Anxiety: How the Kingdom Meets Us in Our Mess

Part 4: The Value in Listening

A farmer is out scattering seeds. Seeds fall along the path as well as the rocky, thorny, and good soil. In the parable, the farmer is God, the seeds are the good news of the kingdom, and we are the soil. Often this is taught with the message that we should strive to be the good soil where the harvest grows. And while this is true, we want to be good soil, that is not the primary objective of the parable. Jesus begins the story by saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed” (Matthew 13:3b). Jesus emphasizes the farmer, not the soil. So how does our understanding of the story change when our primary focus is on the nature of the farmer, not the nature of the soil? The farmer’s seeds end up in many places where seeds can’t grow. So either he is a terrible farmer or knows precisely what he is doing. Spoiler – he knows what he is doing. We learn that no matter who you are, what you have done, or how far you feel from God, God has not given up on you or passed you by because he is like a farmer who ensures that every type of soil gets seed.