Hope comes to the earth through Jesus and is sown in people’s lives like seed.
The illustration of the soils that Jesus uses in Luke 8 is designed to teach his disciples and others that there is a secret to be understood in sowing seed. Jesus wanted his followers to understand that the secret lay in the soil of the people’s hearts in whom they were planting.
Whether it be the seed of the gospel or hope, both are sensitive to the conditions upon which the seed falls. I remember from the playground of my days in the country school house that if a guy was interested in a certain girl, he might write her a note on the yellow blue-lined page of his Big Chief Writing Tablet. He would pen, “I love you. Do you love me? Check one of the boxes — I love you, too; or, I like you just as a friend; or, I am in love with someone else; or, Drop dead!”
It was a risk to fold that yellow sheet and hand it to one of her friends to be delivered to that certain girl. If the girl was thinking about the guy like the guy was thinking about her, hope for a closer relationship was very high. But there were three other possible outcomes also.
The “seed” in the parable fell on different places — the path, the rocky areas, among thorns and some on good soil. The first two places are similar in that one is impacted dirt and the other is hard rock. Seed wouldn’t have a chance in either condition. Thorny areas would produce similar results.
The reality is that in planting hope or truth, we do not always know the conditions of the lives in whom efforts are being made to plant good seed. When results do not come or are not quickly evident, some may decide it is not worth the time or effort to plant.
I’ve heard true stories from the mission field of years of planting with little or no evidence of any fruit coming. The story in some nations, where no response was recorded for years, is that the conversion of one person or one family opened the door for a harvest of hope and souls years afterward. Recent reports I have heard is that the greatest harvest of hope and souls in the world right now is in a nation where the sharing of the gospel is considered a capital offense.
Whether it be in a nation politically closed to the gospel of Jesus or in a nation where there is an open door to every “ism,” in the words of the Goodwill commercial, “there’s never been a better time” to plant hope!
Woods is senior minister of Park Chapel Christian Church. This weekly column is written by local clergy members.
