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Thaddeus remembers…

The lads and I have been remembering some of the stories Jesus told us recently; all on an agricultural theme.

He has a knack for seeing deep things in the most common things of life, does Jesus.  Like the fields we so often walk, on well-trodden paths through the corn.  At the moment these fields are ripe and ready to harvest.  The ears of corn full of good seed.  But it won’t be long before the farmer is back in the ploughed field with his huge sack, sowing the seeds once again.

‘Think about that farmer’ Jesus said, ‘how he sows the seed liberally, casting it far and wide. A lot of that seed will come to nothing. Some of it will inevitably fall on the path, to be trodden on by you lot, or scooped up by the birds as soon as the farmer moves on.  Some will fall on stony ground, where it can’t get a root down, so any growth will soon wither.  And again, more will fall in patches where the weeds grow, quickly strangling the life out of the young shoots.  But some’, he said, holding up a full and freshly plucked ear in his hand, ‘will fall on good soil and grow to produce a harvest…sometimes a bumper one too!’ 

I chuckled with the lads as I remembered Jesus, so dead pan, as he twisted that corn head in his fingers and said: ’Listen, then, if you have ears!’ 

Judas, naturally, was more serious in his reflection.  Typical of an accountant, he thought the Sower should have been more efficient and less wasteful.  He and Simon spent some time together devising methods to ensure that the seed was given only to the good soil that deserved it.  But that wasn’t the point, was it?  Jesus was telling us about people’s responses to his teaching.  He offers the truth openly and widely, but not all will accept it. 

We’ve already encountered a hard and stony rejection by some.  His message just bounced off them and that was that.  We’ve also seen a lot of enthusiasm as the crowds come, hungry for this new teaching.  But we’ve seen them dropping off too; cooling to his message when it gets challenging, or distracted by every day cares and duties.  How many will stay the course, I wonder, becoming well rooted in his truth and love, going on to produce a rich harvest themselves?   I think Jesus was warning us not to get too carried away with our apparent initial success.  Maybe also encouraging us not to get too down-hearted at the rejection.  People will respond in all kinds of ways and for all kinds of reasons.  That’s human nature for you.

Personally, I find it hard to understand why some who are so close will eventually turn away.  I hope I never become one of them!   Then again, it’s easy to understand, at any given point in time, why some will be more able to receive the truth than others.   That’s human nature, isn’t it?  And perhaps that’s why Jesus will explain things in depth to us in private, while simply telling the crowd a story or two in the hope that some seed will take!

Anyway, Bart remembered another story Jesus told to encourage us.  Jesus spoke of the farmer who sows the seed and waters it, but then what does he do?  Nothing!  He might as well stay in bed, for all the difference it makes; this part is not up to him!   Yet, hidden beneath the surface, a whole lot is going on. First the roots go down and then suddenly, without the farmers help, out pops the shoot all by itself!  Seeds don’t need a midwife to pull them out of the womb of the earth.  All the farmer has to do is wait until it’s time to get his sickle out at harvest time again.  The rest is God’s work.  And God is surely at work, even when we can’t see it clearly for ourselves!  We’ve just got to be trusting and patient (However hard that may be!)

Then Thomas chipped in: ‘Do you remember that other one Jesus told us to show just how much God can do when we can’t see very much at all?  He said the Kingdom is like a tiny mustard seed but, when it is planted, it grows to become a great big tree, with magnificent branches providing shade for the birds to come and rest in.’ 

‘Good job they didn’t eat that seed, then!’ Bart laughed in reply.

Now, Jesus has told us so many parables, and he seems to know instinctively when to use them so that his listeners can catch his meaning.  Some people think he uses these stories like coded messages, with hidden details revealed only to the few ‘in the know’.  That’s just not true!  Jesus blatantly longs for everyone to see and understand, and he certainly doesn’t talk in hidden riddles.  ‘What is hidden is meant to be brought out into the open’, he says.  What’s more, he pointed out how ridiculous it would be if someone lit a lamp and then hid it away under a bowl or under the bed.  You put it on a lamp stand for everyone to see, don’t you?!  Jesus is not in the business of trying to hide the light!

But he does understand, and has explained it to us, that it is beyond some people to take all this in right now.  They just don’t ‘get it’ yet.  So, he’ll give them titbits to help them along the way, each carefully measured with the individual person in mind.  When they are ready for more, he’ll certainly be ready to give it!

And, there is always more than we are ready to take in.   How important it is, then, to think deeply about what we have heard.  And when we have ‘got it’, then that will surely lead on to us ‘getting’ some more.  There will always be new seed ideas ready to germinate and grow.  But if we have not ‘got it’ in the first place, surely, everything will be lost on us.  How terrible to be like sterile soil, where nothing ever grows!

So, I say this seriously this time, as Jesus did too:  if you have ears, then listen!