No. 07. Story 1 – “The Enthusiastic Gardener"
July 13, 2008 Bothwell & Clachan
Matthew’s Memories of Jesus - No. Story 1 – “The Enthusiastic Gardener”
Matthew 13:1-9, Matthew 13:18-23
July 13, 2008
INTRODUCTION
A few Questions for you this morning: (and yes, I know that the first one is very easy, but please humour me). Number 1: “How many of you have every used or perhaps I should say, ”listened” to a radio?...or watched a TV?” Perhaps I should have asked “How many of you have NOT used either a radio or TV?” Now that we have asked the easy lead–in question, let’s go for one little harder: “How many of you (by show of hands) have some idea about how that program or music or sporting event, etc., that you may have been listening to or watching, is able to come out of that radio speaker or appear on that TV screen?” I see that a few less of us are comfortable with that question. But what if I asked you about what this whole “watching/listening” topic refers to? I assume that all of us would be familiaar with the term “broadcasting?” But have you ever given any thought to the first word embedded at the beginning of that larger word: “broad” BROAD-casting. And no, for you fishermen we are not talking about a wide swing of your fishing rod as you send out the bait towards the water.
BROADCASTING
Perhaps it is easiest to understand a “broadcast” if we think of a program that has been sent out or broadly scattered across the airwaves of a geographic area. All of these signals are capable of being detected and decoded by the right type of equipment. Why right here in this room, there are invisible broadcast waves all around us. If we had some form of portable listening device which was equipped with a proper receiver and amplifier, commonly known as a radio, it could be turned on and would be able to decode these invisible signals and turn them into music or news.
Have you ever though how inefficient that is, what a waste that is? I mean, do you always have a radio with you that you can turn on? I do in the car. But I don’t make a habit of walking around with say, a portable radio balanced on my shoulder, blasting out a tune. So that means that most of those invisible signals are wasted, just “floating” around us, doing nothing.
In that way the very nature of “Broad-casting” stands for inefficiency. But does that have to mean that the programming is of lower quality? Well, maybe it is if you are listening to the “Leafs” lose another hockey game. Or if all you can get is “head-banger” rock music and you really would rather be listening to classical or jazz.
Agricultural Term
How many of you are aware that even the term “broadcasting” has been borrowed from the agricultural world? For those of you with access to a Bible which has been produced by the Canadian Bible Society or one of its world-wide families, you might be familiar with a little logo or picture of one of the original broadcasters, and I am not talking about Foster Hewitt or Marconi.
I am referring to that little icon, printed on the cover spine or on the inside title page of some Bibles. It looks like a fellow with a bag over his shoulder. That is a reproduction of the original broadcaster, and he was not sending out “Canadian Idol.” He was a farmer and he was sowing seed. He would reach into his bag for a handful of seed and throw it all around or “broadcast” it as he walked through the field. Today we first plow the ground under or at least sow with “rough till.” But until the industrial revolution and the creation of agricultural implements, this was the way farmers seeded their fields for hundreds of years. They seeded first and then plowed later.
Inefficient
And yes, I’m sure that you can see a problem in that method. Just as it is very inefficient for today’s media to broadcast or send out radio waves that may not be picked up by receivers, it was also very inefficient back then for a farmer to “broadcast” his seeds. Some of the farmers were followed by hungry birds. At our house, while seeding we also have to be careful of the hungry rabbit that lives in a burrow under one of the hedges. Other farmers, with poor aim, often missed and got some of the seed into the rocks where it could never be germinated. Or worse, even left seeds on the paths where it would be sure to be trampled under and ground up underneath people’s footwear. Lots of them wasted seed by getting it into the weed patches that seem to grow every where in our world. Shall we have a quiet moment for all of the enthusiastic but very inefficient farmers down through the centuries? No? OK let’s move on.
Where’s the Leap?
So what does this have to do with anything? Where is the leap? Or as our Youth Group would ask, “How do we get from ‘squirrels’ to Jesus” (Sorry, you will have to ask some of them the answer to that riddle). Well if you listened or read along with the Bible reading from Matthew 13 I hope you have made some connection already. But there is more. Over the last few weeks we have been looking at these events as recorded by Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples. Matthew’s “memoirs” we might say, or Matthew’s Memories of Jesus. We have discovered that early in his public ministry Jesus chose some early followers called disciples. And shortly after choosing them he had them gather around him, a little bit like “boot camp” or CIT camp-leader training and gave them some basic instructions. Then Jesus sent them off on a trip. They had a great time but were a little puzzled when they arrived back home. A lot of people had listened and accepted the message of Jesus but not everybody. Why not? It appears that the disciples may have been somewhat disappointed about the rather uneven result to all of their hard work. It was as if some of the people were “deaf” to God. As we saw last week, Jesus admitted that it was a bit of a mystery. He even quotes here in Matthew 13:13 from the writings of the prophet Isaiah: "Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand." Or as The Message says: That's why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward receptive insight. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they're blue in the face and not get it.” Even more confusingly, seemed to say that it both was and wasn’t God’s fault. He said that he did know who would eventually respond but then he stressed that no matter what, everyone should be given a chance to hear and respond.
Sometimes even when we try to listen, we just don’t have enough understanding to be able to “clue” in. One man said he took his family to one of those restaurants where the walls are plastered with movie memorabilia. He went to see the hostess about reserving a table. When he returned, he found his 11‑year‑old daughter staring at a poster of Superman standing in a phone booth. She looked puzzled.
