This Sunday, the Sixth after Trinity, the Gospel reading was Matthew 13.1–9, 18–23 – Jesus’s Parable of the Sower and his explanation for the disciples.
Listening with my Lectio Divina ears, the phrase that struck me twice was the return of 30-fold. Twice Jesus lists the yields of 100-fold, 60 and 30, and we assume the highest figure of a 100 is the best. But that’s our arithmetic. It doesn’t seem to be Jesus’s. Granted, he lists the lowest figure at the end, but elsewhere he says that the first shall be last. He pronounces no judgement on the lower return. All seem to be equally good in his sight.
I looked up (okay okay, I asked ChatGPT, so you might want to take these figures with a hearty pinch of salt) modern grain yields in England compared with yields in first-century Palestine. In England, yields depend on soil, planting conditions and weather during the seasons, but the return on wheat is on average about 40-fold. So much for all our technology, fertiliser, herbicides, pesticides etc etc (and input-to-output efficiency is declining). In Palestine, farmers primarily grew emmer, durum wheat and barley. In most areas, a 5-fold yield was good, rising to 10-fold on the most fertile land.
That is to say, the figures Jesus is giving are astronomical. No wonder he pronounces no judgement on thirty! It makes me wonder… Was he exaggerating for dramatic or humorous effect? To make his parable memorable? (It was remembered well enough to be included in all three Synoptic Gospels.) Or to emphasise the waste of God’s generosity and power in the cases where the seed did not fall into good soil? (We seem to be doing our best to destroy our soil.)
But the message I took from the reading was that thirty is OK. Many of my friends are at or near the tops of their professions, and benefiting hundreds, if not thousands or millions, with their work. Often I measure myself against all that good others are doing and find myself wanting. And I shouldn’t, because even 5-fold was good in Jesus’s day. Moreover, setting a target is pointless, for even if I am helping only one or two other people, who knows whether that might have a ripple effect? Who knows whether God might work miracles?
So the key is to continue to do my work in good faith. Prepare the soil, work the soil and sow the grain, protect it against the metaphorical birds and water it, let God give the growth, then give thanks for any harvest that may come, however great it is and whoever reaps it. Be patient, and make sure that the task is sustainable. To God be the glory. Amen.