The Recklessly Extravagant Farmer

Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen! -- Matthew 13:3-9

The always overlooked point of this parable is that the farmer is reckless with his seed. A careful farmer would prudently plant expensive, good seeds one by one in the rich, cultivated soil of a field cleared of rocks, weeds, and brambles.

Yet, in Matthew 13, seed is landing all over the place, even on the road and on rocks and in thorn bushes. Jesus’ parable-farmer is flinging expensive, good seed in every direction. The original hearers of this parable must have thought that the leading character was at the least irresponsible, if not crazy. Why would he throw perfectly good seed on the road? On rocks? In a briar patch? That’s not just wasteful. That’s nuts!

Thankfully, a few seeds land (purely by chance, it seems) in some good soil, and those seeds grow a bumper crop. So what’s Jesus’ message here?

What if God the Father (the farmer, in this parable) scatters the truth of his kingdom extravagantly and passionately on everyone? What if he’s seeding the whole world with the good news of his gracious kingdom, seeding the entire cosmos with his Son’s all-inclusive message of Life, and wildly seeding the universe with his word of grace to all people?

Jesus said, “[For your heavenly Father] makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:45).

I think Jesus’ point is that the Father loves perfectly, that is, indiscriminately -- impartially. He confers grace to the whole world via the kingdom present in Jesus. His word of truth and freedom and Life is freely distributed to everyone. He doesn’t play favorites.

For Jesus to go to Galilean agricultural villages to preach, and for him to say that his heavenly kingdom is like a farmer who went out wasting good seed, hitting the road and rocks and briar patches, would have been both highly entertaining and maybe not a little bit shocking to those folks. Why? Because a Palestinian farmer would never do that!

What if, however, this farmer isn’t your standard farmer? What if he throws seed in every direction so that the seed lands everywhere? What if he lets the seed find good soil by itself? What if the Father has sown the world with the word of forgiveness? What if he’s seeded the world with his Life in Jesus?

The parable implies that he’s an extravagant Father to be sowing such precious seed so recklessly. But reckless extravagance is required to seed a whole planet -- or should I say a whole kingdom.

Maybe Jesus is telling his listeners that everybody is graced equivalently by a God who is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). He has no bias. Maybe God graces everyone just the same, whether you are a rock, a briar, a path or fertile soil.

This is similar to Jesus’ parable of the vineyard where the all-day workers get a full day’s pay and the one-hour workers get a full day’s pay (another great kingdom of heaven parable in Matthew 10:1-16). This is also like Jesus’ parable of a father who loves his runaway prodigal the same as he loves his stay-at-home prodigal (Luke 15:1-3 and 11-32).

It seems that everyone gets this seed-gift in equal measure in the kingdom of heaven. Forgiveness is scattered on the whole earth without calculation of who’s more deserving. It doesn’t seem fair to scorekeepers, and it may seem as crazy as a farmer wasting perfectly good seed by flinging it without direction, but it is grace personified from the perspective of the heaven of Jesus’ parables.

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