Lent For Everyone Reading Plan
The reading plan continues for the week after Easter. The reading for Friday after Easter is Matthew 13:1-23, the parable of the sower. (If you want to listen, scroll to the bottom of that page for the audio links.)
Wright says “Reading Jesus’ parables in Easter week is particularly fruitful. Imagine Matthew’s friends reading his book, with their own Easter celebrations now a regular weekly feature of life, and hearing them in a whole new way. Jesus had spoken elsewhere, after all, about his own life in terms of a grain of seed falling into the earth and dying, and then bearing a great deal of fruit. It looks as though he was applying to himself the strange picture in the parable of the Sower, where much seed seems to be thrown away, and yet some bears fruit 30, 60 or 100 times over.
What started life, then, as Jesus’ explanation of how his own kingdom-work was going ahead during the course of his public career can be translated, without difficulty, into the explanation that the Easter church now needs for how the work of world mission will fare.”
TODAY
“Give us the faith, good Lord, to see your kingdom at work even when seeds seem wasted and the soil seems bare. Thank you for the promise of the great harvest, of which your resurrection was the first fruits.”
Quite nicely done: The Parable of the Sower
And just a favorite that should be included in an after-Easter blog: When Death Dies
