Good Friday morning! The cat is getting distracted by a noisy bird outside making it hard for him to complete his morning grooming. What distracts you and me in this world? Okay, that is too broad of a question; we might be here for days trying to answer that! In this world we are easily distracted. Something new comes along and we get distracted from the old stuff and want to check out this new thing. But how long do we follow the new thing until we are distracted by something else and the new thing now becomes the cast off old thing? Jesus had arrived in Jerusalem at the Passover. He had begun his ministry with marvelous signs. Jesus had become that new thing. People were interested and as we will read today, some had begun to trust in this new man.
Because of the miraculous signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration, many began to trust in him. (John 2:24)
Jesus had already done some things that told people something new had arrived. But the people were probably reminded of something old from their Scriptures. Jesus may have been seen as the new prophet in town. The people probably forgot that the old prophets often said things that the people didn't want to hear. Jesus arrived and the people found their latest distraction. On the other hand, we can see the start of something great. People began to trust in him, including the disciples as we know they had much to learn at this time. Among those who began to trust in Jesus must have been at least a few who would remain faithful. We know from the parable of the seeds that some of these who had begun to trust would soon be distracted by some other new thing. Their hearts were like the thin, rocky soil where the plant came up, but soon died from the hot sun and lack of good soil. What about those that remained faithful?
The early Christians who believed in Jesus from the beginning became our spiritual ancestors. In time, many of those early Christians would be scattered to the far nations as Rome persecuted the early church. All of them worked to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ, some through the spoken word, others wrote Gospels and letters, others supported those on missions, very much like we do today. We can tell that Jesus began planting his seeds right away from the miraculous signs referred to in today's verse. The seeds soon sprouted and grew as many began to trust in him. From among those seeds that fell on the good soil, we have disciples like John, Peter, and James who spread the Good News. We also have supporters of the Word like Mary Magdalene, Lazarus, and Martha who gave and worked to help other 'seeds' grow in Christ. As Jesus began the planting, others would work for the harvest, and still others would plant more seed.
It is interesting to think that at this time as Jesus had just started to plant that new garden of believers, a man from Tarsus had probably not yet heard of Jesus or his new ministry. We know that later on Saul of Tarsus would come running with a big hoe and try to eradicate what he thought was a bunch of new weeds in God's original garden. Saul would not recognize this new Gospel Garden until Jesus grabbed his attention on the road to Damascus. What a miraculous change Jesus made in Saul! We too have the seed planted in our hearts. Give glory to God this morning for his miraculous work in each of us.
Have a great and joyous weekend!
Bucky
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