Sow Without Ceasing

Mark 1-3 shows Jesus on the move, passionately preaching, tirelessly teaching, compassionately healing (1:39), with his disciples faithfully tagging along. But the religious leaders were bitterly opposed to Jesus (3:6). His own family failed to understand (3:21). Although crowds came after Jesus (4:1), most had not become “insiders” (10). Perhaps the disciples were wondering if all these costly, risky efforts were worthwhile. Jesus relates the story of a sower (3) who sowed liberally, extravagantly, even wastefully; those who do the math would realize that 75 per cent of those seeds were wasted (4-7)! By modern standards, that farmer was a fool; but he was a faithful fool, since he never gave up on sowing. The New Bible Commentary notes that even a tenfold return was considered good in Palestine. The other 25 per cent of the seeds resulted in yields as high as a hundredfold (8)! Despite the apparent waste of seeds and effort, the end was an incomparably splendid harvest. God does not seek efficiency experts, just faithful folks! We are encouraged to keep sowing faithfully, hopefully, because God promises: his word “will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire” (Isa. 55:11).