This week we are hearing a familiar parable – the parable of the sower. It is a parable about the powerful seed of the Word of God (the kingdom of God), and it is also about hearing the Word of God. Within the parable are 4 kinds of hearers, but the parable contains a bigger story as well. When we hear the parable, are we really hearing the big story of God’s amazing work? Fruitful hearing is like a growing seed – just when we think we understand what it is, we find that it produces even more. To those who have ears, let them hear.
The kingdom of God is not the home of those who have it all together; the kingdom of God is the home of all who trust in God to set things right. God the Father’s heart seeks the spiritually wandering person as a shepherd seeks a wandering sheep – one by one. If our hearts are in line with God’s, then we will also seek out the wanderers – one by one. May our words and actions bring joy to our Father in Heaven as we reach in love to the fringes.
The greatest. We hear that title applied to so many people and things. Who's the GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) in sports? In music? In politics? Who doesn't want to be (or be like) the greatest?
Jesus has a far different view of those who should hold the title of GOAT: someone who is innocent like a child. He has a lot to say about them, and about those who cause them to stumble.
This week we'll look at real greatness and what that means for us as we strive to be like Jesus.
In this week's text Jesus says to confront a brother or sister who sins against you. If that doesn't work, bring someone with you. If that doesn't work, bring it to the church. If that doesn't work, treat the person as an outsider. It would be easy to misinterpret this passage as a "three strikes and you're out" pattern for church discipline, but that is unlike the Jesus we know in the Gospels. Jesus is giving us personal and persistent patterns for healing the conflicts that inevitably arise among Christians. Unity among believers is as important as health to a body, because when one part hurts, we all suffer.
Jesus is the center of every little thing that happens here. Only Jesus shines like the sun on the mountain. Moses and Elijah speak with him. They are the law and the prophets. They are the Messianic promises rolled together. And when God speaks to Peter, James, and John, he doesn’t say, “Listen to them,” but “Listen to him.” God himself testifies that Jesus is the fulfillment of all things. When Jesus reaches out his healing hand to lift up the disciples, they see no one but Jesus. And that is the point that keeps on coming up in this passage: No one but Jesus … are we ready to listen to him?