October 28, 2015

Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.
Matthew 13:7

This verse from Morning Prayer yesterday stood out to me as I was reading through the Office.  The parable of the sower appears in all three synoptic gospels; and even though Matthew's version is the only one appointed to be read in the Sunday lectionary, we've probably all heard this parable many times over the years.

The traditional explanation of this verse, and the one given by Jesus, is that the thorns represent the cares of the world and the lure of wealth which chokes the word out of the one who hears it, yielding nothing.  I’m not one to generally argue with Jesus, especially over the interpretations he gives his own parables, but I wonder if there's more to it than that.

Or rather, I wonder if we get too focused on “the lure of wealth” and forget about “the cares of the world.”  It's easy to accuse wealthy people of not following the precepts of Christ, or of not doing enough with their wealth to help reduce suffering in the world.  It's easy to shake our heads at someone like Zack Greinke, pitcher for the L.A. Dodgers, who recently opted out of his $71 million contract in order to become a free agent . . . where he will probably sign for anywhere between $125 and $150 million.  The lure of wealth, indeed.

But what about those cares of the world?  I don't think they all revolve around our pursuit of wealth and happiness.  I don't know Mr. Greinke, and he may be doing wonderful things with his money; after all, it's not his fault he landed a job in a business that values men who can throw a baseball.

Could it be that the cares of the world revolve around other things?  Things like being offended when someone doesn't live up to your expectations.  Things like attributing negative motives to people.  Things like allowing work to control our schedules rather than making relationships a priority.  Things like taking others for granted in favor of short-term gains.

There is plenty in this world to distract us and choke us off from the word.  There are plenty of cares of the world to which we eagerly or slowly submit.  If we only look to the lure of wealth, we might be openly blind to other things which just as effectively choke us.

So maybe I’m not arguing with Jesus as much as I’m digging a little deeper into what he's saying.

And maybe one way to trim back those weeds is to regularly ask ourselves, “How is what I'm doing consistent with, or advancing the cause of, the gospel?”

There will always be weeds, and we may not be able to eliminate them all.  But if we worked to eliminate a few here and there, that's a few more places here and there in which the word can take root.

Amen.