The Parable of the Soils:
"Later that same day, Jesus left
the house and went down to the shore, where an immense crowd soon gathered. He
got into a boat, where he sat and taught as the people listened on the shore.
He told many stories such as this one: 'A farmer went out to plant some seed.
As he scattered it across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the
birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock.
The plants sprang up quickly, but they soon wilted beneath the hot sun and died
because the roots had no nourishment in the shallow soil. Other seeds fell
among thorns that shot up and choked out the tender blades. But some seeds fell
on fertile soil and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred
times as much as had been planted. Anyone who is willing to hear should listen
and understand!'" (Matthew 13:1-9,
NLT)
Jesus' parable of the sower is a great illustration on our
response to the word of God. The focus
of the parable is on two things: the
seed and the soil. In fact, I don't know
why it's called the parable of the sower because the sower doesn't really
dominate the story. Some people like to
say that the sower (the farmer) is Jesus Christ, but there's no evidence to
support that conclusion. The reason some
like to say the farmer is Jesus is because in the parable of the wheat and the
tares the farmer in that parable is Jesus.
The mistake lies in taking illustrations from one parable and using them
in another parable. Sometimes that's
justified, sometimes it's not.
Let's focus on the two items of importance in this parable. The first thing is the seed. The seed represents the word of God--the
Bible. This seed is scattered all around
the field and falls on four different types of soil: hard soil, shallow soil, weed-choked soil,
and fertile soil. The soil in this
parable represents the human heart--better yet, it represents the preparedness
of the human heart. Jesus explains this
parable later on in the narrative, so I will summarize His response.
The hard soil is the heart of those who flat out reject the word
of God. Their hearts are so hard that
the seed cannot penetrate, and the birds of the air (Satan and his minions)
snatch the seed before it can take root.
The shallow soil is the person who receives the word of God with joy,
but shrinks from the first sign of adversity.
They like the rewards associated with being a Christian, but don't want
to walk the path of tribulation many Christians do. The weed-choked soil is the person who allows
the cares of the temporal world to choke the growth of the word of God in their
hearts. These people are more worried
about their jobs, their families, their homes and their stuff than they are
about cultivating a relationship with God.
Finally, is the fertile soil.
These are people who hear the word of God and bear much fruit--i.e.,
these are true believers.
Now this is nothing new, as I said earlier Jesus explains this
later in the passage. However, I want to
draw some application from this parable.
The first thing I want to draw is that we have no control how the seed
(the word of God) is received by others.
The parable makes no mention of new and inventive ways of laying seed
using the most modern agricultural equipment known to man. It is the soil that determines how the seed
is received, not the method of laying the seed.
Don't think you have to be glib and have answers to every question that
skeptics will ask you in order to be successful. God doesn't want us to rely on our own power
in evangelism. The reason being whenever
we get into the mix we have a tendency to screw things up. As the Apostle Paul says: "Through us God caused you to
believe. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. My job was to plant the seed
in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God, not we, who made it
grow. The ones who do the planting or watering aren’t important, but God is
important because he is the one who makes the seed grow" (1 Corinthians
3:5-7).
The second application I want to draw
from this is we also have no control how the soil is prepared. Who prepares a heart to receive the word if
God? The Holy Spirit! We don't go into the field and dig up the
weeds or break up the hard ground.
That's the Holy Spirit's job.
Soil that was weed-choked yesterday may become cleared of weeds today
and ready to accept the seed. We don't
make that determination. We don't say to
ourselves, "The person obviously won't respond to the gospel, his heart is
way to hard." We just lay the seed
and let God worry about the condition of the soil. How true is this for us? Two years ago, my heart was hard soil; any
attempt to plant seed would have resulted in the birds of the air swooping down
to eat the seed. All of us, at one time,
were either hard soil, shallow soil, or weed-choked soil. The Holy Spirit worked that soil until it was
ready to receive the word of God; and as a consequence we are bearing much
fruit for the Lord.