Big Idea - In English, we have an old saying, "more than meets the eye." It means that often, there is more to something than what we see at first. This is never more true than when it comes to the Gospel. On the surface, Jesus and the message of the cross does not look like much. In fact, the cross looks like defeat and utter failure. In the previous passage, we saw that the Kingdom is at hand, but it does not come with great armies and raging battles of conquest; it comes by proclamation, that is, it comes simply by announcing its arrival. Consequently, it was quite easy for those who heard Jesus to overlook who He was and the greatness of the Kingdom He announced. When His life ended on the cross, it was even easier to dismiss Him and His kingdom as nothing. To this very day, people do not take the Kingdom of God seriously. We take seriously threats from nations that can launch an assault of nuclear weapons or who are a great economic powerhouse, but the Kingdom of God seems weak and insignificant by comparison. But we must consider that there truly is more to this Kingdom than meets the eye!
In this passage, Jesus tells two parables about the soil - how we hear the message, and two parables about the seed - the power of the message. Jesus warns people to pay close attention to the message and be careful not to overlook it. He is truly saying that there is more than meets the eye, and only those who make the effort to really listen will come to understand the truth and glory of the Kingdom. First, He uses the illustration of a lamp that is brought into a dark room. The purpose of the lamp is to light up the room, so it would be foolish to put it under your bed or under a pot. Instead you would put it in a prominent place where its light can have the greatest reach into every corner of the room. The point is that the Gospel message is light and truth. But it can only have an impact in our lives if we give it prominence in our lives. We must lift the Word to the highest priority and importance. But, far too many people would rather hide its light because they do not really want to know the hidden and secret things. In this case, the light does not fail to reveal because it has no power but because the one receiving the light has smothered its light. The parable of the measure makes a similar point. It is a picture of a person going to get a measure of grain to bring home and bake a cake. The amount of grain you get depends on the size of the measure. If the person is lazy, they may think, I don't want to carry the bucket there. I will just get a handful. By the time they return home, all will likely be lost. But the person who takes the biggest bucket they can find will get a heaping abundance of grain. The point is that the amount of attention and priority we give when we hear the Gospel message determines how much understanding and impact it has in our lives. The one who listens with all attention, giving it the highest priority and value in their life, will come to understand the fullness of its truth and will receive even more truth and understanding. That is, they will see that there is so much more to the Kingdom than what meets the eye! But, to the one who only listens with a passing interest and does not give it prominence or priority in their life, even what they hear will quickly fade away and be lost. The point of application for us is this - is the Word of God and the message of the Gospel truly the highest priority in our lives? Are we giving its truth the place of greatest prominence and letting it shine into every dark corner of our lives to shed its light and change us by its power?
The second set of parables has to do with the message itself - the word He is proclaiming. The word is compared to the seed. In the first example, the farmer sows the seed, but then he goes about his daily life, and what he does from day to day has no bearing on the seed's growth. It grows all by itself! It has the power of life and growth, and once it is planted, it will grow until it is fully mature and ready to harvest. The point of this parable is if we do listen well and give the Word of the Gospel a place of prominence in our lives, it goes to work. It grows according to its stages of growth until it is fully mature. The message of the Kingdom has within it all the power and truth to radically change our lives and make us completely true disciples who are full citizens of the Kingdom. Here again, there is more than meets the eye. The growth and the power of the seed and even of the growing plant may not look like much when it is just a small sprout. We might think there is nothing there, but it will never amount to anything. But, we must have faith to believe that the Word is doing its work in our lives and in the lives of all those who have truly received the message. From day to day, growth may be hard to detect, but we must have confidence that the Word is at work and will bring us to maturity in Christ! The last parable is also a picture of a seed. This time it is a mustard seed, considered the smallest of all the garden variety seeds. It is not much to look at, and if we were to judge based on its size and what will come of it, we would think it won't grow to be very much of a plant at all. But it grows to be the largest of all the garden plants - a large bush 2-3 meters tall and over a meter in width. It is large enough that birds can build a nest in its branches and find shelter! Birds don't build their nest in the lettuce patch or find shelter under a stalk of corn, only in the mustard bush. There is much more to that little mustard seed than meets the eye. But, you cannot judge what it will become by its beginning. It was easy to discount Jesus as nothing. His death on the cross looks like total defeat and failure. The band of fishermen who made up the original disciples were ridiculed by the religious experts in Jerusalem as uneducated men and nobodies. The struggles of the early Church, without buildings and great cathedrals, meeting underground to escape persecution, a church made up of the poor, the widows, slaves, and the very ordinary. All these look very insignificant. But that is not the end. There is the rest of the story. Jesus died, but He rose from the dead and is now seated at the right hand of God in Sovereign majesty. The disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit and started a movement that is still expanding and growing to this very day. The more the church was persecuted and driven under group, the more it spread and is still spreading to every tribe and nation and people. Only at the return of Christ will it be seen how great the Kingdom of God truly is! Are you discouraged? Do you feel weak and helpless? Do you feel small and that your life really doesn't count for much? Do you feel like the Church and Christians are ignored and overlooked by the world? That no one really takes the Kingdom of God or the Gospel seriously? Fear not, and do not be troubled. There is so much more to this kingdom and to your life than meets the eye! What we will become has not yet been revealed, but one day it will be and we will be like Jesus in all His splendor and glory. There is more to you, more to the Church, and more to the Kingdom of God than meets the eye
