Ruts are funny things. They’re like the gutters in the bowling ally, grabbing hold of the ball and guiding it down the same (wrong) path.

We often get in ruts when we read Scripture. We’ve heard things taught a certain way, and just always assume that certain passages refer to certain things… because that’s how we’ve heard them.

This problem touches one of the goals of our church body — that we would be directly and honestly exposed to the Word of God as it is. That we would, to the best of our ability, avoid tracking down a line of thought just because that’s how we’ve heard it from our favorite human teacher. Because gutterballs really are a problem.

So… I was struck this past week in really thinking about what Jesus is saying in Luke 8. It is a well-known teaching, in all of the Synoptic Gospels, the first of Jesus parables, the one he spends the most time explaining… the parable of the Sower. Maybe you’ve heard it. Sower, tossing out seed, four kinds of soil. Generally speaking, we agonize over what kind of soil we are, what kind of soil our relatives and loved ones are, and how we can respond rightly to the Word, which Jesus himself identifies as the seed scattered out.

But the point of the parable doesn’t really seem to be soil evaluation. Or even mission work, directly. At least, Jesus very definitely speaks of telling the ‘secrets’ of the Kingdom of God to the disciples. And the secrets of the Kingdom aren’t the soils. The mysterious thing is the seed.

The seed. To this day, a mystery. How does a seed hold life? How does life work? A plant from that little, inanimate thing? Wondrous, mysterious.

And then… says Jesus… God takes his wondrous, valuable seed… which is the Word, Jesus Christ himself… and scatters the seed to all the world. That’s absolutely mind-boggling.

Jesus knows. He knows he’s being scattered for the world… and that great swaths of the world will reject him… and still… for the joy of making some plants mature to what they should be… he will be scattered out, wasted at times…. sacrificed. Wow.

This idea of the mystery is in accord with Paul. He relelntlessly points to the mystery as life inside believers, in union with Christ — in an amazingly inclusive way. The Gentiles — pagan idolaters — are included in this kingdom! All it takes is trust in the seed… which is evidence of good soil.

With this emphasis on the seed, the parable of the sower pops out of the gutter… and pushes us to worship. We worship the mystery that is Christ in us, the hope of glory. We stand amazed that he would willingly be poured out, knowing that rejection was ahead… and even using that rejection toward the salvation of those who, knowing their lifelessness, would put their trust in him alone.

Solus Christus. The Word made flesh, who dwelt among us.

Wow.