Can you believe that carpenter’s son? He was talking all about planting seeds where they wouldn’t grow. And his followers were listening so closely. It was just a stupid story about bad farmers. He obviously doesn’t understand anything about gardening. Actually, he wasn’t talking about gardening at all. He was talking about us.
Did Jesus teach stories about seeds, weeds, and treasures? He explained, For the hearts of this people have grown dull, their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes are closed. So around the spiritually blind, Jesus spoke in ways that only those with ready hearts, soft ears, and open eyes would understand. The pharisees, scribes, and unbelievers couldn’t discern what the Spirit was teaching them because they were so stuck in their pride and the Greek literal way of thinking. Now, the Greek word for parable means a higher way of thinking through symbolism. So parables compare something we understand, like fishing nets, side by side with something much deeper, like inheriting the Kingdom of heaven. With that in mind, let’s look at the parable of the farmer who plants his seeds in four different places. The sower is always the same and represents Christ and his helpers. The seeds, or gospel of Christ, are also always exactly the same. The only thing that changes is the ground. Seems pretty simple and straightforward, right? But wait, there are so many symbolic layers. Here’s one way of interpreting this parable. Remember this? Well, what if we overlay the Kingdoms of glory with this parable?
As the sower plants, some of the seeds fall on hard ground and birds eat them up. This could be outer darkness and includes very few people. Other seeds fall on stony places with very little soil and without deep roots, the seeds die in the hot sun. They won’t be able to tolerate the glory of the sun due to their sins. These are the people whose hearts are hardened. They fall away as soon as they have problems, are persecuted, or offended. Kind of sounds like those who might inherit the telestial kingdom of glory. The next group is people who allow their testimony and heart to be choked by the thorn of the horns and philosophies of the world. They hear God’s Word, but the message is crowded out by life’s worries or the lure of wealth and popularity. And while there’s growth, there are no fruits. These inherit the terrestrial kingdom. Wonderfully, there’s the glorious, Celestial Kingdom. Jesus spreads the gospel seed among good people of all religions and time periods throughout the history of the Earth. Those with soft hearts hear the Word, understand, and internalize it. For some, the gospel grows in a hundredfold, some 60, some 30.
But for everyone, it grows. This can represent the different realms of glory within the Celestial Kingdom. This is who we want to be and the degree of glory we hope to inherit. So let’s ask ourselves, is my heart hard or soft? Whatworldly cares are choking my testimony? Is there a stone in the way of my progression that needs to be dug up and thrown away? For more examples, go check out Living Scripture’s awesome video on the Kingdom of Heaven and see if you can spot each type of person. Fortunately, we have the freedom to choose to let our Savior and redeemer plant the seeds of his gospel deep in our hearts while removing stones and thorns. If we let the Master gardener in, he can make the deserts of our hearts blossom as a rose. In the next parable, Jesus teaches that the Kingdom of heaven is like a man planting wheat seeds, only to have an enemy sneakily plant tear seeds in the same field just as the wheat is beginning to take root. The assistant gardeners ask if they should quickly pluck out the bad weeds. However, the good farmer knows he needs to let the wheat and tears, the good and bad, grow together until harvest time.
You guessed it. This story isn’t about to be gardening either. Now, wheat is a good grain. While tears or the Darnel seed are a very harmful weed, if plucked too early, it will likely uproot the neighboring wheat plants. Eating wheat is healthy. While eating tears makes you sick. However, when they’re young, wheat and tears look exactly the same. It’s not until they’re grown that we can see the difference. In life, the enemy is planting his seeds of hatred, lies, and deceit amongst Christ’s followers. Fortunately, we have the Master Gardener to help when tears begin to choke us. Many people ask, why does God allow bad things to happen or bad people to remain on Earth? Why doesn’t he just strike them down and destroy them? Well, we’re all still his children who he’ll never stop loving and hoping we’ll repent and return to him. Just as this will definitely be done in the end. But if God stopped every bad choice, he’d also be destroying our freedom to choose and grow. The final harvest begins the day Christ appears in the heavens for all to see. In the Joseph Smith translation, the harvest order is switched. First, the wheat will be safely gathered, and then the tears will be burned.
The righteous, those who’ve chosen to keep the Commandments, will shine forth as the Son in the Kingdom of their Father. God will work with each of us until the final judgment day. In the meantime, we can choose to have Jesus as our gardener, farmer, savior, and redeemer.
For the full, exciting movie version of these parables, be sure to watch the Kingdom of Heaven on living scriptures. Com and start your free trial today. Not only does Living scriptures have thousands of clean, inspiring, and helpful films, but there you can find weekly lessons and quizzes for your Come Follow Me study. And if that’s not for you, donations are always appreciated from the link below as well. Now go read the scriptures for yourself.
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dyejo
