Sunday’s Gospel reading within the Anglican Book of Common Prayer describes the form of person every professing Christian should aspire to be.
The passage for the second Sunday before Lent is Luke’s version of Jesus’s Parable of the Sower. Spoken to a big crowd during his Galilean ministry, it also features within the Gospels of Matthew and Mark:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the trail; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it got here up, the plants withered because they’d no moisture. Other seed fell amongst thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It got here up and yielded a crop, 100 times greater than was sown” (Luke 8v5-8a – New International Version).
Explaining the meaning of the parable to his disciples, Jesus said:
“The seed is the word of God. Those along the trail are those who hear, after which the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, in order that they might not consider and be saved. Those on the rocky ground are those who receive the word with joy after they hear it, but they haven’t any root. They consider for some time, but within the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell amongst thorns stands for individuals who hear, but as they go on their way they’re choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and so they don’t mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (Luke 8v11b-15).
The parable presents 4 sorts of individuals in the way in which that they reply to the message of everlasting salvation from sin and divine judgement through faith in Jesus Christ.
The first kind, represented by the bottom on the trail between fields, hears the word of God but immediately the devil comes and takes away the message from their heart.
The parable just isn’t teaching that the person just isn’t liable for their immediate rejection of the Christian message. They hear the proclamation of divine forgiveness but they collude with Satan’s riot against God by continuing in their very own riot, as evidenced by their refusal to just accept the word of the Lord.
The second kind, represented by the rocky ground, initially receives the Christian message positively, but they’re unable to place down spiritual roots. They consider for some time but after they find that their career of Christian faith causes them difficulties in life, they abandon it.
The third kind, represented by the thorny ground, doesn’t so suddenly turn away from Christianity. This person appears to go on within the Christian life but eventually their commitment is choked out by the pull of this world in materialism and hedonism.
But the fourth kind, represented by the fertile soil, proves to be an everlasting Christian: “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.”
To give a profile of such an individual from parish life: a teenage girl was invited by a friend to the church’s youth group. She met a friendly peer group who, though not without their faults, were sincere about their Christianity and were kind and forgiving in a way that her school peers weren’t.
She heard the Christian message clearly explained in youth meetings and church services and she or he professed the religion. She continued as a Christian into young maturity and married a Christian man whom she met on the church. They had children whom they sought to bring up in the religion.
Throughout her days, which weren’t without their trials and tribulations, she lived out her faith in her personal inner life, in her marriage and family, in love and good deeds in her local people and in her commitment to her local church, which she saw because the body of Christ in keeping with the Apostle Paul’s New Testament teaching.
A tiny seed was sown within the church youth group however it bore great spiritual and moral fruit in a faithful Christian life. Her life was not impressive in profession terms or in worldly success but she led a remarkable life for Christ’s everlasting kingdom of heaven and she’s going to rise in glory when he returns.
The Collect for Sunday was a prayer for the Lord’s spiritual protection of his Christian people in a fallen world: “O Lord, who seest that we put not our trust in anything that we do: Mercifully grant that by thy power we could also be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Julian Mann is a former Church of England vicar, now an evangelical journalist based in Lancashire.
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