阅读经文 

若有人给你讲一个故事，故事的开头听来有点特别，你便被故事吸引了，你会尝试明白那人为什么会以这种方式讲这个故事。例如，农夫随意到处撒下他宝贵的种子，是不合情理的事。然而，有一个农夫果真这样做，实在是太浪费和愚蠢了。

耶稣邀请我们来关注这个农夫作为衪的比喻的开始。从务农的角度来看，撒种的人是太大意了，但在这里，耶稣不是在提供农耕的意见，衪乃是在举例说明神的道如何被传播，以及人们怎样领受这道。

在耶稣的比喻中，农夫撒种前没有判定泥土的品质。神的道被传扬出去时，传道者也没有假定人心灵的状态，在种子被撒下之前，有谁能预先知道泥土的状况呢？撒种的人只管把种子撒下，他是不会预先估计所冒的风险和结果的，他只是负责把种子撒下。

我们往往禁不住从责任管理、效率、投资风险、和盈利率的角度来衡量事物。然而，身为罪人，我们是耶稣所冒的极大的投资风险——但我们要感谢神，祂的道已临到我们了。

今天，神已经把衪的道赐给你了，你将会怎样去善用这道呢？

When someone begins to tell you a story and it sounds unusual, it draws you in as you try to figure out why the story is being told this way. For example, it wouldn’t make any sense for a farmer to be so careless as to scatter his valuable seed just anywhere. But that’s what this farmer is doing, and that seems to be wasteful and foolish.

It turns out that Jesus’ parable begins by inviting us to see something about this farmer. From an agricultural point of view, the sower is being careless, but Jesus is not giving farming advice. He is illustrating how the Word of God is spread and how it is received.

In Jesus’ parable the farmer does not prejudge the soil. The spreading of the Word does not make presumptions about the human heart, for who knows what the conditions are until the seed has been sown there? The sower simply sows, and he does not calculate the risks and results ahead of time. He just sows.

We often cannot help thinking in terms of responsible management, efficiency, investment risks, and rates of return. As sinners, though, we would be a very poor risk for Jesus to take——but, thanks be to God, the Word comes our way.

What will you do with the gift of God’s Word coming to you today?