached that level “because the Lord blessed him” Genius 26: 12. Here the figure is exaggerated in typical Semitic storytelling fashion to make the point that, despite considerable obstacles, opposition, wasted effort, and failure, there will eventually be a rich harvest beyond all expectation.
In verses ten to seventeen, Why Parables?
In verse ten, knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom has been granted to you: “Insider,” status is a gift from God, offered to everyone, but not accepted by everyone. Note the “divine passive,” voice, grammatical, to indicate God as the doer of the action, preserving the mystery of this mysterious process. The Greek mysterion, “mystery, secret,” is found only here in the Gospel and refers to Jesus himself as Messiah and all that this fact implies.
In verse eleven, to you, but, not, to them: Jesus speaks to the crowds in parables, but they do not grasp his meaning or, grasping it, they do not accept it. Jesus says that this is the case because of the hardening of their hearts. Such hardening affects not only their spiritual arteries, but their spiritual sight and hearing as well. They are incapable of understanding what he is saying not because God wills it so, but because of their own willfulness. On the other hand, those who are open have no problem in getting Jesus’ point, not because they have a power the obstinate do not possess, but because they are receptive and responsive. God’s grace flows in and into them like blood in unblocked veins. This same point is found in John where Jesus says that people actually judge themselves because evil deeds contain within themselves their own punishment.
In verse twelve, to those who have, more will be given, Christians are progressively enriched, commensurate with their response to the message, just as those who ignore it will be progressively disadvantaged. This is a statement in proverbial form of one of Jesus’ basic principles: unequal reciprocity. Any generous response on the part of the recipient is matched by an even more generous blessing from God. The Jews, especially, tended to rest on their spiritual laurels and presume God would bless them no matter what. Logically speaking, what one “has not” cannot really be “taken away.” This is a colorful way of making the point again that the same form of words, the same message, the same parable can have different results. It can reveal “secrets” or “mysteries” to “those who have,” but convey nothing but riddles or everyday stories to those to whom “it has not been granted.” It depends on the condition of the “soil” of the soul. Anyone can hear; only a disciple can understand.
In verses thirteen to fifteen, they look but do not see: The quotation from Isaiah 6: 9-10 is given in full. It serves to place the negative reaction to Jesus’ teaching on the part of his supposed “hearers,” in line with the response predicted by God to Isaiah regarding his preaching. Thus, while people may be surprised and even dismayed that not everyone accepts Jesus, God is not. He knows humans and their capacity to be bull-headed, stubborn and dense. God is saying through Isaiah, Jesus and Matthew that his word is not accepted because humans are the way they choose to be, not because God plays favorites and chooses to save only a few. For the stubborn, everything comes as parables, that is, obscurely, preventing clear vision and hearing.
In verse seventeen, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it: The blessings upon Christians go far beyond those upon the prophets of old and other great Jewish heroes of the past.
In verses eighteen to twenty-three, The Parable Explained
Jesus gets specific about why some accept and others reject or ignore or renege: the evil one’s influence on them, their own shallowness, this-worldly concerns, and greed.
In verse eighteen, Hear then the parable of the sower: This is where the preceding parable gets its title. It comes from the opening line and does not really express the story’s full content or proper interpretation. The story is about seed and soils, not sowers. Matthew puts the interpretation of the parable on the lips of Jesus. Whether this explanation comes directly from Jesus or comes from Jesus through the early church’s preaching and teaching is not so important as some scholars make it out to be. Whatever the case, the parable moves from an illustrative story having one main point to an allegory wherein each detail stands for something important to the point.
In verse nineteen, the word of the kingdom: “Word,” will become a technical term for “gospel,” referring to the content of Jesus’ message. “Preaching,” or “evangelizing,” will become the technical term for the act of delivering that content.
In verses nineteen to twenty-three, The seed sown along the path represents the message, the “mystery,” of the kingdom that is not understood and is quickly snatched away by the evil one like a bird swooping down upon it. Seed sown on rocky soil is the message received at first with enthusiasm but given up when the going gets rough, when persecution because of it ensues. Having not yet taken root, it is easily dislodged from the human heart when opposition arises. When the message falls on thorny ground, it produces no fruit because worldly anxieties and the lure of wealth, the “thorns” in the human side, choke it out, a form of spiritual crop failure. Finally, the seed sown on good soil sinks in, with all of its theological and ethical implications. Good soil yields a good return, a rich harvest. Thus Jesus speaks of four ways that the message of his kingdom can be received. This explains why some accept him and his message and others do not. It also explains why some who did accept him did not remain faithful to him, but gave up or gave in to worldly concerns.
Sermon
Jesus loved to teach by using parables. Parables are very similar to jokes. They contain a lot of truth in a few words or in a short story. Upon hearing a joke or a parable a person either “gets it,” or says, “ I do not get it.” Whereupon the speaker goes on to explain the joke or parable and even if they listener now “gets it,” he or she does not laugh, in the case of a joke, or change behavior, in the case of a parable. The explanation might improve understanding, but it removes the impact and so removes the “fun,” in the case of the joke or the “mystery,” in the case of the parable.
Everyone loves a good joke. Well, almost everyone. There are some humorless people out there whom Jesus compares to soil so compacted by being walked on that the sown seed the told joke or the preached parable cannot penetrate the hard surface. Jokes, like parables, are really compacted mysteries. The truth of a joke or a mystery is all there in nugget form. If the listener can see into it or bite into it “Okay, I’ll bite.”, he or she gets the point. If not, he or she can get a more or less prosaic and logical explanation and might get the point, but just as often still does not. To “get” a joke or to “grasp” a mystery one has to have some openness to it. Otherwise it just lands on the surface and has no effect.
