Today, we’re beginning a series on the parables of Jesus, found in Matthew chapter 13, and each week will be looking at a different part of this chapter, and seeing what we can learn about God and his kingdom and his love for us.
Today’s is probably one of the most well known parables but some will be hidden gems that we can so easily overlook.
So we begin this series by asking what’s in a story.
Stories are everywhere all around us.
The incident of the wheat crunchies in Sainsbury’s car park.
I’m gonna share a story which is known as the incident of the wheat crunchies in Sainsbury’s car park.
I want you to picture back to the mid 1980s, it’s a wet Thursday, to be honest I’ve got no idea what day it was, but my mum and I had just completed the weekly shop in the town centre Sainsbury’s. I think I must’ve been about four or five, and I’d been given a treat. I was given a bag of wheat crunches. I’ve got no idea if they still do them but they were amazing. So imagine – mum strapped me into the backseat in my car seat and I’m munching away on my wheat crunchies. It’s a multi-storey car park the inner level so it’s dark.
There’s two sides to the story my mums side and my side. I’m in the car seat crunching the crisps and I can’t see my mum. My mum is not there, it’s been hours, she’s not around. I’m on my own and need to find my mum and I’m strapped in my car seat. I struggle in desperation to escape. My crisps go everywhere. I manage to wrestle myself out of the car seat, climb over into the front seat, open the door and start screaming out “mummy mummy!”. There’s tears, crisps everywhere, carnage, chaos, desperation.
My mum’s point of view- she straps me into the car seat, happy with my crisps, goes to take the trolley back and sees the car and the door and the back seat the whole way. She puts the trolley back, happens to bump into people we know. She has eyes on me the whole time, when she hears me scream, she’s there, comforting me, calming me down.
Why have I told this story? Why are stories told?
We tell stories for a variety of reasons.
This is a funny anecdote.
But actually it was quite significant because I still vividly remember it. I had issues about abandonment as my own Dad left our family.
You could go super spiritual and say that it shows that like my mum had eyes on me the whole time, although I felt abandoned, she was watching over me and that is like God. We may not know his presence or that he is on watch but he is always there.
Sometimes a story is just a story.
But a parable is more than a story and more than a story with a spiritual moral.
What is in a parable?
Jesus often taught in parables, and as we said we’re gonna be looking at seven of these parables in Matthew chapter 13 over the next seven weeks.
What is in a parable?
Firstly What is one? A parable is a form of story telling but it often compares two subjects for the purpose of teaching, so it’s not just a story for stories sake, it’s not even like an allegorical story where every detail in the story has a deep, spiritual significant meaning. Often in the parable, there is one main point, but does often use comparisons to put this point across.
The method of storytelling has massive advantages as a teaching method. It holds attention, enables people to see themselves and while dealing with the well-known it also introduces that extra subtle twist, that fascinates, makes the hearer reflect. It’s a brilliant instrument in skilled hands and Jesus was very skilled.
So Why did Jesus teach in parables?
We’ll dig into that more next week, as in next weeks reading the question is asked and answered. In those passages we see that Jesus told them so that things that have been hidden could be revealed to those who really wanted to see and understand. Our opening verse from Psalm 78 is actually quoted in next weeks reading. It says my people hear my teaching and listen to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth with a parable. I will utter hidden things, things from of old.
A parable reveals something to those that are willing to listen and hear – Jesus says that in verse 9.
So why does Matthew group them all together in this chapter? Chapter 13 of Matthew is almost a halfway mark in the book. After this chapter, Jesus begins the journey from Galilee towards Jerusalem, and ultimately to his death. All these parables are gathered together here by Matthew directing us to hear who Jesus is, what he can do and our need to respond to him.
Jesus has performed miracles, talked about the type of living he has called his followers to live and despite not always being well received Jesus continues to teach those who are willing to hear (v1-3).
One commentator says that these parables are Christo-centric, meaning Jesus centred.
Have you heard that story about a Sunday school teacher who is teaching a bunch of Sunday school kids and they’re having a kind of quiz thing and the teacher goes “so what is small, sometimes grey, sometimes a red big bushy tail, likes climbing trees and often stores nuts away for the winter?”. One child puts their hand up and says, “I know as we’re at church the answer is supposed to be Jesus, but it sounds like a squirrel to me”.
In this case the parables really do point us to Jesus, not to a squirrel, but to Jesus. Matthew has got them all here to kind of re-emphasise that point. To get his hearers thinking about who is Jesus, what has he come to do and what is our response to that?
One commentator says, as people hear them, they are made to see where they stand in relation to the kingdom that he, Jesus, brings in.
The kingdom of God is a mystery, and the response to that mystery is what separates the crowds from the disciples in our chapter this summer and what might separate us from those around us in our community, families or friendship groups.
