Scripture Daily

Context No. 1535 of 4322 · Matthew

Context · Reflection

Matthew 13:16-23: in context

16“But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. 17For most certainly I tell you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which you see, and didn’t see them; and to hear the things which you hear, and didn’t hear them. 18“Hear, then, the parable of the farmer. 19When anyone hears the word of the Kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away that which has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown by the roadside. 20What was sown on the rocky places, this is he who hears the word and immediately with joy receives it; 21yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. 22What was sown among the thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of this age and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23What was sown on the good ground, this is he who hears the word and understands it, who most certainly bears fruit and produces, some one hundred times as much, some sixty, and some thirty.”

Jesus explains the parable of the sower, in which the same seed, the word of the kingdom, falls on four kinds of ground. On the path, it is snatched away before it takes root. On rocky ground, it springs up quickly but withers when trouble comes, having no root. Among thorns, it is choked by the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, and bears no fruit. And on good soil, it takes root and bears fruit, thirty, sixty, a hundredfold. The difference is not in the seed but in the soil that receives it.

The soil worth examining is the third, the thorny ground, because it describes a failure that is quieter and more respectable than the others. The seed on the path is simply snatched away; the seed on rocky ground withers under persecution, a dramatic falling away. But the thorny soil is different: here the word takes root, begins to grow, and then is slowly choked, not by outright rejection or by persecution, but by the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, until it bears no fruit. This is the failure of the respectable, the busy, the comfortable. Nothing dramatic happens; the person does not renounce the faith or fall away under pressure. The word is simply crowded out, gradually, by anxieties and by the lure of wealth, until it is choked and unfruitful. It is a slow strangulation rather than a sudden death, and it is a very common way the word comes to nothing in lives that once received it gladly. The cares of this life, the endless worries and busyness, and the deceitfulness of riches, the lie that wealth will satisfy, grow up around the word like thorns and choke it. There is a searching self-examination in this. We may not be the path or the rocky ground; but many of us are in danger of the thorns, letting the word we once received be gradually choked by our anxieties and our pursuit of more, until it bears no fruit. The question the parable puts is which soil we are, and for many the honest and uncomfortable answer is the thorns.

Which soil am I, and is the word that took root in me being slowly choked by the cares of this life and the deceitfulness of riches, my anxieties and my pursuit of more crowding it out until it bears no fruit, in the quiet, respectable failure of the thorny ground?

Sources