Are You a Farmer?

By John Ankrom

          Are you a farmer? This is asked with the knowledge that most people would answer this question in the negative, simply because most people are not farmers in the physical since. Now if the question was "Are you a gardener", many would answer yes because there are many who plant gardens, both flowers and vegetables.

          Now let's look at this question in a spiritual since. Jesus, in Matthew 13, uses the image of a sower going forth sowing seed to help us visualize that a farmer sowing seed is like those who spread the gospel.

          Jesus in this parable uses words to describe something that most of the listeners would understand; they sowed seed to produce a crop. Most know that in order to have something grow we must plant a few seeds. The same is true with God's kingdom; to produce Christians, something needs to be sown and that something is the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

          Now in this parable, Jesus describes the type of soil in which seeds fall, indicating the different type of hearts man has. The Idea is not that the sower should have been more careful in sowing his seed; it has to do with sowing the Gospel where ever and how ever we can.

          If we are spiritual farmers, then we must be about sowing the seeds of the Kingdom on all types of soil. So what type of soil (hearts) do we see in the world today?

          We see the way side ground, indicating totally unprepared ground, then comes the stony ground which simply means that because the ground may not be properly prepared, the seed will not take deep root. Then comes the thorny ground. Even though this ground looked good there were impurities in it that grew up and choked out the good seed. And finally we see the seed that fell on good ground, ground that was ready to receive the good seed and it brings forth much fruit.

          Are you a farmer? Are you sowing the seed of the Kingdom whenever and wherever you can? Jesus said in Matthew 13:24, "Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:" "The Kingdom of heaven is like", meaning we can compare it to something we know and that is farming, sowing seed, the Gospel to a lost world.