“Doesn’t she know who Superman is?” he whispered to his wife.
“Worse than that,” she replied. “She doesn’t know what a phone booth is.”
JESUS’ STORIES
That leads into these stories we will look at over the next three weeks called Parables; stories with a twist, stories with a point. Jesus tells them to try to explain to the disciples what is really happening at a spiritual level. He uses illustrations from the world around them to help get across his point. And the first story-parable that we are looking at today addresses the question about whose fault it is if some people don’t listen or don’t “get it.” Is it God’s fault if they have all had an equal chance and yet some still refuse to “hear” or “listen” or “get it?” No, it does not matter how much people are able to understand, Jesus wants his confused disciples to still be enthusiastic and generous as they sow with the seed of God’s Word.
So that is where the seed “broadcast” comes in. Jesus says that the seed, in his story, is a picture for God’s truth, God’s Word or Message, and that it is to be sown generously into the soil of people’s hearts. Note that Jesus also very clearly states that there is NOTHING wrong with this “seed.” All of his seed is good; the problem is the type of soil in which the seeds have been sown.
Jesus says that His message is Grade “A,” God-approved and as it is spread all over peoples hearts, minds and lives, that there is great potential for good. But any future growth really depends on the dirt, on the quality of the soil, that is, it really depends on the state of the life in which it attempts to lodge. We, who don’t really listen, are the real stumbling block to growth.
We could have brought some sample soils in here this morning in paper drinking cups. If one cup had been just filled with seeds, we would agree that that would probably not be a very good seedbed. Or what about a cup that was filled solely with stones? Again, that would not be too promising. Or even still, what about a cup full of weeds? That would soon choke out and kill any seed activity. No, we would need to have a cup full of good potting soil to have any hope of healthy, long term growth for our good seed. But it’s not that easy is it? We don’t know what is in people’s hearts, what type of soil they are?
SOIL TYPES
That part, at least, is easier for actual farmers. Way back when I was a small boy, many pastors had more than one job. So as well as preaching, my father grew cauliflower commercially for the local farmer’s market. He needed to first know what kind of soil was in our field so that he could then select the right kind of fertilizer needed to prepare the soil so that it could grow those big, white, cauliflower heads that so many of you still like to prepare for dipping on vegetable trays or boil or steam for eating; especially if you cover them with cheese sauce. But please, not for me. While a small child I saw too many.
But back then I remember watching very carefully as Dad packaged up some soil samples into little plastic bags. He then placed the bags into the supplied sturdy little rectangular, brown, pre-addressed cardboard boxes to be sent off to the University of Guelph. Eventually a report came back from the scientists in the University lab. Dad then knew what should be added to those fields so that the crops could thrive. But unfortunately we often do not know what kind of soil, that is, what type of hearts are represented in our Bible groups or camp cabins or Monday night Children’s programs, or even in our next door neighbours.
BEV
I don’t know what made me think of my friend Bev. I told a little of his story late last month at the Bothwell Cemetery Memorial-Decoration Service. Bev is a little older that I am. He has been a family friend for many years and is one of the nicest guys you would ever hope to meet. But Bev, would be the first to admit that back in the beginning he did not look like very good “soil.” When my parents first encountered him, I think it is fair to say that Bev could be fairly described as a little ‘hellion.” He was “trouble on wheels.” And way back in 1950, He decided to attend that first VBS that my parents had ever led. Bev was the type of kid that, if they needed the kids to be quiet, would try to get them all to run around. If they wanted the kids to do constructive crafts…well you know where I am coming from. It wouldn’t happen. It was as if he was the “Calvin & Hobbes” of the Vacation Bible School. Maybe if it was being done today Bev would have been diagnosed as being a bit ‘hyper.” Unfortunately for my parents, way back then, Vacation Bible School was still a two week event. And Bev was there….every day.
But you would never know it today. Along the way something happened in Bev. God’s good seed found a fertile place and began to grow. Bev got a very responsible job with his local County. As a part of his work he used to come over here to Thamesville and purchase culverts. Bev made sure that his County roads were safe for cars and trucks. Eventually Bev also met and married a wonderful lady who would teach piano lessons to one of my sisters. He also became a well loved and respected leader in his local church. But, years before, when he was still just a little kid, if you had asked folks what Bev would amount to, many of them would have just shaken their heads in despair. As “soil,” he was not very promising.
My Mom certainly could not see into the heart of little Bev all those years ago. All she could do was to try to keep planting the seed of Jesus’ love. And fortunately, as she and others continued to do that, somewhere along the way, it “took.” Not right away and certainly not soon enough for my Mother, but it happened.
CONCLUSIONS
This parable should encourage all of us who are spiritual “sowers”—those who teach, preach, and lead others. It could lead us to even more involvement in Camp ministries or reaching out to family members or working within the various other age groupings of our Church programs or reaching out to neighbours. As we do we need to remember that the farmer sowed good seed, but not all the seed sprouted, and even the plants that grew had varying yields. There are so many factors involved with the process of believing in the truth of the gospel…it is a miracle of God’s Holy Spirit as he uses your words to lead others to him. But don’t be discouraged if you do not always see results as you faithfully teach the Word.[1] We are to just continue trying to enthusiastically and generously keep “broadcasting” his wonderfully effective Gospel seed.
[1]Bruce B. Barton, Matthew, Life application Bible commentary (Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers, 1996), 258.