ALL RIGHT, EVERYONE! PAY ATTENTION! THIS IS SOMETHING YOU NEED TO HEAR!
Have I aroused your interest? Are you at least curious what I'm about to say that can justify such verbal arm-waving? Will you be upset (or at least disappointed) if I proceed to tell a story about some guy who has a farm down the road outside of town? I think you would be. Perhaps you would not be as quick to give me your attention the next time I called for it. You might think, "What does HE know about what's important?"
Well, that's exactly what Jesus did to a crowd that had gathered to Him one day by the lake of Galilee. He began a story with "Listen!" He ended it with "He who has hears to hear, let him hear"--in other words, "I have just told you something really important". In between, He said this:
"Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold" (Mark 4:3-8 ESV).
This is a story about some guy sowing some seed. Granted, it has some strange features; there's the guy's method of sowing, which we will discuss a little bit later on. Also, the seed in Jesus' story is unbelievably fruitful, yielding a crop of "thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold" when people in that time were happy with tenfold production. Still, I would imagine that many people were not interested enough to be bothered by such things; instead, they were indifferent.
They heard the words Jesus spoke and then started thinking about other things.
And yet, the Lord was saying something vitally important that concerns us all. He was talking about the kind of people that God's Word works in and the kind of people it doesn't work in. We know because we have the explanation in verses 14-20. So PAY ATTENTION--not because I say so, but because He said so.
"The sower sows the word" (v. 14). God's Word is not just sounds in the air (or words on a page). It is not mere information that sits in our memories and waits for us to make use of it. People misunderstand it if they treat it as a list of beliefs to check off while remaining unchanged. It has life, which is something we very much need to experience. Our bodies are not the only parts of us that become slaves to habit. Our thoughts and emotions do, too. As William James wrote, "All our life, so far as it has definite form, is but a mass of habits--practical, emotional and intellectual--systematically for our weal or woe, and bearing us irresistibly toward our destiny, whatever the latter may be" (Principles of Psychology). Too many of us know how easy it is to get stuck in the same arguments on the same subjects, struggling with the same emotional issues day after day. Much as we dislike our old patterns of life and wish to bring forth something new out of our hearts, we have found ourselves unable to. God's Word, however, has the power to act on a person's heart. It can stir up thoughts and feelings in a way they have not been stirred before. It can stir things up down in the deep recesses of one's being where things have not been stirred up before. It can bring change. It can bring that miraculous thing called growth.
However, and the more one thinks about it the more shocking this is, the power of God's Word will not operate in every heart it comes into contact with. Since God is almighty, we would expect that no human force could stand against it--or else we would expect that God, who knows all things, would ordain that only people who will respond to the Word rightly will get to hear it. After all, that's what farmers do with earthly seed; they prepare the field beforehand and then do their best to make sure the seed lands there. They do so because they know that seed won't yield a crop just anywhere, and they don't want to waste it. But, says Jesus, God is not like that. No matter who you are--no matter what God knows will happen to the Word that you hear--He wants you to hear it. However, there are conditions of the heart that will keep the life of God's Word from being productive inside.
Before we talk about them, though, let me emphasize that being confused and puzzled by God's Word is NOT one of them! His disciples weren't nodding their heads and muttering "Amen!" as He spoke. They were as confused as anyone else, but notice what they did. They went to Jesus afterward (verse 10) and asked about it. He explained it to them. Those who "have been given the secret of the kingdom of God" are not those who "get it", but those who seek knowledge because they are not content with not getting it.
Which brings us to the heart condition symbolized by the dirt path. We can call this person Mr. Rhodes. He may not be a bad person. He may even be a good person by the standards of this life, but when someone starts talking about spiritual things, his eyes glaze over. He may tell you he respects your religion, but he's just too busy dealing with things that are happening in this world to waste time thinking about the hereafter. So God's Word comes to him, and it bounces. He won't let it in. Jesus says that the Devil comes and carries it away.
