Cultivating good soil

Images of nature claim a place in all the readings this Sunday. Isaiah writes of snow and rain coming down from the mountains, watering the earth, causing seed to grow and ultimately humans to be fed. The seed serves as a metaphor. It discloses the life-giving way that God’s Word comes down and can grow in us. The poetic verses of Psalm 65 also narrate a well cultivated, fertile earth. Our prayerful response features God’s Word, again described as a seed that, under the right conditions, will flourish. “The seed that falls on good ground will yield a fruitful harvest.” Though Paul’s letter to the Romans does not speak of a seed as God’s Word, it does refer to God’s creation as groaning in labor pains until the times when the Spirit brings forth its first fruits in us. Finally, Matthew’s Gospel sets forth the account of Jesus offering the familiar parable of the sower. This Sunday and the next two Sundays we will hear Mt 13:1-52, in which Jesus delivers a series of parables that describe the kingdom of Heaven.  

The longer version of this Sunday’s Gospel passage (Mt 13:1-23) divides into three separate but related parts, each addressing what is required to experience the kingdom of God. The first section (Mt 13:1-9), describes a farmer who sows seed on different kinds of ground. In the second part (Mt 13:10-15), Jesus draws upon a text from Is 6:9, explaining that because the people’s hearts are hardened, they do not understand the parables and, thus, the mystery of the kingdom remains hidden from them. Finally, in the third segment of this Gospel passage (Mt 13:16-23), Jesus explains the parable to the disciples. His explanation, now so familiar to many of us, focuses upon the soil, where the “seed” of the Word of God grows and flourishes. By contrast, the recipient who is like the rocky ground, or the ground covered by thorns, or the soil where birds have carried away the seed, jeopardizes the potential growth of God’s Word.   

What Jesus teaches in this parable, however, is not the only lesson we can hear about the various soils representing believers who are attentive and those who are not. Jesus himself is part of the lesson. He is the sower of whom he speaks. And when he sows, he does not sow his seed, which is his Word, only on enriched, well cultivated soil, where the seeds grow without difficulty. He also lets some of the seed fall on the paths where birds, representing evil ones, could come and take it away. He also allows some to fall on rocky ground, which makes it difficult for a sprouting plant actually to cultivate roots. Finally, this divine sower also allows his seed to fall on ground inhabited by thorns, which threaten to choke off the newly sprouted plant until it dies.  Indeed, as Jesus explains, each of these habitats for the seed has potential, but some condition inhibits or threatens growth. Yet, the sower does not avoid setting seed in these three less optimal growing conditions. Jesus evidently believes in the potential for the cultivation of God’s Word, even in the challenging circumstances of our lives.  

Of course, in the third section of this Sunday’s Gospel passage, Jesus’ interpretation invites us to examine the elements in our lives that can detour us from God’s word, like distractions, career goals, productivity goals or even certain persons. Such distractions risk that the seed be carried away or even disappear entirely from our lives. The image of rocky soil might speak to heavy burdens weighing upon our spiritual selves, requiring that we seek forgiveness or offer forgiveness. Perhaps the stony terrain that hampers growth may be like an emotional boulder encumbering a relationship. Such encumbrances may need to be removed by a difficult but honest conversation in order to renew a space of growth and nurturance with another. Thorns and briars that could choke out our life in God might be addictions, bad habits, or unkind ways with others that need pruning or even uprooting so that the seed of the Word can grow.  

Anyone who has ever planted a garden knows that good soil doesn’t just exist on its own. It needs to be amended or refurbished, weeded, have its stones removed, and planted in such a way that good seeds are not carried off by birds or other garden pests. Jesus, who lived and probably worked in an agricultural world, also knew this. Thus, no matter what kind of metaphorical soil makes up the ground of our being, Jesus willingly lets the seed of his Word fall there. Like every farmer, he sees the potential of each and every expanse of terrain that makes up an individual’s life. Our job is to cultivate the soil as necessary by removing the stones and the thorny briars that hamper growth and ensure that scattered seed is not carried off. Like skillful laborers who tend the gardens of our earth, we can also amend the garden where we cultivate God’s seed by adding humility, compassion, tenderness and love. Then our garden will have even greater potential to give way to what Paul envisions in creation, the Spirit bringing forth its firstfruits in us (Rom 8:23).