The Sower and the Seed
Today’s reading is from Luke 8:-15 where people are coming from everywhere to hear what Jesus has to say and I am sure to see him perform miracles. It is more though about listening. Here Jesus uses a parable with four conditions of people in their lives. Later his disciples ask him about the parable and he reveals to them the meaning of the parable. At the end of the parable, Jesus says, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
Listening is not the same as hearing, but we have to first hear in order to listen. Hearing something does not mean we come to understand it, but if we are truly listening, then later we reflect asking ourselves what something really means and reflecting upon how to live it out in life. Jesus deeply cares about each of us and wants us to gain heaven. That is why he came, to tell us what God is like and to die on a cross to save us from our sinful ways.
In the first condition, people may initially hear God, but they reject it outright. In the second condition, people may have heard what was said, but they don’t prepare their hearts to receive it, so it is like rocky ground and never takes root. In the third condition, the worries of life and temptations in this life choke off what is heard. People may have tried to listen and start living it out, but life is too hard and they give into the many temptations this world throws at them. In the final condition, a person has cultivated their heart and mind to truly listen and so, that word bears mature fruit.
We have many examples in life to show this to us when we look at agriculture. You may have seen fields with crops that are either drowned by laying in water or dried up because they did not have enough water and the sun beat down on them drying them up. When one looks at them, they see the crop is partly grown or shriveled up. We also see the example of vines that grow and wrap around a crop choking it, so that it never fully grows or even dies. Finally we can see fields where the ground was tilled, seed sown and cultivated where the crop has grown and the yield is large.
Jesus is asking us to hear what he says and then to listen, to allow our hearts to be tilled and cultivated, so we live out what he is saying. In James 1:22-25 God says, “Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deluding yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his own face in a mirror. He sees himself, then goes off and promptly forgets what he looked like.” Again, the difference of hearing and listening. Unless we cultivate reflecting upon God’s word, we will quickly forget what God says.
We might think this is impossible for anyone to live a life this way with all of the burdens and trials one goes through in this life. It is not, if we will turn to God. “For human beings this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26 Here in Ohio, a part of this scripture came to be our state’s motto “With God All Things are Possible”. Through a contest sponsored by the state for its motto, it was recommended by a 12-year-old boy on October 1, 1959 who had listened to God and got his state to also listen. His name was James Mastronardo.
My encouragement for all is to hear what Jesus has to say and then listen with your heart and mind asking him to show you what God is like and what he wants for your life. If you open your heart and mind to do that, God will guide you and you will be changed forever. I hope you consider the same thing when you talk with others. Are you just hearing them or truly listening to what they have to say. Our world would be a much better place, if we gave people a little bit of our time and truly listened to them.