Today’s readings start with an upbeat view from Isaiah (Is 55:10-11). God’s word will wash over everything, like the rain. And like the rain that Word brings growth and nourishment. And it won’t stop until God’s will is accomplished.
In the Gospel (Matt 13:1-23) Jesus also quotes from Isaiah (Is 6:9-10), but that quotation has a very different character. At that point Isaiah is prophesying that the people won’t listen – in fact they will be determined not to listen – stubborn to the point of self harm.
Jesus uses this quotation in the context of explaining to his disciples why he won’t speak to the people directly. The particular case in point is his parable of the sower, in which Jesus uses spreading seed as an analogy for spreading the word of God. Hence the connection back to the first Reading. But Jesus’ telling isn’t as upbeat as Isaiah’s. Some of the seed takes and some doesn’t.
Now we may not have the background of Jesus’ agrarian audience but we know enough to recognize the truth of Jesus’ analogy. We also know enough of the world to understand that his deeper message is also true. Faith once experienced is not guaranteed – it can fail in many ways, as Jesus outlines.
So is the overall message of today’s Readings upbeat or downbeat? Do we depart with a spring in our step, or a feeling of discouragement and gloom?
As usual with the Gospel message, I suspect it’s not that simple. We’d like a simple yes or no, up or down, everything’s going to be ok or it’s not. But the Gospel isn’t talking to what we’d like – it’s talking to reality as it is. And that reality is complicated, challenging, sometimes incomprehensible.
The first point that is shared in Isaiah’s and Jesus’ telling is that God spreads His word around everywhere without the slightest care for where it goes. Seed is an expensive commodity and a careful farmer doesn’t just fling it around everywhere, wasting it on the road and the rocks. God isn’t careful, He’s profligate.
But God is also a realist – how could he be otherwise! And Isaiah and Jesus both share in that realism. Not all the soil is fertile, not all those who hear will listen, not all those who listen will understand, and not all those who understand will act. Yes, we’d like a world where all the soil is fertile and everyone is a committed follower of Jesus, caring for all around and not stubborn to the point of self harm. But that is not the world we live in, that’s not the world Jesus promised us.
But he did promise us that if we do listen, and hear, and understand, that we will do great good in the world. Despite the stubbornness, the stupidity, the recklessness, we may see around us, we have been granted knowledge. More will be given to us and we will be rich.