Jesus Didn't Give TED Talks.

Imagine going to hear Jesus preach.  Everyone has been talking about this teacher lighting up the countryside.  He is from a common family, but He performs miracles.  He never received any formal religious training, but those who have heard Him say He teaches with authority.  Working your way through the crowd gathered there on the beach, you are excited.  You catch a glimpse of Jesus sitting in a boat, an impromptu stage that allows Him to make the most of the area’s natural acoustics.  Then He speaks.

“A sower went out to sow.  And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.  Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched.  And since they had no root, they withered away.  Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them.  Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.  He who has ears, let him hear” (Matt. 13:3-9).  Uh, what?  You came to hear a powerful religious teacher and got…farming tips? 

The issue was not the illustration.  That crowd understood farming:  Jesus had just described everyday life for a lot of them. Yet, what did farming have to do with God’s kingdom?  Jesus’ own disciples questioned, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” (Matt. 13:10).  This wasn’t an isolated incident, either:  Jesus often taught through borderline-cryptic parables that described God’s kingdom in terms of common work situations.

That is why only those truly seeking could really hear what He was saying. Jesus’ explanations made God’s kingdom bigger, not smaller.  God’s kingdom encompasses everything that makes us who we are.  Given how much of our lives we spend at work, it only makes sense that Jesus set so many of His parables there.  By describing the kingdom in terms of seeds, servants, and shepherds, Jesus challenges us to completely reorient our lives.  If we are going to hear Him and receive the abundant life He offers, we must start seeing God’s kingdom in everything we do, too.

Ready to work with God everyday? Check out our sermon series “Don’t Quit Your Day Job: Glorifying God from 9 to 5”!