The second heart condition we can call Rocky. Rocky loves to hear the Gospel. He especially loves to hear all the good things about following Jesus. Christian music may be on all the time on his radio. He may attend lots of Christian concerts and other church events. As a result, it's not surprising that when some Church salesman gives an especially attractive pitch about the Christian life, Rocky pops right out of his seat and comes forward. He feels this warm glow that stays with him for a couple of days. Then bad things happen. I knew someone who got heavily involved in church until he broke his arm in a freak accident and got laid off from his job. He became mad at God because he felt like God had broken their deal. He quit. It's one thing to claim the name of Christian when life is easy and everyone is nice to you. You can live life without ever going much below the surface of your heart. When your friends accuse you of thinking you're too good for them, when your co-workers belittle you, when you lose things you had always counted on--it affects you deeply. If you hold onto Jesus, it's because God's Word affects you more deeply still. Or you can be like soil with a layer of rock in it that the seed's roots don't penetrate.
For variety's sake, we can call the third heart condition Ms. Thorne. She has accepted Jesus into her heart, and she's a regular churchgoer. She longs for the early days of her faith when following Jesus seemed like the most precious thing in the world to her. Nevertheless, she needs to have nice clothes, or people will talk. The same goes for a new car. And a nicer house. And getting the promotion at work would sure make it a lot easier to pay all the bills. Still, when the daily bustle pauses for a moment, she has this uncomfortable feeling that she's "not growing spiritually", but then the light turns green, and she's caught up in the frenzy of life again. As verse 19 puts it, "the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful". Note that Jesus does not say the word dies; it "proves unfruitful".
Finally, we come to the person I trust we all want to be: Mr. (or Ms.) Trueheart. This person hears God's Word, and it sinks deep inside. For a while, there may be no immediate change that others may see, for what crop of any worth springs up overnight? In time, though, it becomes clear that this person's life has been changed in a way that only God can bring about. Now, some may wonder what the fruit of God's Word is. Some have considered that the fruit of a mature plant contains new seed and have concluded that God's fruit consists of sharing God's word ourselves. Now, there's nothing wrong with sharing God's word with people. However, I think it worthwhile to bring in Galatians 5:22--"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control". If such things are "the fruit of the Spirit", and the Spirit is given to those who accept Jesus, who is God's Word, then I do not think such an interpretation is out of line.
Now, what are we to do with all this? Perhaps some people had an uncomfortable pang of recognition as we discussed the types of bad ground. Someone may be thinking, "What do I do if I'm bad ground? Is there any hope for me?" Let me explain my perspective. I grew up in the hills above Los Angeles. Rocky ground was the only ground we had. If we wanted to grow something, we dug down and removed the rocks first. Now I live in an area where the ground is well-suited to planting a garden. Weeds grow well in it too. The people who have gardens do a lot of weeding. When I read this parable, I see the Lord challenging us NOT to read it fatalistically, as if we have no choice about the kind of ground we are. After all, the Lord says that God treats people with hard-packed dirt-road hearts as if they didn't; He shares His Word with them. He treats people with rocky, shallow hearts as if they didn't; He shares His Word with them. He treats people with hearts overrun by thorns of worldly desires as if they didn't; He shares His word with them. He challenges us with a story about seed falling on good soil, when we know that even the best soil must be prepared to receive seed. If God refuses to treat anyone as worthless ground, then why should we treat ourselves--or anyone else--that way? Do we realize that there have been occasions when we have not received God's Word in such a way that It would produce its wonderful growth in us? How do we feel about that? Are we content to keep on being that way or does it bother us? Does it fill us with regret that sometimes we have been filled with that which God's Word doesn't work with? Do we wish not to be that way? Now, I've never seen ground that threw out its rocks or that weeded itself. However, we know the farmer, and we have been given the privilege of praying to Him. If it bothers you to think that your heart may contain bad ground, I invite you to make it your constant prayer that He do His miracle of preparation in your heart. You might use words like this: "Father, I realize that there are times when I won't let Your Word come in to my heart, or when I do let it in but only so far, or when I let the concerns of this world occupy my heart in Your place. I do not want to be this way. Please take my heart, and prepare it. Break up the hard-packed dirt in it. Remove the rocks. Weed out the thorns. Make me good soil for Your Word to grow in, because that's what I want to be."
God is gracious, and He will do it. The grace of God be with us all. Amen.
