Don’t we just hate it when Jesus takes away a perfectly good excuse? After all, is it not much more convenient and comforting to blame someone or something rather than accept responsibility?
If we dare ingest straight medicine, consider Jesus’ all-too-personal parable about growing plants. Jesus told a story about a sower spreading seed. Through this parable we discover we cannot blame a non-existent, sickly or dying spirituality upon the leadership of a church, the preacher or a Bible school teacher. Where God’s word had produced nothing within some, that same word had flourished in others!
Why the difference? The hard-to-hear message is one of personal responsibility.
Jesus’ parable reveals the state of a person’s heart makes the difference between spiritual growth producing a harvest verses being spiritually stunted or dead. Call it whatever you like, when where people don’t give God’s word the time of day, a spiritual life does not germinate. Or a diseased spirituality exists when there is more concern over fun, bills, and other life pressure than allowing God’s word to shape thinking, habits and lifestyle. Similarly, spiritual decay occurs when avoiding persecution or trouble takes precedence over God’s word.
For those who want to understand, Jesus’ Parable of the Sower is a story calling us to allow God’s word to penetrate deep into our hearts transforming and producing its effects in our lives. Good soil produces a harvest.
I’m not concerned about Jesus stepping on my toes or on the toes of others. Good soil understands that being uncomfortable before God’s word presents an opportunity to change and grow.Â
What I’m concerned about is the person who simply doesn’t care, who understands but erects defensive or aggressive responses to Jesus’ parable. Such is not the behavior of growth.
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