So whilst all these parables are grouped together in one chapter and they all are pointing us to Jesus, actually, each one has a particular focus, and in the context of the early church, each one is probably speaking to a specific issue, need or question that they were grappling with.
As we explore these parables this summer let’s look at what they meant to the disciples, then, hearing them from Jesus’s mouth and what we can learn today about Jesus, his kingdom and our response to him.
The parable.
So let’s look at the parable. In some bible translations it is called the parable of the sower, and in other bibles, it’s called the parable of the soil.
I think naming this parable the parable of the soil is more helpful in us understanding the point Jesus was making in the telling of this parable.
He begins the parable in v3. We have a farmer and he’s scattering seed. Some of the seed doesn’t even make it to the soil. It falls along the path and birds eat it up, some falls in rocky places, but there’s not much soil and when the sun came out, bright and scorching, the plants withered because there were no deep roots. Nowhere for the plant to develop and grow. The third image is of the seed falling among thorns. The thorns and the seed grow together, but the thorns choke up the plants, and then youv’e got the final image of seed falling on good soil, where there’s a crop that’s 100, 60 or 30 times what was sown.
Then Jesus at the end of the parable in v9 says whoever has ears let them hear. And we then get the interpretation from verses 18 to 23.
The seed is the word of God, proclaimed by the sower of God, and Gods kingdom comes about when the soil and the seed get together, the kingdom begins to come in a life, when the soil receives the seed for itself.
The sower comes bringing precious seed, which can transform the soil. If only the condition of the soil allows that growth.
The seed on the path, the birds eat. Jesus says that that’s like someone who hears the truth about Gods kingdom. He says that the evil one snatches the truth from the hearer , before it goes deep into the hearer’s heart. The second image is there when someone hears the truth about God, receives it with joy, so plants shoot up quickly. Their faith doesn’t have deep roots. Because the soil is rocky and shallow. Jesus says in v 21, when trouble comes, they fall away because there’s no root. The explanation of the seed that grows amongst the thorns as explained in verse 22, the words of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth, choke the word, making it unfruitful. It’s only the final soil that produced fruit from the seed sown and that lasted.
Understanding the truth of who Jesus is results in fruit that multiplies. Fruit produces fruit.
The sower is the same, the seed is the same, the different results depend on the soil. This first parable reflects what was happening in the mission of Jesus and the varied responses. Those who had been opposed to Jesus were like the path, not hearing or understanding, the parable is a mirror. It shows people where they stand. It’s held up to the faces of Jesus hearers and was held up to Matthews readers and it’s held up to us.
What is in this parable for you? For us?
If God is holding up a mirror, what are we seeing reflected back?
What is the mirror showing?
Do we know and understand who Jesus is? Do we need to hear the truth of who Jesus is and allow the seed of faith to grow.
One commentator said that when the seed and the soil meet, boom, the kingdom of God can flourish, but what kind of soil is there for the seed to grow in? Maybe that begins with just knowing who Jesus is and what he’s done for us.
Maybe we’re feeling at the moment that we’re wilting. The world is pressurising us to live the way of the world and not the way of Jesus. Sometime is it easy not to be living in the way of the kingdom, because we are tired, or feel picked on. What can help refresh and revive our faith?.
What are the rocks that we might have to remove from our soil so that we can flourish. Sin can get in the way of us being fruitful. God is a God of mercy and forgiveness.
In the fourth soil fruitfulness is evident and the seed has produced 100, 60 and 30 times what was sown. In my study group, we’ve been looking at fruitfulness and we’ve learned that it’s not just about sharing the truth about Jesus in words that we can bear fruit for Gods kingdom in how we behave, modelling Godly character. How do we represent God in a very nature to our friends and family. Another way of being fruitful was making good work, so in our volunteer roles and in our household chores, in our paid employment, are we doing those things as a way of honouring God being fruitful for him. Another one was being a mouthpiece of truth and justice, living out, Gods kingdom of peace, justice, and love.
Where are you bearing fruit? We may not be aware of it. This parable says that if we’ve heard the message of Jesus, it will bear fruit in our lives.
The final thought, is where might you be called to sow the seed that was first sown in you? Maybe there are things and situations in your life that you are being called to bring God into?
What is God saying to you – where do you stand with Jesus at the moment? If he’s holding up that mirror, where are you in these comparative soils?. Where are you with Jesus right now? Are we feeling wilted and withered, are there rocks in the way stopping us flourishing. Do we feel strangled by the world around us or are we bearing fruit and feeling led to sow?
Let’s pause and reflect on which soil we are and look to be active in order to see fruitfulness and bear fruit for Jesus.
St. George's Church Ramsgate 