FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2023)

FIFTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (2023)

Readings:

Isaiah 55:10-11

Psalms  65:10-14

Romans 8:18-23

Matthew 13:1-23

Even the occasional gardener knows that a planter would be more frugal with his seed than allowing it to fall on paths, rocks, or under weeds and thorns – the seed would have so little chance of being productive or growing to maturity.  Maybe Jesus has been too busy making tables and chairs to know what a good sower would do.  Or maybe He just wanted to shock the savy listener, for after all He is speaking to His large crowd of listeners in parables, which are oftentimes meant to shock His listeners into discovering something new about God, about Him.  Jesus is wise enough to know that if the seed has the good fortune of falling on “rich soil,” it will produce “fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.”  Such abundance would be remarkable!

Our lectionary allows those responsible for the Liturgy of the Word to end after verse 9, some 14 verses shorter than the entire gospel.  In that case, all that would be proclaimed to the Sunday listeners is just the parable of the sower, plain and simple, for that is no doubt the way Jesus originally delivered it.  There would be no answer to the disciples’ question of “why do you speak to the crowds in Parables?” (Notice they excluded themselves in their question).  And there would be no parsing out of the actual meaning of the parable by Jesus, something He virtually never did.  Matthew has Jesus answering the disciples’ question with “I speak to them in parables, because they look but do not see and they hear but do not listen or understand.”  The disciples did not want to place themselves in that category; they were too proud for that.  And yet, that is exactly how the disciples are portrayed in the gospels as a whole.  They are often obtuse, and frequently misread the circumstances of what is going on.  Indeed, what wisdom they have that will set them apart from the “crowd,” does not come until after Jesus’ resurrection and the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The disciples have front row seats to Jesus’ earthly mission, but they “do not see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts.”

We are fortunate to have Matthew’s, i.e., Jesus’, explanation of the parable, otherwise we might not have taken the time to plumb the depths of the meaning of the parable, or been satisfied with knowing, of course, that seed will do well in rich soil.  The parable, however, is not about seed, it is about the Word, and Matthew’s gospel stretches the explanations with almost no thought given to the seed’s location.  The seed sown on the path (because of its hardness?) represents the person who hears the Word but does not understand it, “and the evil one steals it away.”  The seed sown on rocky ground has no roots, and when tribulation comes (drought?) because of the Word (persecution?), that person just “falls away.”  The seed sown among thorns and weeds is choked (by worldly anxiety and the lure of riches) so bears no fruit.  Finally, the seed sown in rich soil bears fruit and yields an abundant harvest.  Didn’t we already know that from the original parable?

Perhaps the lectionary knows that the added explanation is a distraction, and, like other parables, should have been left to stand on its own, moving individual listeners in a variety of ways.  I would like to propose, that the foolishness of the sower is deliberate, and God has sown His Word in a variety of places, not only where it has the best chance of taking root and producing fruit.  God has shared His Word with the worn down and rocky, among the weeds and the thistles, and we have the power to give it a good place to grow, we have the power to make our hearts and minds the rich soil which will contribute to the up-building of God’s kingdom on earth.  God’s Word is universally shared with the atheist and agnostic, with the narrow-minded Christian and hard-hearted Catholic, with the Muslims and the Jews.  In any of those places, God’s Word has a chance to take root.  All it needs is a little rich soil, which only we can produce!