Title Let it be Soil
Contents
Let it be fertile
Text/ Mark 4:1-20, Matthew 13:1-23, Luke 8:4-15
1. Introduction
On January 4, 2010, it was the first time in 100 years of heavy snowfall (the snow is piled up in the yard in Jeongbae-ri) and this winter was quite bitter due to the continuous cold below -10-17 degrees Celsius. But today, I took off the January calendar and looked at the February calendar. This week, February 4th is 立春. springtime! Two letters can't be so delightful. Ipchun means that winter is cold and spring is warm in our season. It means that we have entered the land of spring. It's spring! Spring is the season when paddy fields are plowed and ready for farming.
Today, I would like to share grace while meditating on the “parable of the sower (Mark 4:1-20)” that our Lord taught us.
2. Text Interpretation
The text, “the parable of the sower” is recorded in all of the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. All three Gospels have the same meaning.
*seed = the word of heaven.
*The seed that fell on the roadside = A person who received the word of heaven but rejected it from the beginning.
*The seed that fell on the rocky ground = A person who hears the word of the kingdom of heaven and immediately receives it with joy, but when tribulation and persecution arise because of the word, he endures for a while and then betrays and falls.
*The seed that fell among thorns = A person who receives the word of the kingdom and grows up a little bit, but the worries of the world, the temptation of wealth, pleasure, and other greed arise like thorns, and the word is chocked and becomes unfruitful.
*Seeds that fell on good soil (沃土: fertile soil) = A person who hears the word and realizes it and bears fruit thirty-sixty-fold-hundredfold, in the Gospel of Luke, the abstract Instead of expressing it specifically, “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop).
Jesus is the master of parables. The parable of the sower can be easily understood by even a child. However, it has a deep, mysterious and profound meaning that even theologians who have studied parables for decades cannot understand. Therefore, what do we mean by these four types of land today: road - rocky ground - thorny - good soil (good soil) What is the contextual meaning (Site Im Leben) of each seed that fell on the ground? How can it become a good soil (good soil) that bears 30-sixty-sixty-hundred-fold fruit, rather than the modern meaning of 註解 (commentary)? I want to meditate on the Word with an interest in it.
3. “Let it become good soil (fertile soil)”
first. When Jesus spoke of the human heart as a roadside - a rocky field - a thorny - good land, it is a parable, not the truth. The human mind is not fixed-determined-immutable. The human heart is like an angel in the morning, but can turn into a devil at night. Jesus was well aware that the heart of a person becomes a roadside, a rocky field, a thorny field, a good soil, and then changes from time to time.
One thing Jesus made clear through this parable was “by the roadside rocky ground A thorny heart cannot bear fruit, only good soil can bear fruit!” That's what you did. The roadside-stone field-thorny land was good for a while (although the roadside was short-lived). The word “for the first time” here is a scary word. Because, depending on the person, the first period of time is 1 month, 1 year, 3 years (in the case of Judas Iscariot), 10 years, 20 years, 30 years...50 years...etc.
second. From the beginning, there was not even a single pyeong of good land. “Cursed is the earth because of you, and toil you will eat of its produce all the days of your life. The earth will produce thorns and thistles for you... and in the sweat of your face you will eat food until you return to the ground, and you shall take it from because they are wearing clothes... (Genesis 3:17-19)”. He said that good land (good soil) can only be obtained through sweat. Just as we need to sweat to get good soil, so we can get a heart like good soil only through sweat. Therefore, the writer of the Gospel of Luke said that you can acquire a heart like the good soil only when you hear the word (hear!) - keep it (retain!) - and persevere (persevering!) with an honest and good heart (Luke 8:15).
How to make good soil? The text teaches well. Digging deep and softening hard ground such as the roadside, picking up stones, walking among thorns, digging up roots and burning them. What is the hard part-stone-thorn in each person who reads this? We must meditate deeply, practice wisely according to each person's circumstances, and cultivate a good land.
third. No matter how good the land is, it is useless if it is narrow. It should be wide. It's even better if it's shiny. It is 多多益善 (the many benefits: the more, the better). This world is 獨不將經 (I can't serve as a general alone). Therefore, I am not the only one trying to make good land, but my family, friends, district family, neighboring church, neighboring denomination, neighboring denominations, etc., I have to reach out my hand to help and embrace it so that it becomes a good land.
Therefore, in the Lord’s Prayer, he did not say “my Father” but “our Father” and the kingdom of heaven was not “in you” but “in you” (Luke 17:21).
In the weekly <Fountain of the Word> bulletin