In ancient times it was common for teachers to teach in parables... in which a familiar story (or image) was cast alongside a deeper truth, which the hearer was invited to interpret. Jesus often taught in parables, using situations that were part of everyday life to make a deeper point. For instance, since the vast majority of people in Israel were desperately poor in Jesus' time, they could easily relate to a poor woman who lit her light and swept her dirt floor until she found a single lost coin. They knew how valuable a single coin was to a poor person. They would've crawled on their hands and knees... to find the coin themselves. They could "feel" the woman's joy when she found her lost coin, and they were able to see how valuable and important they were to God.
Jesus told scores of parables, but we are invited to consider his parable of the sower (Mark 4:3-9) at this time, recognizing that we are soil-types because God is the sower and his word is the seed. In Jesus' day farmers sowed their land by hand- with a sweeping motion they scattered the seed as they walked along. Everyone knew this and in their mind's eye, they could readily picture a sower sowing seed. They had seen it time and again and they knew that some of sower's seed would fall on his best soil... and some of it would fall on the pathways, some of it on the roads, some of it on the rocky areas, and some of it would fall in "hard to get to" places where it would be less likely to thrive. They could picture the sower in their minds, and since the rain and sunshine fell on good and bad soil alike, Jesus' listeners appreciated the value of the soil.
As a boy from Iowa, I know about good, rich, productive soil. Things just grow well in Iowa, but they don't grow well everywhere. Things don't grow well in the desert... unless they get a lot of love. and things (other than a weed or two) don't grow on the roads and paths between the fields (not even in Iowa). I can sow all the seed I have on I-80 and never reap a crop... because the seed cannot penetrate the concrete. Some of us, Jesus noted, are like concrete. For any number of reasons, we are totally resistant to God's word of grace. Maybe the good news is the too-good-to-be-true news to us; maybe we are too complicated to accept simple offers; maybe we don't believe that we need a savior; maybe we don't even believe that the sower exists. People become rigid and hardened for a number of reasons... but one thing is clear: even a city boy knows that seed will not grow in concrete!
The sower knows it too, of course, as so he moves along, realizing that some of his seeds will never take hold. Most of the seed, however, will find some sort of land. Most of the seed that is sown will have a chance... but according to Jesus' parable (and our life experience) some of it will have a better chance... because the soil on which it lands will be deep and rich. Some of the seed will fall on fertile ground, but some of the seed will fall on shallow soil, which is not deep enough to sustain long-term growth. Hearers who are "shallow soil" get off to a deceptively good start, precisely because they are shallow. It looks at first like the seed (the word of God) is really taking hold in their lives. They join in religious activities. They show up at fellowship events. They learn the words that people like to hear... but it's just an illusion. They have not received God's word in depth... and therefore, when the sun shines hot and the rains fall hard, the seed either dries up or washes away. They may have been well-intended; they may have been less than honest in the first place; but in any event, shallow soil will not yield much of a crop!
The sower knows this. of course, and he keeps on sowing, knowing that some people will never receive the good news and that others will only embrace it when things are going well for them. The remainder of the sower's land in fertile. It is good- like Iowa farmland- and the sower is optimistic about the yield that this land may give Him. But alas, much of the could-have-been-good soil becomes weed-ridden. A weed here and there... becomes a hundred of them, and then- you know it's true- the weeds choke off and overrun the crop. It's a sad thing to see, and it's even sadder to see a man or a woman who had an open mind, a teachable spirit, a vulnerable heart, and a "felt" need... become a weed patch. The weeds of life are pride (the person never surrenders), self-will (he never surrendered), envy, resentments, and other spiritual cancers, and "sins on the side." No one will yield a crop for God is he or she is serving two masters- faith and sin- because sin (weeds) will always win. I have not had a drink of alcohol since October 10,1976- which will be 38 years soon. Yes, I've missed out on wine coolers and a lot of fun drinks, but my point is this: I first quit drinking in the summer of '76, and I should be celebrating 38 years right now... but on a business trip, I found myself standing in front of a liquor store asking, "Should I or shouldn't I"? And the rest is history. I did what I intended to do in the first place, and I got rid of the weed in October!
Friends, the Sower is God, the seed is His word, and we are the Soil- each one and together. Take stock today. Examine yourself now. Are you shallow soil? Are you in it for yourself? Are you concrete? Are you unteachable and unreachable? Are you filled with weeds? Are you nurturing secrets and unresolved sin? Sherry and I knew a deacon in Omaha who hired what he thought was a hit-man to kill his wife, kids, and family dog! So, you see, we are talking about a receptiveness toward and a nurturing of... God's grace-filled news... and we are not talking about church membership, attendance, or even church offices. God is doing His thing. He sent His Son to Calvary for you and me, and through His Spirit, He is freely sowing His word so that none of us need perish. Some will, of course, because they never gave Him a chance or because they tried to have their cake and eat it too.
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