Remember back when you were in first, or maybe second grade, perhaps around six or seven years old, and your teacher had all the students grow a plant in a paper cup filled with dirt? She gave each student a seed, often a bean seed, and you filled your little paper cup with potting soil, placing the seed carefully deep into the dirt. You added some water, and then placed the cup with all the others, lined up on the windowsill in the classroom. Each morning when you came into class you would run over to inspect your cup, looking to see if anything was growing yet. The teacher would always have to admonish some children not to dig into the dirt to see what was happening with the seed, and why several days were passing, yet nothing seemed to be growing. How happy you were when you first saw a little green sprout starting to grow up through the soil! In our Gospel passage for this week we read a parable that Jesus told about a growing seed. Let’s take a look, and see what we can learn.
Early in His ministry, Jesus told a parable to the disciples and crowds that had gathered about seeds, and how a farmer plants a crop, but doesn’t really know or understand exactly how the seed grows into the plant. Back as that young child in school, when I placed my seed into the dirt, I didn’t know or understand how that seed would become the plant that later grew. The seed looked nothing like the plant. The seed seemed dead, but when it started growing, that plant was definitely alive. Now, over 55 years later, I still don’t understand or know exactly how a seed grows into a plant. We know it needs soil, water, and sunlight, but as Jesus said, we don’t know how it happens (vs. 26-27).
The Bible compares the mysterious growth of a seed into a plant to that of believers coming to faith in Jesus, to the growth of the Kingdom of God. We don’t know how or when a seed that we’ve planted will take root and grow. It is a miracle of life and growth that the Lord God gives over and over again each and every year, all around the world. Neither do we know how or when someone will come to faith in Jesus. The seed of God’s Word is planted into hearts all over the world through reading of the Bible, hearing a biblically based message, or reading a Gospel tract. We pray that the message will take root, and that the person comes to faith.
Just as a farmer places the seeds into the soil, so we must also plant the truth of Jesus into souls. Like the farmer, who trusts in unseen growth, we, too, must trust in God’s work in the souls of those we witness to. We, as believers, have a responsibility to spread the Gospel. We are not to just hold on to the seed, the message. If, as a little child, I had held on to that seed and refused to plant it into the cup, I never would have grown a plant. If we don’t tell others about Jesus, “planting” the Gospel message, souls will not get saved.
When I planted that bean seed into the paper cup back when I was six, I remember eagerly checking it every day. For several days it seemed that all I had was a cup of dirt. It took several days to sprout. It didn’t happen immediately, but with patience, I finally saw the sprout coming up. Sometimes it takes a while before someone turns to the Lord Jesus, and accepts Him as their Savior. Occasionally someone will get saved the very first time they hear the Gospel, but often it happens later, sometimes days, weeks, or even years later. When the Gospel is presented to an open heart, the Word of God works in that heart, sometimes slowly, until the time God reaps a harvest in that individual, and they get saved.
Then, after they are saved, it takes time for spiritual growth to occur. No one is a Bible scholar the day after they are saved. Spiritual growth is a continual, gradual process that culminates in a harvest of spiritual maturity. God causes the Gospel to bear fruit, and His kingdom to grow. The Word, if properly sown, will have its proper effect. The same is true of the Church (vs. 30-32). It started very small and seemingly insignificant, but it grew worldwide, having a global impact.
How about you? Are you ready to plant your seeds? God, like my teacher many years ago, has given each of us the seed of the Gospel to plant into the hearts of the lost all around us. Let’s go out and plant those seeds, and reap a harvest for the Lord.
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