The world. AKA the soil.
The world. AKA the soil.
Jesus begins to talk to the crowd in parables, short stories with a point involving something that the listeners would be familiar with. Jesus starts with the parable of the sower. The sower began to walk up and down the prepared field and he began to spread the seed onto the ground. Some seed was too light and he threw it too far and it landed on the path and people began to walk on it. Some seed fell beside the path where the rocks were put to separate the field from the path. Some seeds fell closer to his feet on the part of the field that the plowers did not get close to the rocks so that they would not hurt their plows. Most seed found its home at his feet in the good soil that was plowed and ready.
The seed that fell among the path never had a chance. It was crushed by the travelers and eaten by the birds. The seed among the rocks also had no chance because there would be no nutrition found on the rocks and no soil to retain moisture to keep them alive during the heat of the day. The seeds in the weeds between the rocks and the plowed ground had a good chance to grow but would have no chance of being harvested with the others. But they would be available to the foreigners and the unclean to gather. But the seed that was sown in the plowed ground would have the biggest chance of being harvested.
“When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident; I am Yahweh your God.”
Leviticus 19:9-10 HCSB
How are we doing at sowing your seed, the word of God? Are we walking on the path because we do not want to get our feet dirty from the plowed ground? Have we stepped out onto the rocks? Be careful for we might sprain our ankle walking on that uneven ground. Are we walking among the weeds to sow our seed? Be careful for there are ticks, thorns, and briers waiting to harm us. Are we walking among the plowed ground, where someone else has down the work to prep the soil for the Word of God to be received? Here is where we must walk to sow the most seed to yield the best harvest.
Jesus said, “Don’t give what is holy to dogs or toss your pearls before pigs, or they will trample them with their feet, turn, and tear you to pieces.”
A good example of someone throwing their pearls before swine or casting their seed on the path is to enter into an argument unprepared. The other person has their belief set and without a well-planned argument, we will lose. In those cases, we must stop and pray that the Holy Spirit will give us the proper reasoning to counter their questions.
But for the most part, if we are ready with the word of God, then we will be able to cast it out to people ready to hear it.
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