Sunday’s Gospel reading in the Anglican Book of Common Prayer describes the kind 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 large crowd during his Galilean ministry, it also features in the Gospels of Matthew and Mark:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more 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 path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not 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 four kinds of persons in the way that they respond to the message of eternal salvation from sin and divine judgement through faith in Jesus Christ.
The first kind, represented by the ground on the path between fields, hears the word of God but immediately the devil comes and takes away the message from their heart.
The parable is not teaching that the individual is not responsible for their immediate rejection of the Christian message. They hear the proclamation of divine forgiveness but they collude with Satan’s rebellion against God by continuing in their own rebellion, as evidenced by their refusal to accept the word of the Lord.
The second kind, represented by the rocky ground, initially receives the Christian message positively, but they are unable to put down spiritual roots. They believe for a while but when they find that their profession of Christian faith causes them difficulties in life, they abandon it.
The third kind, represented by the thorny ground, does not so suddenly turn away from Christianity. This person appears to go on in 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 enduring 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 a person 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 were not.
She heard the Christian message clearly explained in youth meetings and church services and she professed the faith. She continued as a Christian into young adulthood and married a Christian man whom she met at the church. They had children whom they sought to bring up in the faith.
Throughout her days, which were not 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 community and in her commitment to her local church, which she saw as the body of Christ in line with the Apostle Paul’s New Testament teaching.
A tiny seed was sown in the church youth group but it bore great spiritual and moral fruit in a faithful Christian life. Her life was not impressive in career terms or in worldly success but she led a remarkable life for Christ’s eternal kingdom of heaven and she will 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 may 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.
