Let’s talk about parables today. These simple stories were told in order to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson and were a favorite way of communicating for Jesus. Scholars disagree about the number of parables he told, with the numbers ranging from anywhere from 30 to 50. When his disciples asked him why he so often spoke in parables, he responded by saying that he was trying to create a readiness to receive him in the hearts and minds of the hearers:

Matthew 13:10 (The Message)

¹⁰ The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”

^11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward a welcome awakening. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it.

They asked him this question after he told a crowd of people a harvest story, which later would be known as the Parable of the Sower:

13 ^1-3 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.

^3-8 “What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn’t put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

⁹ “Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

We get to listen in now as Jesus explains the meaning of this beautiful little story to his disciples. God, of course, is the farmer and we are the ground:

^18-19 “Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn’t take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person’s heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.

^20-21 “The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.

²² “The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.

²³ “The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.”

Road, gravel, weeds, or good earth. It is obvious what type of ground Jesus wants us to be. Only in good soil can a seed be planted, watered, and grown to a full harvest.

Have you ever been gravel? Has your need to pursue your own self-interests left your heart as solid as the surface of a road? Are you so busy with worldly concerns that God’s seed falls among your weeds of worry?

Be good soil today. Open your heart and mind to receive God’s word and his instruction for your life. Insights and understanding will flow from your very being, and you will be ready to do as God instructs. When we do that, the harvest is full and plentiful.

And that’s the good news.

Weeds of Worry by Michelle Robertson