“Have I got a story for you!”  I used this exclamation as I greeted my first grade students each morning as they filed into class.  It put a smile on their faces because they knew I would follow through with a story that would make them giggle as they learned.  This teaching technique was given to those who love to teach by Jesus, the Master Teacher.  Jesus loved to tell stories or parables from real, relatable life that paralleled what his “students” needed to know about living a Kingdom of God life.

So, “what do you make of this?”  We begin a series of stories that will relate to us as we also learn to live Kingdom of God thinking and behaving!

Matthew 13, The Message

A Harvest Story

^1-3 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.

^3-8 “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

⁹ “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

Jesus left one place of ministry for another—the beach!  But He wasn’t there long before a crowd gathered.  Truth delivered with real love draws people.  “There’s just something about him…” we can almost hear them say.  Jesus, as Son of Man sits on the beach to collect Himself after a full day of preaching.  But Jesus, Son of God will not miss an opportunity to tell a listening crowd who God is with how to love God back.  So, Jesus tells a story (parable) about a farmer that explains the importance of planting seed—another relatable way to reach a world full of people who God loves and wants to save.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

Jesus also taught Kingdom of God perspectives through parables in order to clear up wrong ideas. Many explanations in the Gospels show that the kingdom of heaven (or kingdom of God) means we must recognize God’s authority and work to do his will.

The crowd knew the backbreaking task of planting seeds for harvest!  They knew that even though every seed would not produce, as Jesus pointed out, you still plant the seeds and pray for enough harvest to support your family, right?  You pray for rain and trust God for the harvest.  If you have ever got down and dirty in the soil to plant seed in the hot sun and then waited and watched over what you have planted while chasing the birds away from your crop of seeds, you get it! 

But, “are you listening, really listening?” says Jesus.  In other words, are you listening to what I am really saying to you right now?  Do you understand the meaning behind the story?  Do you realize what I’m saying about planting seeds of salvation in the lives of those who need to hear it? 

Some seeds of the knowledge of God sown will take root in the hearts, minds and souls of hungry souls and grow in Kingdom thinking.  But some seeds sown will be tossed aside, eaten up, or blown away by a people easily distracted and eventually destroyed by the enemy who does not want the world to be saved by God. 

Sow the seeds anyway.  Let God do the rest!

“Don’t we need a reminder today? We, at times, fear the smallness of Jesus’ story. Our fears might keep us from seed sowing. Can this Sunday school account of Jesus hold its own in the Ivy League of the world? Do terms like sin, salvation, and redemption stand a chance in this sophisticated day of humanism and relativism?

Apparently they do! Where are the Romans who crucified Christ? The Epicureans who demeaned and debated Paul? The Gnostics who mocked the early church? And the great temples of Corinth? They dwarfed the infant church. Do worshipers still sacrifice to Zeus?  No, but they still sing to Jesus.

God does uncommon works through common deeds.”  (Excerpt from Max Lucado’s Study Bible)

Lord,

Thank you for the reminder to keep sowing the gospel seeds to hungry and thirsty souls.  Thank you for your stories that explain simply what pleases God most as we live as Kingdom thinkers.  May our lives today reflect the beauty of living redeemed and free in the unforced rhythms of your grace. Thank you for saving my soul.  Thank you for all the people who planted your seeds of salvation in my life!  May we retell your stories for your glory so that many more souls would not perish but have eternal life, too!

In Jesus Name, Amen

But wait!  There’s more to this story…tomorrow!