4th Pentecost 11
The soil of your heart.
Matthew 13:1-13:23
In the 19th Century and into the first part of the 20th (before radar was invented) ships avoided each other by looking out for beacons or lights on other ships.
And they communicated with each other by flashing messages to each other by light in a sort of Morse code. One day a battleship was out on maneuvers and the captain of the battleship saw a beacon on the horizon.
He realized that his ship was on a collision course with it. So he called his signaler and told him. "Flash the following signal over there “We are on a collision course, we advise you change course 20 degrees."
The reply came back "Advise you to change your course 20 degrees."
The captain signaled back, "Who do you think you are - telling a Captain in the Royal Navy what to do."
The response came back "I’m a seaman second class, you’d better change your course 20 degrees.”
By this time the captain was furious. He signaled back "I’m a battleship. I have no intention of changing my course. Change your course 20 degrees."
The reply came back: "I’m a lighthouse. Be my guest."
For the Christian, Jesus is the lighthouse in the storms of life. And it is at our peril that we ignore him. The Bible is God’s manual for life. It tells us how to live our lives as God the Creator designed us to live. And in it we find the marvelous teaching that Jesus has given us by which we can live our lives.
Jesus gave much of his teaching in the form of stories that we call parables. In this morning’s Gospel, we see Jesus down by the sea. And he used a boat to go out from the shore so he could speak to the mass of people more easily. Your voice travels better on water than on land – unless there is a storm!
Jesus used simple everyday metaphors to explain complicated theological ideas. You can also usually tell who is in the crowd that Jesus is speaking because of the types of parables He tells. Basically, Jesus put complicated things simply. And the thrust of this morning’s parable is simply that it is not enough to simply hear Jesus’ fine words. He wants us to put them into action
For many the distance between the ear and the heart is a mighty long one!
In the Parable, the various soils signify that there are four possible reactions when we hear the word of God.
1. The first ground of Jesus’ parable is the pathway. The seed doesn’t grow because the path has been so trodden down that the seed can’t penetrate the ground. So it lies on top and the birds pick it up.
This ground represents the hearts of people who hear Jesus’ words and are just not interested in them. They can’t be bothered and think Jesus’ teaching is foolish. And for such people, Jesus’ words are soon forgotten.
One such person was Joseph Stalin, one of the great mass murderers of all time. But when Stalin was a young man, he went to a theological college, but in later years he rejected the wonderful teaching of Jesus to embrace the harshness of communism.
2. The second type of soil in Jesus’ parable is the rocky ground with shallow soil.
The seed starts to grow and puts down roots but because there is not sufficient soil for the roots to grow the plant withers away. This soil signifies people who would like to be disciples of Jesus, but don’t put in the effort needed, they don’t find regular time for prayer and Bible Study.
Many times these are the people who come to church at Christmas and Easter – and think this is enough. But sadly the word of God doesn’t take root deeply in their hearts and they soon drift away from Christian living. If you asked them they would say they are Christian – but they are Christian in name only.
Are we like the rocky soil? We hear the good news of God and at first receive it with joy but don’t really allow the roots of God’s Word to go very deep. Perhaps when you were younger you may have watched Billy Graham on TV, or responded to an invitation at church and asked Jesus into your heart to forgive you of your sin. Perhaps you found joy and peace in that moment, perhaps God made some changes in your life, but then you never did anything after that. You never found a church to worship and grow in, a fellowship of other believers to help them in their faith journey. You never cracked open a Bible to get nourishment from God’s word. You never made any adjustments in your lifestyle. In other words your roots never went very deep. You never spent time getting to know this Lord that you allowed into your heart. Your spiritual life in Jesus is very shallow.
Jesus said the problem with having shallow roots is that when the storms of life or the scorching droughts of life come (and they will come), financial trouble, loss of a job, death of a loved one, divorce; that person wilts under the struggle, because they were not rooted deeply in God.
3. The third type of soil is good but the environment is bad because of weeds and it chokes the seed.
The seed falls on soil that is deep enough for the corn to take root but the thorns spring up. The seed does spring up – but its choked by the cares of life. This signifies people who earnestly want to follow Jesus teaching, but the worries of life crowd Jesus’ teaching out. They get sidetracked. Often they worry about money. They just want to make enough to be comfortable and spend more and more time working – and have less and less time for God and family.
Let me tell you, I have never heard of anyone - on their death bed - saying: “I wish I had spent more time in the office” Yet many people live as if they believe that. The ground might be good but the environment is bad.
Are we like the soil which is filled with thorns and weeds? The thorns represent the cares of this world. We are more concerned over material things than we are about the one who provides our needs. A dominate part of our life, our thoughts, is concerned about money, we worry a lot. I see this as a life which tries to straddle both worlds. They want to live in God’s kingdom but also want to be part of the world, the devil’s kingdom. They want to keep living a worldly life, they still enjoy getting drunk, using their money to buy anything they fancy, their language has never cleaned up (particularly using the Lord’s name in vain), they are generally living a lifestyle not pleasing to God, and yet somehow they expect to enjoy all the benefits and blessings of being a part of God’s kingdom. When they are with church people they act like church people but when they are with their old buddies they act like their old buddies and behave like them too. Unfortunately the thorns of this world and the seed of the gospel can’t coexist for long. As Jesus said the thorns eventually grow and choke out God’s word and the lifestyle he wants us to live. The thorns choke out God’s fruits, and his blessings, because we can’t live a double life.
God’s kingdom will not be fully realized in us when we choose the first three types of soil.
4. And the final ground of Jesus’ parable is the good soil, where the seed produces a wonderful crop.
Following Christ is more than simply listening to Jesus words. We need to be committed to the cause. We need to make following Jesus our major concern in life. That doesn’t mean that we can’t be interested in our jobs and family. But it does mean that we bring Jesus into our daily lives.
We need to set aside time for prayer and Bible Study and spending time worshiping God in Church and in our house.
So in Conclusion, for the seed of God to be of any use in our lives it has to germinate in our hearts. Our heart is the soil that Jesus spoke about in the parable.
All of us know people who are incredibly fruitful in their walk with Christ, they just radiate Christ. They ooze love, peace, joy, faithfulness, self-control and not falling into sin, and are pleasant to everyone regardless of the situation. They didn’t get that way by accident. God’s fruitfulness grew in them because they chose to be the kind of soil God could plant his Word in. Jesus said the last kind of soil would experience fruit 100, 60, and 30 times what was sown. In other words they would see extraordinary blessings in their life because they were willing to receive Jesus, grow deeper, and live for him. These people experience the fruit of love, joy, peace, and all the blessings God wants to give.
We get to choose what kind of soil we will be based on what we do with God’s message. Do we receive it with openness or reject it? Does it cause us to dig deeper, do we seek to know this God who loves us more? Are we more concerned with the things of this world more than we are of God? Things like pleasure, money, entertainment, sports, school? Or do we go deeper; do we put God first in everything and do we trust God and allow him to bear kingdom fruit in our life? It’s your choice.
