The Generous Farmer

SCRIPTURE: Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand. Matthew 13:3-9 NLT

THOUGHT: It’s harvest time, and so we have a harvest story. Jesus is always teaching the truth about the kingdom of heaven and the state of people’s hearts in his stories, and this one is no different. We talk a lot about the types of soil, some rocky and weedy, others rich and fertile. And we talk a lot about the seeds, some fruitful and some that wilt or are choked. But think for a moment about the farmer who casts seed generously onto every nook and cranny of his field. He isn’t stingy with the seed, and he isn’t discouraged from being generous even though he knows the shallow soil isn’t best. He’s probably seen a tree or two grow out of the rock, so he gives it all a chance. As if that’s not enough, then he rains on the just and the unjust (Matt. 5:45) because it’s this Farmer’s way to show no partiality (Romans 2:11).

And then this Farmer asks us to act like him.

SONG: My Offering https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SX9P6HgOZrs

PRAYER: Thank you for the reminder, oh Great God, that generosity is a trait you nourish in your sons and daughters. I’d like to be like a seed in fertile soil producing a generous harvest: 30, 60 or even a 100 times as much as you planted.