We do not often think of jokes as containing mysteries but they do. The mysteries of life, the conundrums, the things we experience but do not understand get packed into joke or funny story form. A good joke relieves us temporarily from the imposed seriousness of life and lets us look at life and reality from a broader perspective. Just as when we see the mysteries of life in a contemplative moment and we gasp, we are awestruck, so also when we encounter a good joke we laugh. Laughter is like awe. We cannot explain it. We can only experience it. We are filled to overflowing and so, as a release, we laugh at a joke or gasp at a mystery, be it the beauty of a flower, the birth of a baby, the experience of being in love, etc. Or that day we truly realized no one but ourselves could do us any harm.
But we do more than laugh or gasp. In every joke or experience of wonder, we also make a resolution to live our lives better, more fully. After laughing we turn or return to the serious business at hand, but with renewed resolve that we are going to enjoy the moment to its fullest. People who are humorless and for whom the mystery of life escapes them do not do this and so they reject the Gospel. It is not disrespectful to say in this context that the Gospel is God’s favorite “joke,” to tell humankind. Parables in Jesus’ day were really jokes and both alleviated the tedious burden of life and also taught truth. Those who missed his point because they were hard of heart, mentally and emotionally dense, were denied the fun, the mystery in life.
More often, after hearing a good joke and resolving to live more lightheartedly, the troubles of life re-enter and we go back to our pre-joke mood, as though we had never laughed or encountered the mystery of life. For, indeed, in a good joke, we encounter God. Jesus refers to this experience when he says his word takes “no root and lasts for only a time,” until some tribulation or persecution comes and the person falls away from the joy of life. And, of course, there are the thorns and entanglements of life robbing us of the time or the energy to resist the temptation to live life as usual, to return to the experience of life we had as children when we laughed and played and enjoyed the present moment.
It is ironic that if we are too serious about life and its responsibilities and troubles, we will never “get,” the kingdom of God, let alone get into it. We must become as children, complete with corny jokes, if we are to grasp the mystery of God found in daily living and ordinary experiences, but experiences in which we see the humor. Humor is a sense of proportion and perspective. When we see our small lives against the bigger picture, from the perspective of eternity, we can laugh at ourselves and our foibles, as well as others and enjoy. If we can do that, we can grasp the parables of Jesus and derive tremendous benefit from their wisdom and wit, making us likewise witty and wise.
The “seed” of God’s word needs receptive soil if it is to take root.
God sows his seed on everyone, regardless of their “soil” or soiled condition.
Much of God’s grace goes wasted because it is either ejected or deflected.
God’s word will accomplish its purpose, regardless of who or how many reject it.
Soil: Originally, the purpose of Jesus telling this parable was to challenge people to change, to open up to God’s word and let nothing hinder its taking root in their lives. In the context of what was happening in the ministry of Jesus and, later, in the ministry of his disciples, the parable and its explanation also served to explain why everyone did not accept the tremendous offer of Jesus for salvation both here and now and in and for eternity. It became a parable of encouragement; a truth disciples could remember when they seemed to fail in converting others to Christ. The parable explained, by pointing out that people were as different as soils and not all were receptive to the “seed” of personal growth and eternal life. Jesus’ parables have relevance for everyone in the world, for everyone is called. They have relevance for church members, for those who have accepted the call. Finally, they have relevance for individuals who make up the church. So, the types of soil not only describe people, but the types of soil within each person. The self is really multiple. There is a part of us that is closed to God’s word, closed to growth, closed to life itself. It is hard and virtually impenetrable, even to ourselves. It is the encrustation of sin, if not actual sin, at least inherited sin. There is also a part of each of us that is shallow, superficial. We all to easily resolve to change, to pray more, to be more this or that, and just as often fail. The word of God delights us for a brief moment and then we revert to former form. And who among us is free from entanglements with the world? Anxieties? The lure of riches? We all have these three types of “soil” or aspects of our personality that mitigate against full acceptance of God’s word into the realm of our lives. Yet, we also have that “good soil” that is open to God’s seed, God’s word. It has taken root in us, if only a small patch of us. Yet, that’s all God needs to overtake the weeds, the thorns, the rocky ground that makes up the rest of our soil. Instead of our becoming discouraged, as the early disciples were at the lack of total response to their preaching, Jesus wants us to concentrate on the good soil, to let God’s word continue to water it and give it his light and nutrients. He promises that slowly but surely he will overtake the rest of our soil and one day become 100%. Rather than becoming discouraged by looking at the parts of ourselves that are like bad soil, Jesus teaches that we need to accentuate the positive and productive aspects of our persons in order to one day conquer the rest of ourselves by the very grace of God who has taken root within us, thanks to the divine sower.
Mindsets: Some people have a shut mind all the time Jesus describes this situation as rocky ground. All people have a shut mind sometimes. Some people have a shallow mind all the time, Jesus describes this situation as ground without roots. All people have a shallow mind sometimes. Some people have a cluttered mind all the time. Jesus describes this situation as a filed of bramble bushes. All people have cluttered minds sometimes. But who has an open mind, described by Jesus as rich soil, all the time? Or even some of the time? True, there are some people whose minds are so open they are open at both ends and they have no bottom, no base set of values, no anchors. But, an open mind? A person always open to the truth wherever it might be revealed is a truly rare and rich person. Yet, that is what we are offered in accepting Jesus and his vision and version of truth. Amen.
