Sow what
- Gary Fritsch
- Jul 23
- 2 min read
In today’s Gospel, Jesus shares the parable of the sower, which indeed holds the secret to understanding all parables, and in fact all scripture. No, I’m not going to tell you yet, you will have to read on. But to start us down the right path, I want you to think about a time when you told someone something, and they came away with an entirely different meaning – they heard what they wanted to hear. We have all had this happen and have all done it to someone else. It happens when what we desire to hear is different than what the speaker intends for us to hear.
The only way for us to avoid this ‘mismatch’ is to open ourselves to what the speaker is intending for us to hear. When it comes to parables, this means that we have to enter into the parable desiring to learn what it would teach and trusting that we will learn from it things that are important to our lives and will make our lives more fruitful and joyful – 30 fold, 60 fold, 100 fold. This is Jesus’ intent in sharing them with us, and when our intent matches this, we will indeed experience the fruits. This is not a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ or positive psychology message, but one of trust in our Creator, whose ways are so high above our ways, who sometimes shares a message that is too big for us to handle all at once. As we re-encounter the scriptures over and over, with our willing hearts, we open out hearts to the continual sowing of Master.
And what is it that the master sows? The Good News. And what is that? That God loves us so much, that He would send His son to suffer and die for us so that we might once again have the opportunity for the eternal life that we were created for. When we bear fruit, the fruit is others who believe in this message and begin to order their lives around it.
We have to approach parables, and indeed all scripture from a place of faith and trust. The acrobat must fully trust their partner before they ever leap or let go. Any hesitancy will keep them from being able to experience all that was intended, and when their experience is less, so is that of all the audience. When we are able to lean in and trust fully that Our Lord has something beautiful to share with us, beautiful it will be for us and for those to whom we sow it.
Comments