The Gospel’s Impact On The Heart
In the first four months of this year, we decided to focus on the logical, rational approach to our discipleship. The evidence that Christ is who He claims to be is overwhelming and decisive. If we open our eyes, we will see that we are not left on shaky ground, always wondering if we’ve gambled on the winning team.
Christ fulfills all of the prophecies and shadows of the Old Testament, and consequently, He demands our attention - the attention of every person who ever has or ever will live. We are to use our brains to come to a decision regarding Christ - a decision that will impact our hearts.
Our discipleship is one of both logic and emotion, heart and mind. There is almost no better place to see this reality than in the parables of Jesus, which will be our focus this month.
Culturally, the Jews were a practical people. While the Greeks and Romans, among whom they lived, loved to debate and argue just for the sake of the argument, the Jews wanted a matter to have a conclusion. As a result, parables were common teaching tools for the Jews. Rabbis used them to illustrate a point, but they were also meant to make the listener come to a conclusion or judgment as they listened. Which is a better foundation for building, sand or rock? Which of the servants will love the forgiving master more? Who is the better neighbor?
At the end of the story, the audience knows the answer to the question; it’s so obvious! And yet, not all who know will allow the truth into their hearts - he who has ears, let him hear!
The Parable of the Sower illustrates the impact of the truth, the “good seed,” on every heart. On the day this parable was given, the multitudes pressed in so aggressively that Jesus took to a boat for relief. We can assume that each kind of heart was in attendance and listening. Even if they weren’t farmers, the listeners would have knowledge of the act of sowing seeds, and they would be well-acquainted with the different types of soil. And so, brilliantly, and extemporaneously, our Savior reveals one of the mysteries of the kingdom.
For the sake of time and word count, we will deal with both the parable and its explanation simultaneously. The only real character in the story is the sower, the one with the good seed which is identified as the word of God. The seed is good - the reaction isn’t based on the seed; it is solely based on the soil. The sower is simply the one who brings the message, and so we find ourselves, in a way, double-cast - we are types of soil that receive the seed, but if we choose to be, we are also the sower scattering the seed indiscriminately wherever we wander on whatever type of ground we find ourselves. Our job is to distribute, letting the soil do as its nature allows. The sower doesn’t neglect the hard ground, judging it unworthy…he just scatters.
So with the sower doing his job and the seed that is good, the soil is the only variable. What reaction will the truth have on the hearts of those who hear?
The first soil is hardened - beaten down to where it’s practically cement, impenetrable. This heart won’t allow the truth in - it can’t even hear it. As sowers, we deal with these hearts. This is a mind that cannot be influenced by truth. Maybe this is due to someone being too lazy to think about things. How many times have you tried to talk to someone about God, and they say, “Well, I just don’t know whether I believe that or not.” That’s the end of the conversation, by the way. That is code for “I don’t want to think about God or truth or anything complicated that may require a change in my life and my way of thinking.”
Some people just want to be left alone. They don’t want to think about God or their own spiritual condition…and so they don’t.
Arrogance can harden a heart faster than just about anything. That’s the Pharisees’ problem. The Pharisees in the audience don’t want the truth because they think they know everything already. They don’t really hear anything Jesus says other than to try to find fault within it. They want something they can use against Jesus - they aren’t listening for truth.
Those people who think they have everything all figured out and there’s nothing left to learn are hardened ground. We have to be careful not to think that we have everything right. We most likely don’t, and so we have to keep studying and growing and using the good seed as our standard of truth.
The second kind of soil is the rocky ground. The rocky ground isn’t necessarily full of rocks. It’s ground that has a shallow layer of soil and then rock underneath - it’s common in Palestine - a limestone shelf underneath a layer of dirt. It has no depth.
This seed is said to “spring up with joy.” This heart hears the truth and reacts immediately. There is an emotional response to hearing the word of God, and the reaction is real. However, just as knowledge without an emotional response leaves us with a merely academic faith, feeling without knowledge makes our faith fragile and as fickle as our emotional status. This faith is shallow and lacks the things needed to put down roots that will weather the trials of life. There’s no stability here - this faith is built on the sand, and when the tide comes in, it will be ripped out of the soil, small root system and all.
Sadly, we have many brothers and sisters who have been drawn away from the truth by the events of life. Maybe it’s just my age, but one thing I’ve seen draw my peers away is the lifestyle of an unbelieving child, an issue Jesus deals with in Matthew 10:34-39. In an effort to soothe a broken heart, instead of turning to God, trusting His ability to comfort us, we compromise what we know for what we feel, an adjustment that uproots us and places a barrier between us and our Father.
Thirdly, Jesus identifies the thorny ground, which is where many who call themselves disciples are planted. From the surface, this soil looks good enough - it’s a garden that appears to be clean, and yet, underneath the surface, there are other weeds and vines that choke out the message and leave the plant, if not completely dead, at the very least, unproductive.
Again, this soil reacts to the good seed. It allows the seed to take some root; however, untended and unweeded, the seed just grows as much as the plants around it allow. This heart feels and knows, yet it is so buried underneath life that whatever faith it has must find its space among the business of life.
We can have a life so crowded with other things that Christ just gets crowded out. Rather than being the center of our life and decisions - who we ARE - Jesus becomes another thing we do, words we say, a chore to be checked off our list on Sunday. We become spectators in the kingdom work, making excuses for why we can’t serve in ways that don’t suit us or that are inconvenient. I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that if our service is occasional, always pleasant, and usually convenient, then we aren’t looking around enough! I mean, come on…the day Jesus gives this sermon, He’s neither well-rested nor unbothered. He’s been contending with the Pharisees and healing and teaching the multitudes all day. Do we think our service should look different? In my experience, sacrificing time and energy in the service of the kingdom is rarely convenient, completely overwhelming, and always exhausting. It also provides purpose and fulfillment.
Finally, Jesus says that there is good soil - a heart that receives the truth. If we have this heart, we don’t merely find a spot for the gospel to fit into our already busy life; we restructure our life, placing the gospel at the center and find a spot for everything else. The good soil has a proper emotional response to the gospel, and with gratitude and humility, we plant the seed deep within us and give it the things it needs to grow - time, knowledge, prayer, and service.
The way the gospel writers describe the reaction of this heart, this listener, with the truth is interesting as well. Matthew reports that Jesus says the good listener understands the word. We don’t just listen. We ask ourselves “What does this mean?” and “What do I need to do with it?”. It is a logical response.
In Mark’s account, Jesus says that the good listener accepts the word. We receive it - take it into our minds not letting it go in one ear and out the other. It becomes part of our thinking and part of our life. This is our emotional response.
Luke notes that Jesus says the good listener keeps the word. We cling to it as if our lives depend on it because they do! We obey it…in ALL situations, not just the convenient or beneficial ones. This is the action that results from understanding and acceptance.
That’s what makes the good soil different. We understand that the word has to dwell within us, and then we allow it to impact our lives, weeding our garden so that it can grow and transform us into something resembling His image. And if we can get this right, sisters, then we will bear fruit because that is what the good seed does when it comes into contact with good soil! We won’t all bear the same fruit, but we will be productive in the field where we find ourselves. And in that productivity, we will transcend the soils and become the sower, going into the fields, scattering the seed, not trying to second-guess the result when it lands, but watering where we can, for the harvest is guaranteed.