Fifth Sunday after Pentecost

A Little Seed Goes a Long Way

Today’s gospel presents us with a parable that is quite striking. For us, we are part of the “inner circle” of Jesus’ disciples who get it and wonder why Jesus wouldn’t be willing to explain it to the crowds, but rather seem to dismiss them as being blind and deaf. Why, then, speak to the crowd at all? Jesus was not trying to win over crowds, but to call individuals to follow him; Jesus wanted people to walk with him, not for him.

The crowd is the landscape, and Jesus is the farmer sowing himself, giving himself as the Word of God with the power of words to germinate in the heart of the ones who are listening and whose hearts are fallow, but not sown.

Jesus is, in Greek the logos, or word of God. In Hebrew, dabar, which suggests like the Greek, word associated with talking or writing. But both terms suggest much more. Logos suggest God’s reason, His willed purpose revealed in Jesus. Dabar is the essence of the speaker contained in the word, much as the potential of a plant contained in the seed.

Jesus’ interpretation in the longer version of today’s reading was not, however, likely part of Jesus’ original discourse; it was added to allow the reader to be part of the inner circle rather than the clueless crowd left scratching their heads. The purpose of interpreting the Gospel in this manner was to emphasize ultimate success in spite of what appears to be a complete failure. This is why Jesus suggests that the harvest of the small amount of seed that falls on fallow earth will reap a harvest of “a hundred fold”; the average good harvest is seven fold.

God’s ultimate purpose for humanity as embodied in The Kingdom---the community of believers as living word of God’s sowing---is that despite what appears to be crucifixion and death is resurrection and life. That our hearts as landscapes have captured but a little of God’s Word in the words, but this is sufficient for building the kingdom. Tend to the small patch of fertile heart, and don’t allow the vast fields of unproductive soil to dishearten you. If faith is a mustard seed, you don’t need a lot to realize a spectacular harvest.