“If You Plant It, It Will Grow”

Text: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered about Him, so that He got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And He told them many things in parables.” Matthew chapter 13 is such an interesting bit of Scripture. In it Jesus teaches the crowds on the shore from a boat, presumably with a few of His disciples ensuring that He’s positioned where the people on the beach can see and hear the perplexing things He’s saying. But it’s not the setting that makes this Scripture so interesting. It’s the content. Over the next three weeks we’ll hear 5 of the seven parables that Jesus uses to teach about the kingdom of heaven. Today we focus on the familiar words of the Parable of the Sower.

Most people fall into the category of pessimist or optimist. Few of us find ourselves straddling the line between the two. And I think planting a field or a garden shows one’s tendencies. Because the simple act of planting is an act of optimism. Even though the exercise tests our patience and our spirit, simply scattering the seed shows that there’s an optimism that something good will happen. Why plant the seed if nothing is going to result because of birds or bunnies, insects or weeds, drought or other bad weather? A good farmer or an avid gardener lives in the confident hope of a rewarding harvest. Knowing that not every seed will produce, but enough will to make it all worthwhile. A good farmer lives by the optimistic motto that

IF YOU PLANT IT, IT WILL GROW.

          With this text showing up in the heart of summer, during the week of the Major League All-Star break, and in the stretch run for all our youth baseball leagues, I couldn’t help but think about the film Field of Dreams. One of the strongest themes in that movie is “If you build it, they will come.” Despite all the odds being against him, Kevin Costner listens to the voices he hears, and builds a baseball diamond in the middle of an Iowa cornfield. His hope is that players from the past will come there to play ball.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus compares sharing God’s Word to planting a field. In the parable He explains the realities of spreading seed for this purpose, which includes quite a bit of failure, and yet He calls us to faith and to action. Faith and action that shares the optimism to go out and spread the seed of His Word, confident that “If you plant it, it will grow.” That growth might not always look exactly how we envision it. My tomatoes are never going to look like the ones that are grown across the street from me, but God-willing they’ll help to feed my family. Each of our growth will be different, but ultimately our goal is to grow in faith that produces the fruit of the Spirit. And that includes the desire to ourselves be planters of the seed of God’s Word.

One of the messages in this parable of Jesus is that there is reason for us to recklessly sow seed in all places, despite our knowledge or understanding of how they might take root and grow there. God has reasons for that seed to be spread that are beyond our comprehension. As we heard from Isaiah, ”so shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” The difficult thing for us is that we’re not always sure what God’s trying to accomplish with the sowing of His seed. And it can be frustrating, when to our human eyes, it seems that the seed we sow isn’t accomplishing much, if anything at all. But God doesn’t lie, and if He says there’s a purpose, then there’s a purpose.

“And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them.” If the soil of the heart and of the mind hasn’t been cultivated then it’s possible that that seed is going to fall on the surface, unable to penetrate the hard exterior, and be gone before it’s ever able to take root. Jesus does something in this teaching that He rarely does. He explains the parable to the gathered crowd. He knows that the teaching is hard and that it needs some further explanation in order to make sense to them. And to us. Because a good farmer is concerned about every seed and doing whatever they can not to waste them in a place that they’re unlikely to produce. This thinking, in the practical sense, comes from a prudent business mindset. There’s only so much seed to go around, so why spread it where it’s unlikely to grow. But when applied to the Word of God, this comes from a scarcity mindset. A belief that there’s only so much seed to go around, so we better use our resources where they’re most likely to result in a convert, or a new member to the church, or the joyful event of the baptism of a baby, as we witnessed this morning. What we tend to forget is that with God, there is no lack of seed. We can scatter everything that He’s given to us and then turn around and there’s an abundance left to scatter again. Even if only one in a hundred, or a thousand, or a million of those seeds that fall on the hardened path takes root, to God and to us, it’s worth it. Even though we know the devil is prowling, and like the bird on the hardened path, is looking to devour the seeds we spread, when enough are thrown out there, there will be some that escape his grasp.

“Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away.” We used to joke in Connecticut that the best growing crop in the whole state was rocks. And I’ve heard many of you talk about your childhood job of walking the field and picking stones. It seems that no matter how good the surface of the soil might look there’s always rocks just below the surface ready to poke through as the next rain raises them up. Or as the tiller comes through to loosen the soil. In rocky ground, as Jesus points out, the seed will quickly sprout, but never be able to take root because of the rocks just below the surface. And with no roots, the sun will easily scorch the plant that isn’t being fed like it should.

Faith is a simple thing. Just believe in Christ and the work He’s done for you on a cross. But it’s also a bit tricky. There are times when that faith thrives. It has strong roots. It’s being fed by the Word of God and the fellowship of believers and it’s strong. And other times where the rocks just below the surface cause that faith to wane. The heat of the day blazes down on us, expressing itself in the troubles of the world; sickness, despair, grief, addiction, and so many other things. It’s when we recognize all the rocks in our soil that we can lean on the One who cares for us to help us remove those rocks and allow the roots of faith to grow strong to withstand the heat of the day. The One who is willing to bear all our burdens is also the only One who can remove the obstacles to our life of abundant faith. Jesus is the One who takes away every one of our sins, cares, and worries through His sacrifice for us.

Sometimes we think about this parable and teach it as though there is nothing we can do about the soils that hinder the growth of God’s seed. Yet, Scripture shows us, through many examples, that by the grace of God, rocky soil can become fertile soil. Hearts hardened to the Gospel can become soft and receptive. And the opposite is also true. Apart from God fertile soil becomes rocky soil where faith dies. We’ve all had the friend or relative who has fallen away from the church. Perhaps there are some rocks that have grown up there that are hindering the growth of God’s Word and of faith. There are certainly places in this world where the best growing crop is rocks. And I don’t mean Connecticut. The hearts and minds of those who have turned away from God’s Word become breeding grounds for the rocks that hinder growth. Perhaps God is calling you to be a part of His plan to pick those stones where they seem to flourish so that His Word might take root.

“Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.” Why does it seem that the things we don’t want to grow in our garden are the very things that flourish, while our desired plants are the ones that struggle? We’ll focus on this particular problem next week as we discuss the Parable of the Weeds, but for now it’s sufficient to say that it’s the age old struggle with sin that causes that which we don’t desire to be the very things that we struggle with. Adam and Eve faced it. Paul lamented it at length. And everyone over the course of history has dealt with the weeds that threaten and kill what we would really like to have growing in our lives.

“Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” This is the harvest that we expect when we plant the seed. This is where the optimistic gardener gets to see the fruit of his labors. But even when the harvest is gathered it’s uncertain whether the crop will produce a hundredfold, or sixty, or thirty. There are too many factors beyond our control. Which to some is a difficult pill to swallow. And for others, it’s the beauty of the Gospel. It’s out of our control. “[Paul] planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.” God is going to use every seed that’s planted according to His purpose. The purpose of some seeds may be to feed the birds. Or to make it clear where the devil is prowling. Or to begin to soften the soil. Or give us an opportunity to identify and remove rocks in our own lives or the lives of others. And we might never know the result of the seed we’re privileged to scatter. What we do know is that there is always more seed. And there will always be ground on which to scatter it. Be optimistic about what God is going to do with the seed He allows you to plant in this world.

And even though planting a field or a garden can be frustrating and can test your patience and resolve you don’t do it without the optimism that “if you pant it, it will grow.” The result may not always look like what we intended, but will be exactly what God ordained. The One who is in control of all things promises that as we plant the seeds of His Word, He will not allow them to return empty. They will accomplish exactly what He purposes them for. And they will succeed in the thing for which they were sent. It might be hard to see as there will be losses. Like in your garden where insects and rabbits and weather are a constant threat, the devil will plunder and worries may destroy, but the harvest is certain. The truth is that when you plant God’s Word, it will grow, exactly as He desires it to. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.