email Subscribe
RSS Subscribe
THE POWER IS IN THE SEED
Seeds may look like little rocks or grains of sand—but out of a seed comes a tree or a flower, or a vine or some other plant.
And the power of a seed is not limited to that one plant, because then that plant produces more seeds, and more plants.
If you had enough time and the right conditions, one apple seed could produce hundreds of apple orchards or one kernel of corn could produce thousands of acres of corn.
That’s the power of a seed to produce new life. A seed little, its easily lost, crushed, brushed aside. But if it gets in, and goes in deep, it has the power of life. It comes alive and it sprouts, takes root, grows, and produces fruit.
And that fruit produces its own seeds, and there is multiplication.
Imagine you are in the garden, scatter some seeds, take rake and work them in. That’s what you have to do with the Word it has to be worked in. So that what comes out of the soil, the words that come out of your mouth, the decisions you make, the things you do are the outgrowth of that seed. The seed is not just the spoken Word of God. Not just the Gospel message.
The seed is also Jesus himself, the living Word.
In the scriptures 3 out of 4 soils rejected the seed. Isn’t that what we’ve seen in Mark?
Pharisees and religious leaders were the hard soil they rejected him. Crowds were the shallow soil they were excited about the blessings, miracles, and healings, but lost interest in Jesus and his message. His family was the thorny soil they were conflicted about him. He was their brother and son, but things he said and did embarrassed them. Then there were the 12 and other disciples they were the fertile soil.
He is the seed. He is the Word.
And how did Jesus appear? In weakness. Like a seed. Where do we see his weakness most? In his Passion. Look at Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. You see the Son of God groaning, sweating drops of blood, begging his disciples to stay near him and pray for him. Because the prospect of the terrible suffering he was going to face the wrath of God for our sins, was crushing him.
So he went to the cross and then to the grave and was buried. Then he rose again in powerful new life. By faith we have that life.
In fact, in John 12, Jesus compares himself to a seed. “Unless a grain of wheat goes into the ground and dies it remains a single seed, but if it dies, it produces many seeds.”
What started out as an acorn something weak, something you could step on and crush, something a squirrel could eat. That weak thing was buried, in a sense died, came to life, and a powerful new life appeared that could lift and crack concrete slabs.
What are the hard things in life, concrete slabs that need to be lifted and cracked? What are the attitudes, habits, fears, griefs that are holding you back? What needs to grow in their place? What strong trees, what fruitful vines? Gentleness, patience, kindness, contentment. There is this seed that you need to put under the slab. It’s the Word of God. It’s the Gospel.
Work it in, and then watch it grow. It is Jesus himself. Look to his weakness, his cross. Let the seed of his weakness give you the power of the new life.