"Seeds, Soils, and God's Word" July 26 Readings: Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-25, Luke 8:4-18

Today's Reading - Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-25, Luke 8:4-18

Background

"Jesus told stories so that people would understand him better."

So many preachers have used Jesus' love for parables as a reason to be a storyteller in their messages. They reference Jesus' parables as their reason for such a tactic. He told stories to make his sermons understandable to the masses.

The only problem with that is that Jesus said just the opposite. It is one of the more difficult to understand themes of the gospel story, but Jesus often discouraged people from speaking out about him, and here he tells his disciples that the purpose of the parables was to PREVENT people from understanding. Look at Matthew 13:11-12

To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.”

Jesus told parables to communicate with his disciples but to keep others seeing, but not perceiving, hearing, but not understanding. The parables seem to divide the believer from the unbeliever.

Today's readings, in all three Synoptic Gospels, open the topic of parables. Jesus told many of them to communicate to his disciples the nature of the kingdom. The first, and perhaps greatest, of the of the parables concerns the seeds and the soils. We do not have to wonder what it means, since Jesus interprets it for us.

As we read the parables, we will also look at some principles about interpreting them properly.

Devotional - Seeds, Soils, and God's Word

When we gather to worship on Sundays, we get cleaned up, dressed up, bundled up (when that is needed) and head to church. But getting ready for church ought to involve more than a shower and some clean clothes. There ought to some spiritual preparation that takes place as well. 

We have a lot of farmers in our fellowship. I'm no expert in agriculture, but I do know that preparation of the soil is important before planting takes place when the ground thaws in a few months.

Before you sow the seed, you prepare the soil. 

The same thing is true with going to church. Every time we gather, there will be some seed sown. We will sing songs about God's glory and grace. We will pray together. I will preach God's Word from the pulpit and most of you will attend a Sunday School class as well. According to the parable Jesus told in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15, every time God's word goes out, a seed is sown, whether at Southern Hills or another church, in personal Bible study or any other form. 

The question is, what kind of soil is your heart? 

Jesus described four kinds of soil, each representing a way that someone responds when the seed that is the word of God is sown. Some people are hardened soil and refuse to hear or receive the word. I hope (and believe) that we have very few who are reading this or who worship with us on Sundays are hardened against God's word. Many are good soil and receive the word with joy.

But there are also two other kinds of soil that do not allow God's word to produce its harvest. First, there is rocky soil, which does not allow the word to go down deep and establish roots. Such people receive the word with joy, intending to do what it says. But their roots are shallow and as soon as they get out into the world, the word in them begins to turn brown and die. On Sunday it all seemed so great but by Monday the joy had faded and the word was too hard to follow. Far too many Christians are rocky soil. 

Far too many of us are soil filled with weeds and thorns. We receive the seed of the word and it begins to grow, but suddenly weeds sprout up to choke out the ord and prevent it from producing a harvest within us. The problem is not with the soil, but the fact that too many bad seeds have been sown along with the word. Seeds of materialism and greed, of immorality and impurity, of self-centeredness and pride. The worldly seeds produce thorny plants that choke out the work that the word is meant to accomplish. 

But what we need to be is the soft, clean soil - ready to receive the word of God and let it root deeply within and bring its harvest in our lives. We must open ourselves to the Spirit of God that he would till the soil of our hearts until we are ready to listen and obey, until we are ready not just to hear the word, but to let our lives be changed by it. 

Lord, till the soil in my heart so that I might receive the word and it may have the harvest in my soul that you desire.  I repent of my resistance to your word and my divided concern.  Fill me and transform me by the renewing of my mind with your word. 

Think and Pray

Which of the four soils best describes your response to the word of God?