Matthew 13:1-23 is the parable of farmer sowing seeds and the soils.
If you aren't familiar with the story, you can look it up at an on-line Bible.
In brief, Jesus told a parable. A farmer scattered seeds and they land in various places: (1) footpath where birds eat it up, (2) shallow rocky soil where there is growth but no deep roots, (3) soil with thorns where the thorns eventually outgrow the plants and (4) fertile soil where there yields a good crop.
Jesus explained the seeds are the good news about the Kingdom of God. In three of the four soil types, there is a problem. The birds represent the evil one that steals away the seed before it has a chance to sprout. The rocky soil represents that problems of life that are stunt the growth. The thorny patch is where the cares of the world and lure of wealth strangles the life of the plant.
Disclaimer: I'm not a theologian, I am just your typical guy reading my Bible and trying to get some grasp of what it means.
We all know the story of the tortoise and the hare. It is descriptive of life and how often the winner of the race is not the fastest but the more persistent. Implicit is that we should imitate the tortoise in some situations.
But we could ask "theological" questions to that kind of story like this: are we by nature one or the other? Is it fair of God to expect the hare to act against his nature and be more like the tortoise? Is the hare capable of being more like the tortoise? And what about the tortoise, does she have any moral obligation to help the hare be more like her?
We've gone from a simple descriptive story with a moral point and have come up with a slew of theological questions!
Likewise, looking at this story, I could engage in some theological speculation: if I don't respond well to the seeds from God it is because I'm rocky soil and it isn't my fault I'm rocky soil? Why is God throwing seeds into soil that is too shallow to support long-term growth of the plants? We can come up with a slew of theological questions!
These lead to one of the great knots in theology: what is the balance between God's sovereignty and humanity's free will?
You aren't going to be finding that answer here!
I think the most memorable teaching I've heard on this passage focused on the relationship of the disciples and Jesus. The disciples hear the parables and they scratch their heads and they ask Jesus in verse 10. Jesus responded to them from verse 11 onward.
So how about us today?
We got to be like the disciples in bringing our questions to Jesus.
Paraphrasing v. 12: To those open to Jesus, they will seek for more and more understanding will be given to them. But for those who aren't open to Jesus, what they little they have heard will soon be taken away either by forgetfulness or by force and they won't even know they are missing it.
4 comments:
Did you know that in "the gospel of Maria Magdalena" Jesus came to her in a revelation after his death and sayed (don't know the actual english words 'cause I read it in finnish): "There is no sin as we think of it".
Perhapse this is the key to gods suvereinity and human free will. It sertainly makes it interesting to think that perhapse there is no free will, and there for the sins are not so much sins as we think of them. I personally believe that even Judas was just doing gods work, gods "dirty work" if you may.
Well, just caught my imagination...
You have some wonderful words here.
All the best
and take care!
Pete
Thanks for clicking in from Finland!
Indeed, understanding the Sovereignty of God and the free-will of man is a tough one.
We only have human language to try to describe what God is doing and so it will always feel inadequate and our minds can't encompass all of God.
We think of God's will in probably two ways:
1) the sovereign will of God - the ultimate purposes of God are brought to reality. Thus, human free will is able to do evil but doesn't thwart God's intentions in the long run.
2) the moral will of God - we believe that God is good and God is pleased to do good and pleased to see us do good. Humans like me in our freedom violate the moral will of God to the disappointment of God. And when our wills line up with the moral will of God, God is happy about that.
Human words to attempt to describe what God is doing and thinking!
Spinoza has said that even a stone, if it would have consciousness, would think it is it's own choise to fall down when it is dropped. Same way we people think we choose to drop the stone, but it is just actually law of fysics or God if you may (I actually think them as the same thing - nature and God).
Pete
Some additional thought on Spinoza can be foundhere.
Post a Comment