By
Allen White
That same day Jesus went out of the house
and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a
boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them
many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was
scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it
up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up
quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants
were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell
among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on
good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Whoever has ears, let them hear.”
The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do
you speak to the people in parables?”
He replied, “Because the knowledge of the
secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.
Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does
not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to
them in parables: “Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not
hear or understand. Matthew 13:1-13
Why did the
disciples receive the secrets of the kingdom, but not the crowd? The disciples
asked. The crowd didn’t.
The crowd heard an
interesting story and went home. The disciples stayed and asked. Jesus gave
them the kingdom. The crowd didn’t get it. The disciples would end up with
abundance. The crowd would be left with scarcity.
The crowd didn’t
hear or understand. We might think, “That’s unfair.” Let me remind you, we
don’t want fair when it comes to spiritual things. Fair means we are punished
for all of our sins. Grace blows fairness off the map. Grace is undeserved. We
need what we don’t deserve. We don’t need fair.
The crowd could
have heard and understood, if they had stayed. They heard Jesus’ introduction,
but they left before the points were made. Maybe they were confused. Maybe they
weren’t interested. Maybe they had places to go.
Jesus wasn’t being
exclusive as much as He was efficient. He taught the interested learners. Jesus
didn’t case His pearls before swine (Matthew 7:6). Just like He instructed the disciples to
find the man of peace (read more here), Jesus wasn’t pulling the unripe fruit
from the tree.
We have a choice
with God and His Church – we can be part of the crowd or we can be disciples.
We can take the message at face value or we can dig for its meaning for our
lives. We can run out the door or we can stick around and build relationships.
Better yet, we can get in a group where we have the time and space in our lives
to see how God’s Word applies to us.
If you’re familiar
with this chapter in Matthew’s Gospel, you know that in a couple of days we
will get to the Jesus’ explanation of the parable. You and I understand what
Jesus was talking about in the parable of the sower. We understand because the
disciples stuck around to ask the question.
What do you need to
ask? What are you just assuming? What do you know? What do you lack? How do you
get what you need?
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