Magdalene

Matthew 13:1-23

Do you ever read something and your mind gets caught on one sentence or one word; it resonates with you or confuses you or angers you or makes you laugh? I find this happening to me often, especially when reading my Bible. As I was reading the first two verses of Matthew 13 I found myself being held there.

¹ That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ² Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore.

So what's the hold up? Pretty strait forward right, especially compared to the parables which follow. These verses are setting the scene. They are positioned before the parable and therefor give us the context which the parables were spoken. They also form a point of view in which the following verses can be read. The two verses complicate, enrich and define the parable to follow. There is a point made to set the scene. The number of verses used is minimal but clearly it is important, it's there! Could we have not been given the parable without the two verses? Sure, but we weren't and that's what stuck with me. So I began to dissect.
We find Jesus by the water. I think this is a metaphor. Jesus is in the boat on the water, the people on the shore. Jesus is a part of, above, in control of, one of the most basic necessities of life, we find this not only here but throughout the Bible. Water is elemental. It is something we need to live, something that is embedded in us and a large percent of what we are made of. Water is what is needed by life for growth. It is something that gives us peace and joy in addition to being something we fear. It is all consuming. Does this not describe Jesus? The people are amongst the sand on the shore. In a position where they can know, touch, see, here and be a part of and absorbed by Water. They can also stay on the shore, washing up over and over again until they are beaten down or carried away by something else. Through this understanding of verses one and two I reread The Parable of the Sower and my understanding of the passage completely shifted and opened up.

Read verses 3-23

All the seeds come from the same hand, there is no discernment or separation. The variation is in the soil which they fall. Many times I feel the seed is focused on and we are asked which seed are you, will you be choked out or flourished? The scattering seems random and I feel like this is often interpreted as God saying he will save who he will. I think Jesus is not saying this at all. We all have the same water being poured over us trying to grow us, but not the same soil. I feel like Jesus is telling us to know our soil, not just saying some of us fell in good and some in bad, some have hope and others have none. What is the soil? The soil is what you root yourself in, what your life is made of and your faith as it exists in your life. We are being directed to ask ourselves what our soil looks like. Soil is something that can be cultivated as well as something that a plant can be uprooted from. We have all fallen and are all having Jesus poured over us, but what is the environment for growth? We do not know where a seed did fall, may fall or has fallen until we take a look at ourselves and our lives. We can know what our soil looks like and the places seeds should be planted as disciples.

Lastly I would like to briefly and directly address verses 10-17
In this section Jesus is answering the disciples' question “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” This section is also often discussed in a "God will save who He will" interpretation. Such a reading of those verses is carried through into Jesus explanation of the parable. Such an interpretation is almost void of hope for me. As I know that my God is a God of hope and free will not despair and rejection, I evaluate it through the filter of my interpretation of the first two verses. Jesus here is talking about the reception of his words being dependent on the openness of the listener's heart. Those who are seeking the Lord with their heart will be find Him, and those with a hard heart cannot. For God has written himself on our hearts (Ecclesiastes 3:11). I think this also ties to understanding the state of our soil. This reminds me of trying to share your faith with some one who has a hard heart. No matter how correctly you answer their questions or honestly you share your faith they cannot hear, feel or know what you do.

From this passage and my reading of it I hope you evaluate your soil and become more aware of all the ways the Lord is pouring into you. I hope your soil can be a place of growth that allows the living Water to nourish you and quench your thirst. Finally I hope this calls you to disciple for we do not know the state of the hearts or soil of others, and it is our job to pour into others as Christ does for us.

Music
LastFM Water Playlist

Aquatic Lifeform Shea McGilvray

Sea Legs The Shins

I Cover the Waterfront Billie Holiday

Ice Water Cat Power

Books