Sun 4 Feb

“A Sower went out to sow.” 

Jesus loved to tell stories. They were in the form of a parable – better known as a story with a hidden meaning. So hidden in fact that the followers of Jesus had to ask what the story meant. While there are parables in the Old Testament most of them are found in the gospels, where Jesus told many stories to get a point a cross to His disciples. 

One of the first parables Jesus told was about a farmer who went out to sow his crop. Israel was largely an agricultural economy. Many of the stories reflected the farming practices of the day. It would not surprise us that one of the stories concerns a farmer sowing his crop. He typically scattered the seed by hand, and waited for the rains to come. There was the added challenge that the soil was not quite right. 

Jesus’ story reflected the soil. It was either too hard or too rocky or too weedy, and perhaps just right. At the disciples request, Jesus explained the reasons behind the use of the story. The story reflected people’s responses to the good news of the kingdom. Which soil are you? What is your response to the good news of the kingdom?