Imagine for a moment — what is your most desirable profession? What about its qualities & its specific purposes that fit snugly with your own? What about the many permutations of decison-making that will be required in any profession — what about this profession you are thinking, that makes it so sweet & music to your heart? Have you found one yet? Or are you still searching? It is not such an easy question to answer for many of us — and even for a lot of us who are in our so-called dream profession, there is always something that nags at us, tugs at the very cynical core of our being that make us loathe it on some days.
But imagine if you could have this dream profession & be productive always despite all the loathesome days & the nights that you may disdain working there. Imagine, such a productivity that does not depend on your ingenuity or creativity or your blood, sweat, & tears. Imagine, a profession whereby your productivity that does not depend on you & yet, at the same time, are used specifically that always good will result.
Hear, then, the words of Christ Jesus, Himself —
Matthew 13:23
23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty
The word, good, have been thrown about so frequently that we have essentially lost the meaning of the word. Good, in the Biblical sense, is an innate state. Its origin in the Bible is found in Genesis, when the Lord God created the Earth & all that was in it & exclaimed that “it is good.” What that means is “productive & useful; purposeful & fruitful.” When we consider what the Christ is saying in Matthew 12:23 is a sharp rebuke of what many in the crowd & even His disciples thought about the current human state of productivity. Many would have assumed that the religiosity of the Jewish Leaders, at least, would be included in the type of productivity that Christ is describing.
And yet He is not. This would come as a shock to His listeners — the seed is the Word of the Kingdom of Heaven. NOT the word that the multitude have heard from the Jewish Leaders; NOT from their Teachers in the synagogue; NOT any other religious fanatic that may have walked the same cobblestone pavement. Not even John the Baptist that came immediately before Christ, who spoke that whose sandals he was unworthy to untie. Rather, the seed that is the word of the Kingdom is the Person of Jesus Christ standing before them delivering these powerful words.
The word is that there is salvation through the word of Jesus. Believe on His word & you will be saved, for there is no other word that can save you. However, not only this, in order to receive this word, your heart must be prepared — the good soil. But in order to obtain this good soil it must come by the Father who has prepared it for you. This may cause many us to become forlorn & dejected — for such a good soil does not come through human intellect, reason, logic or the mind but through the power of the Holy Spirit who was sent of the Father. Then & only then is Faith & Belief even possible. But oh how powerful! For that little thing; that small, almost insignificant, occurrence in human eyes is the most cataclysmic occurrence. Now, in Christ Jesus we have Saving Faith — a life-altering, nature-changing transformation from death to life; from frailty & fruitlessness to life-giving, life-sustaining fruitfulness.
Acts 9:16
16 For I will show [Paul] how much [Paul] must suffer for the sake of My name
2 Corinthians 11:23-28
23 Are they servants of Christ? I am a better one—I am talking like a madman—with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. 24 Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. 25 Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; 26 on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; 27 in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. 28 And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches
However, The Apostle, does not describe a life of fruitfulness. Rather he is describing a life of pain & sorrow & abject misery. How do these twin concepts coalesce — how does suffering have anything whatever to do with fruitfulness as the Christ described?
1 Corinthians 9:19
19 For though I am free from all, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win more of them
1 Corinthians 9:22-23
22 To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. 23 I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings
Do you hear his imploring? Do you not hear his contempt for the living — his own life? There is now another life to be waged in the battlefield of human hearts & it is in that battlefield to win for Christ. Yet, it is not him who will save souls for Jesus — no, rather, his argument is that he will sacrifice to become a servant of all in order that by doing so, he will bring them to Christ & that the Christ will save them — “I will do it all for the sake of the Gospel.” For the sake of the Gospel. Not Paul’s own words or his own life or his own ingenuity & cunning but through the power & presence of the Gospel, which is the Lord Jesus. It is the Christ he is presenting & bringing before Him & it will be Christ who will save.
Thus, there will be suffering because many will not accept what we offer & even disdain the gift we are offering. That cannot & should not prevent us from offering in the first place. As Christ Himself spoke, there are many paths or hearts that will hear the word but only upon the good soil will the hearing turn to understanding so that they will be saved. May we all hear & listen but at the same time that we may all Understand with the renewed mind of the Holy Spirit so that we may be good in all we do!
