This Sunday we continue our series about the seed, the sower and the soil.
What is the effect of true hearing and true seeing? In a spiritual sense it means to understand the words of Christ in our hearts, to repent and be healed from sin.
The people symbolized by the seed that had fallen on rocky soil lacked such “stick-to-itiveness”. They never took to heart the examples of Stephen and Paul. The word “loyalty” was not in their vocabulary. Their confessions did not spring from inner conviction (they had “no root”), they failed to consider that true discipleship implies self-surrender, self-denial, sacrifice, service, and suffering. They ignored the fact that it is the way of the cross that leads home.
The people symbolized by the seed that had fallen on thorny soil stood with their spiritual feet in two worlds: following Jesus, and trying to chase after the things of the world. Like Demas they in the end can’t serve two gods and lose everything.
What the farmer wants when he sows the seed is a crop, not green paddocks.
Be careful how you listen!
Ultimate Standards 