What Next?

When we watch a film and discuss it with friends afterward, we often find we have different experiences of what we have seen.  We can watch the same stories playing out on our screens but respond to them in very different ways.

Through this reading plan, we’ve seen the character of Jesus introduced to us.

But have we responded to him in the right way?

Jesus doesn’t speak to us so that we will have the right answers. 

He’s got a much more personal agenda than that. 

He wants to bring us into a right relationship with God. 

You may not have noticed it, but you had a cameo role in that story.

You had a walk-on part.

Everyone who has ever heard the words of Jesus appears in that story.

Jesus is holding up a mirror to us, so we can see ourselves reflected back.

He often uses the image of seeds growing to represent what it is like to know and follow him. 

The region where Jesus lived is often dry and dusty.

The fields are green and lush compared to the rocky and cracked paths around them.

Jesus warns us that we can be like that soil. 

His words can land on us, and bounce off the surface, and never really go in.

Our hearts are a battleground. 

There are rivals who come in and capture our hearts. 

Maybe it’s the approval of other people that we value ahead of Jesus. 

Maybe it’s a relationship that we want to pursue, that goes against God’s will. 

Maybe it’s a love of money or the security it seems to provide for us.

You might feel that your heart is dry or arid. 

You might feel it is damaged and unproductive. 

But Jesus promises that the seed that grows in us yields a crop; a bumper harvest.

Things change when we truly come to trust and follow Jesus. 

The Holy Spirit sets about changing our attitudes and desires. 

It’s a work that only he can do, and it often starts small, but it grows.

So Jesus asks us, “Have you been listening?”

And if you have, will you respond to him by trusting in his word and seeing that seed grow in you?