Friday, September 19, 2014
Matthew 13:18-23 "Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
DIFFERENT KINDS OF LISTENERS
The story Jesus told was of a farmer who went out and scattered his seed. But Jesus was not teaching about farming. He was teaching about different kinds of listeners--listeners to His word.
The first kind of listener is the person who hears the message and does not understand it. This is not Jesus' fault or the fault of His word, it is that some listeners reject it out of hand. They push it away the moment it strikes their ears.
The second kind of listener is the person who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But when trouble or persecution comes because of following Jesus, he quickly falls away. He has no interest in suffering for the Christian faith.
The third sort of listener is the one who hears the words of Jesus but then forgets them because the concerns of this life overshadow those words in the person's mind. This is like the seed that falls among thorns. The worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
The fourth listener is the person who hears, understands, believes, and acts on the words of Jesus. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. This is the kind of listener each of us wants to be. We want to hear Christ's word and understand it, pay attention to it, follow it, trust it for our daily lives, and not lose sight of it.
Certainly we can easily identify with the first three "listeners" that Jesus described. The sinful natures in each one of us lead us in those directions. So we come to appreciate, don't we, God's mercy and love toward us?Jesus could say, "Nobody listens to me!" and bring judgment down on us, but instead He has taken our guilt on Himself at the cross. He has died and risen again so we can be counted as good (even perfect) listeners to His word! His forgiveness changes our hearts, turning us into "good soil" where the seed of His word grows and flourishes.
Take care then, dear friends, how you listen to Jesus.
