OT XV [A]: Is 55:10-11; Rom 8:18-23; Mt  13:1-23

Jesus taught the good news for three years. The message of Jesus penetrated the heart of each of his listeners because he spoke with tenderness using the vocabulary of the common man. In order to make himself understood more easily he made abundant use of comparisons which he took from the everyday life of the people.

In his parable of the sower, Jesus uses four different soil-types to represent four separate responses people can give to God's saving word. The word “parable” comes from the Greek word parabole, which means putting two things side by side in order to confront or compare them.  And that is exactly how Jesus uses parables:  He places a simile from life or nature against the abstract idea of the reign of God. Jesus’ parable of the seed sown in various soil types was an attempt to boost the morale of his frustrated disciples. They were upset and discouraged because they realized that their master was facing opposition and hostility from the scribes, Pharisees and priests. The synagogues refused to admit him to preach. So Jesus had to go to beaches and hillsides. Some of the Pharisees were planning to trap him, and the common people were more interested in his ability to heal them than in his preaching.  Using the parable of the sower in today’s Gospel, Jesus assured his confused disciples that the “Good News” he preached would produce the intended effect in spite of opposition and controversy. In fact, each one of us may display all four different types of soil at various times in our personal lives. Some time the seed or the word may remain dormant for some time before it produces the intended fruit.

Fred Craddock tells a story about the time he got a phone call from a woman whose father had died. She had been a teenager in one of the churches he had served as pastor twenty years before, and he would have sworn that if there was ever a person who never heard a word he said, that teenage girl was it. She was always giggling with her friends in the balcony, passing notes to boys, drawing pictures on the bulletin. But when her father died, she looked up her old pastor, the Rev. Fred Craddock, and gave him a call. "I don't know if you remember me," she started. Oh, yes, he remembered. "When my daddy died, I thought I was going to come apart," she continued. "I cried and cried and cried. I didn't know what to do. But then I remembered something you said in one of your sermons . . ." And Fred Craddock was stunned. She had remembered something he had said in one of his sermons?! It was proof enough to him that you can never tell how the seed will fall or where it might take root.

The parable of the sower challenges us to see how deeply the word of God has taken root in our lives, how central God is to the very fabric of our day-to-day life. 

Good soil represents the company of the committed people who are determined to serve Christ to the best of their abilities, people who are willing to make whatever sacrifices are necessary to see Christ's kingdom come, people who by their work and their witness bear fruit that does not perish. What kind of soil am I?

There has been a person who offered the best soil to God’s Word at all times. That is Mary, the mother of Jesus. She is the perfect model as to how we should listen to the Word of God. Luke says, “Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart.” (Lk 2:19)

She is also the perfect model of obedience to God’s word.  She submitted herself to the word of God and declared:  “I am the handmaid of the Lord let it be to me according to your word” (Lk 1:38).

She also commanded others to follow the words of Jesus. “Do whatever he tells you.”(Jn2:5).

How do we respond to the Word of God and to the various Acts of God in our lives? The real hearer of the word has an open mind; he is prepared to listen; he understands; and finally he translates his hearing into action.

Do we allow the trials and tribulations of this world to overwhelm the tender seed growing within us?  Do we pull back when people harass us because we are believers?  Do we decide, because things are not working out the way we think they ought, that God doesn't care for us, or that He is powerless, weak and not to be heeded? Lets’ keep the soil of our hearts loose and fertile so that the word of God may take root and bring a 100 fold fruit.