Let Them Bear Fruit
By Anthony Casperson
5-31-25

There’s something about a campaign-style tabletop game that draws me in. Perhaps it’s the overarching narrative that continues to flow from session to session of play. Maybe it’s the fact that the game expands along with my skill in its mechanics. Or possibly, I just want a reason to hang out with my friends more.

Regardless of why, I find that my excitement for these games expands beyond even just playing them myself. More than a few board gaming YouTube channels thrive off of their interactions with this type of game. And in my time watching their excitement, I’ve noticed that the way they interact with the games tend to fall into a handful of categories.

The first category are those who bought in early on during the crowdfunding campaign to bring the game to life. They followed the story of the designers. And read every update the day it came out. But once the package finally arrived, they put the shrinkwrapped box on their shelf.

They fully intend to get around to showcasing the game, but until then, it gets to look pretty in their background. However, months and years pass with the box still in its original shrinkwrap. The game never played. And eventually sold off to be in someone else’s collection.

A second category of these board gaming channels rocked with anticipation for their crowdfunded game to arrive. Then, the minute that the box landed at their door, they flipped on the camera and opened the outer shipping box with their little pocketknife. Their voice lilts as they exclaim the pure joy of opening the box. And after having removed the shrinkwrap, they take in the amazing art. Every plastic miniature gets its own closeup shot.

Then, a few days after the unboxing episode, the youtuber shows off a session or two of the game. But something in it doesn’t sit right with them. It might be that the game is a little more difficult than they thought it would be. Or they don’t gel with an aspect of the game mechanics. Or it just feels like a lesser version of something they already have on their shelf. So, the game languishes in their collection without even getting past the early areas of the campaign. Forgotten. Dust-covered. Un-played.

Similar to the second, comes the third category. They also await the arrival of their package. Open it. Ohh and ahh. And finally play the game. But unlike the previous category of gamer, they love the mechanics and setting. With their whole heart. The intention is to play this complete campaign. Day after day for an entire week, they release videos of playing the campaign.

But then…the next game they’d been excited about arrives at their door. It also deserves attention. And the viewership for long-running campaign games always drops off rapidly. Therefore, lured by the desire to keep up with the new game’s hype, the youtuber slows their release of videos covering the first game. The second one takes over the primary role on the channel. Until two or three weeks later when a third game thuds onto their doorstep. And the playlist dies. Like so many before.

Finally, we have the fourth category of gaming youtuber. They’re ready for the game to arrive. A schedule of when to play the various sessions of the game has been laid out. There’s more than an intention with these youtubers. The game will be played. All the way through.

Intention becomes reality with this category of gamer. They play. And experience the breadth of the story. Highs and lows. Successes and defeats. For some, the excitement for campaign games even leads them to design their own addition to the gaming hobby.

Some of you reading these words might be wondering what all of this has to do with our summer blog series, Mysteries of the Kingdom. However, others—who have just been reminded of this series that will look at the parables of Jesus—might have just remembered that I promised last week that we’d look at a parable from Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. The parable of the soils. The story I just attempted to retell with a slight change of illustration.

Four soils. Four categories of gamers. Four types of people who interact with the parables of Jesus as he explains the mysteries of the kingdom to them.

While, in the last blog, we saw Jesus talk about two types of people—those who listen with open eyes/ears/hearts and those who close themselves to the truth of Jesus—the parable surrounding those synoptic gospel passages reveals further depth to the categorizations. Jesus speaks of the fact that eyes, ears, and hearts can close in various ways. Meanwhile, the understanding of a person who has opened their eyes/ears/heart will never end with just cognitive assent. Something greater must happen as the truth takes root.

In general, the parable of the soils is about listening. Actually listening and understanding the truth of the mysteries about the kingdom that Jesus reveals through his parables. Mark 4:3 shows that Jesus began this lesson with a call to listen. “Listen.” Hear this, O people who wish to learn from Jesus.

He then speaks of a sower going out to sow seed. A vast cast that covers a wide swath of land. The first type of soil is hard-packed. Well-trodden land that has been so thoroughly callused to anything new that it might as well have a layer of shrinkwrap over it. Nothing’s getting though. That seed is swiftly taken away. Stolen by the birds that represent the evil powers of this world. Sold to another without ever letting the story capture the gamer’s heart.

We can see that this is the epitome of those who close their hearts to the good news of the Kingdom of God. Those who refuse the barest glimpse at the mystery revealed right in front of them. There’s not even time for the contents of the box to capture their attention before thought of it is stolen away.

Jesus moves on to a second soil. This one wasn’t tilled properly. It’s merely a layer of soil sitting upon rocks. The excitement takes over. It looks like mystery has been taken in. The game’s aesthetics promise something amazing. But there’s no root, nothing to anchor the growth. All show with no substance. And so, when difficulties and trials come, the growth withers to nothing. What that person had expected life to look like because of the truth of Jesus wasn’t what they got. “You mean, I might be called to suffer for my faith? And also should stop doing these things that make me feel good? No, I’m out. Bye.”

Sometimes, a closed heart looks open. It appears that the person is ready to receive truth. Everything looked pretty at the start. But once the first sign of trouble arises, once the experience doesn’t match the expectation, the supposed life withers. Something just under the surface made its presence known. And it was far less than pretty. It was a deceptive openness that ended with hard-shut eyes, closed-off ears, and a callused heart.

A slightly longer path to the same result as the first.

Jesus then leads to the third type of soil. That which has also collected the seeds of thorns. Weeds that grew up along with the early sprouts of life. But they choke out the life from the first shoots. Vying for the same resources, the thorns steal away from the plants’ life. They’re the next new thing that grabs at our attention. The newest game to arrive. The next generation of console or phone. The responsibilities of a new job. Whatever it is in this present reality that demands our life from us.

Our circumstances can close our hearts. Quickly shifting attention grabbers that mesmerize us with flashing lights and short-term pleasures. But it is only a siren’s call to lull us into submission as it leads us to our death. Empty endorphin rushes that turn us away from the amazing revealed mysteries of the kingdom.

The fourth soil—which has been loosened up, freed of impenetrable rocks, and released from the grip of invasive species—is good and ready to accept the seed. It’s the person who has prepared to play the game the whole way through, experiencing the story in the way that the storyteller intended. This person is the one who hears and understands and takes the truth of the mysteries of the kingdom to heart.

The truth Jesus teaches us must penetrate our understanding of the world. We must allow its roots to grow. Everything that can leech away from us the life God offers must be removed. And then ultimately, we will bear fruit.

It’s not enough to hear and understand. That understanding must change us. It must grow in us until we bear fruit. Until our lives and actions have been modified to match the example of Jesus’ revealed mystery of the kingdom. We will fail to hear and understand unless we allow the words of Jesus to bear fruit in our lives.

Our hearts will remain closed to his truth unless we are ready to let it change us.

Last week’s blog was meant to prepare us for this summer series. But this week, let us be prepared for the truth of Jesus. Let him break up the hard-packed dirt and open that shrinkwrap. Let him help us break through the difficulties of rocks and game mechanics so that roots can support us through the difficulties of life. Let him free us from the thorns and the other pressing distractions that seek to choke the life and excitement out of us.

And let him grow us until we bear fruit. Until we are ready to spread that same seed—that same excitement about his story—to others.

A soil is only called good when it bears fruit. And so, let’s seek to be called good soil for the kingdom of God. Let’s grow in the spread of the mysteries of the kingdom. And allow that truth which Jesus shares in his parables to grow in us.

Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear. And let them bear fruit.