| September 1, 2020 -- A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, 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.
(Matthew 13:4-8)
(….) The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
(Matthew 13: 22)
The parable of the sower and the seed is familiar to most of us, and thousands of sermons have been preached on this parable. I want to focus on one small part, the seed that fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Jesus’ explanation of this is given in verse 22, quoted above. Jesus lists two different distractions that keep us from properly responding to God’s word. First are the worries of this life. I suspect that for most of us this is the main problem. We become so distracted by not only distress and trouble but also the need to make decisions [or more precisely our feeling that we need to make decisions], that we focus almost entirely on this world, forgetting almost entirely about heavenly things and those things which God wants us to do. We forget to love God with all our heart; we forget to love our neighbor as our- selves. We even forget to pray.
As for the “deceitfulness of wealth”, I believe it is not the wealth itself which is the problem, but what we do with it, especially our possessions. We are far too much distracted by our cell phones, our television, our com- puters, our cars. If we have a large house and yard, we are distracted by keeping up the house and tending the yard. All this contributes to forgetting the Lord and his commandments. Remember when Jesus told the rich young man “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” When the young man heard this, he went away in sorrow, because he had many possessions. |
