Vital signs- Sunday, May 30th,2021

“Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away. And some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

(Mark 4:3-8)

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus gave a parable of a sower. And as he scattered the seed out of his basket, some fell by the wayside; that is, the soil was hard, and the seed couldn’t get in. Other seed fell on stony ground. It got in but it couldn’t get down because beneath the soil in the subsurface was a rocky ledge. Other seed fell among thorns and it sprouted, but then the weeds and the briars came and choked it out. But some seed fell on good ground and brought forth fruit. It’s not our job to analyze the soil; it’s our job to sow the seed. In this parable, the sower was Jesus Christ Himself. And He didn’t say, “Well, that’s bad soil. I won’t put any seed on it,” or, “that’s rocky soil,” or, “there are thorns.” He just sowed the seed.

Likewise, we are called to just sow the seed. Everywhere we go, just sow the seed. It is God that gives the increase. We can’t make the seed grow, but we can sow the seed.

• How faithful are you to sow the seed of the Gospel?

• What are some ways you are prone to judge whether a person will receive the seed or not? How does today’s passage challenge that idea?

Sow the seed of the Gospel by sharing about Jesus with one person this week.