Who's laughing, now? (Gal. 6)

Athanasius, one of my favorite church fathers, wrote a lively devotional and theological work On the Incarnation. In a memorable metaphor, he explained that Jesus had, by His death, burial, and resurrection, deprived death of its power to terrify. Instead, death was like a captive enemy, shackled on a public street, to be mocked by all who pass by.

Some things are properly mocked. Satan, for example, has no sense of humor. Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer, who brings the lunacies of the left to light, in a humorous and cheerful way.

Then, there is Paul's agricultural admonition, concerning things that are not to be mocked:

Gal 6:7 Aldanmayın, Tanrı alaya alınmaz. İnsan ne ekerse onu biçer.
Gal 6:8 Kendi benliğine eken, benlikten ölüm biçecektir. Ruh'a eken, Ruh'tan sonsuz yaşam biçecektir.

Imagine a farmer who sows a field of turnips, then expects to harvest corn. He can fertilize that field, irrigate it, talk to his neighbors about how much he's looking forward to cooking corn on the cob -- but the seed germinating in the ground is turning into turnips. What the farmer wishes for doesn't count -- it's what he's sown!

We reap what we sow.
We reap after we sow.
We reap more than we sow.

Jesus said that, unless we understand the parable of the sower, seed, and ground, we'll remain ignorant of His Kingdom.