Good dirt

Listen then to what the parable of the sower means:

When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.

But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.  –Matthew 13:18-23

This is Jesus’ explanation of what has come to be known as the parable of the sower. Although it makes good shorthand for Bible headings, the title feels incomplete. In four examples, the sower and the seed are constant; the soil is the variable. The sower scatters seed liberally across all soil types. What happens next depends on the soil, the heart of the one receiving the seed, which is the word of God. The soils have equal access: Will they turn out to be Simple, Shallow, Selfish, or Solid?

This “story behind the story” is part of an answer to a question from the disciples, those serving an apprenticeship under the Master Teacher. They want to know why Jesus speaks to the crowds in parables, why much of his teaching seems to be riddles, why so many of his answers to the religious authorities are actually questions. In a statement that used to strike me as cruel, Jesus indicates that the obscurity of His words is intentional.

Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.  –Matthew 13:12

Wait, what? That doesn’t even sound fair! But the statement isn’t cruel, just a reflection of reality and restatement of a promise given in the Sermon on the Mount. God doesn't hide, but He doesn't overwhelm either. Everyone has to choose. Thus the soils. People who seek God find God. People who find God seek Him even more. Conversely, people who reject God find their hearts growing harder and colder with time. 

There are people I love who stubbornly practiced their faith and continued to abide, even through dry seasons. They persevered and have gone on to experience a richness in their relationship with Christ that continues to draw them deeper still. Others I love have deconstructed their faith to the point that they’re stuck, sometimes on some past wound inflicted by "church people". They've essentially lost interest in the pursuit of additional insights that might yet reshape their understanding and re-vitalize a relationship with their Savior.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.  –Matthew 5:6

But bad soil doesn’t have to remain bad. Just as unusable land can be plowed, fertilized, and prepared for receiving seed and yielding a crop, hearts can be renewed, refreshed, and made fertile again. And that is my prayer for us today. That we would test our soil and confess along with the man who brought to Jesus his son possessed by a spirit, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief!”

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you. – Hosea 10:12