February 27, 2023

Mark 4: 3-8 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path . . . Some fell on rocky places . . . Other seed fell among thorns . . . Still other seed fell on good soil. . . .” (NIV)

Failure in evangelism is to be expected. Not everyone will see the point.*

After telling the parable of the seed and the sower, Jesus took the Twelve aside and explained to them the meaning of the story. The seeds represented the word, and the ground they fell upon stood for the condition of the hearts of the hearers of the word. It seems the seeds were sown liberally and randomly. Some of those randomly scattered seeds fell on good soil; some didn’t fare as well. Because Jesus called the man a farmer, it is safe to assume that he would also have been deliberate about planting most of his seeds in a properly prepared garden.

Our attempts at sharing the word can look a lot like this farmer’s work. We aren’t surprised that sowing liberally and deliberately would have good results, but have you ever considered the effectiveness of the randomly scattered seed? I recently heard a woman share the story of how she came to know the Lord. It began in WalMart when she overheard two other women talking about church. How random is that??

As in farming, proper preparation and effective methods are important in sharing the gospel, but sometimes we stress so much about strategy that we neglect to sow our seeds liberally. As for those randomly scattered seeds – those occur naturally when we follow in the footsteps of Jesus. Some seeds may be eaten by birds or choked by thorns but some will fall on soil that has already been plowed by another. We must learn to leave the bountifulness of the crop to the Lord. Our job is just to keep scattering those seeds!

My part is to share the gospel and God’s part is to make the gospel effective in the heart.*