The Kingdom Fourishes in a Good Heart
In our Transforming Together meeting this month we looked at the power of words, words we believe and words we say. Speaking is such a normal part of our daily experience it is easy to grow complacent in monitoring our speech, though we know it is critically important to our experience of life. Equally as important is the condition of our hearts, a matter Jesus addresses in His parable of the soils in Luke chapter 8. Jesus was a master storyteller and he would often use the objects in His immediate surroundings to teach spiritual truth. In the Gospel text referenced above Jesus uses the imagery of a farmer sowing seed to teach about the role that the Word of God plays within the kingdom of God. It is sometimes called the parable of the sower but probably is best called the parable of the soils because that is the clear focus when Jesus explains the meaning of the parable.
In the explanation to the Matthew account, we are told that the farmer (the sower) is the Son of man and that the seed is the Word of God or maybe more specifically, the Good News of the kingdom of God. Luke tells us in verse 1 that soon after one of His many encounters with the Pharisees, Jesus is addressing a great crowd that has gathered from nearby towns and villages and He tells them the parable of the four soils. He concludes the parable with the expression, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” The expression is nothing less than an invitation to enter the kingdom of God and to remain there by hearing God’s Word, clinging to it and patiently producing a huge harvest, up to 100 times that which was planted.
In the following paragraphs, we will look briefly at Jesus’ description of each of the 4 heart conditions.
The Footpath
Jesus tells in verse 11 “that the seeds that fall on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.” What we have here is a group of people who have heard the message, probably more than once, but because of the hardness of their hearts, the word fails to penetrate their hearts and the devil comes and steals it away. As a result, they are prevented from believing and being saved. They remain captives in the kingdom of darkness, lost in their sins and servants of the evil one.
The problem here is the hardness of heart that does not allow the Word to penetrate and take root. This is often human pride that refuses to believe in the reality of sin, their own need for a Savior and is often accompanied by a firm refusal to submit to the will and purposes of God. This person knows what they want out of life and nobody, including God, is going to stand in their way.
The Rocky Soil
Jesus tells us in verse 13 that, “the rocky soil represents those who hear the message with joy. But like young plants in such soil, their roots don't go very deep. They believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation.”
A couple of things that help us understand what is being said here. First, this is not rocky soil like we think of it where it is a mixture of good soil and rocks. Rather, it is describing a thin layer of soil that covered a solid layer of rock or stone. The plants would germinate and grow, looking really good above ground, but because of a layer of rock, they had no root system to sustain them in times when there was little or no moisture from above.
Also, there are a couple of words that we must understand if we are going to make sense of what Jesus is saying here. The first of those words is what the NLT translates as temptation (peirasmos), it carries with the connotation of the testing or proving of one’s faith. And the second word or words are fall away (aphistemi) are more literally “to make defection from, to revolt, or to apostatize. (AMG’s Strong’s Greek Dictionary of the New Testament). You put that all together and you have a temptation to sin that results in a testing of one’s faith, that leads to a rejection of faith because the person was not well grounded in the Word of the Kingdom of God.
This is, unfortunately, the experience of many who hear the Good News of the kingdom, receive it with joy and begin their experience of faith with much zeal and enthusiasm. But because never really get grounded in the Word of the kingdom when times of testing come, they abandon their faith. They never read their Bible, they never bother to study the Scriptures and as a result, they never really come to know God as He is or understand how He works in the world and so when trials come, the pain, the hurt and the confusion of their circumstances bring them to reject God. They find themselves in the same position as those who never believed, excluded from the kingdom of God.
The Thorns
The interpretation of the parable continues in verse 14 when Jesus tells us “the thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity.”
Jesus here touches on a familiar theme that is carried throughout Scripture namely that we are not to be preoccupied with the cares, riches, and pleasures of this life for they are destined to crowd out, to smother, our experience of the kingdom of God.
So, I tell you, don't worry about everyday life — whether you have enough food, drink, and clothes…27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life? Of course not…Your heavenly Father already knows all your needs, 33 and he will give you all you need from day to day if you live for him and make the Kingdom of God your primary concern. 34 "So don't worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today's trouble is enough for today. (Matthew 6:25-34)
There is a medical condition of the brain that affects the eyes that is called strabismus. It is a turning out of one of the eyes so that the brain is really receiving 2 images, one from the left eye and one from the right. The result causes many difficulties such as a lack of depth perception, especially on one side, startle reflex and a general lack of balance. Yet it is not really an issue of the eyes but rather of the brain’s inability to integrate the two images into one, as happens for most of us.
To try and live with one eye on the world and one eye on the kingdom of God is a kind of spiritual strabismus that has equally disastrous results. We must come to understand that we cannot walk with one foot in each kingdom and fulfill the purposes of God. It creates within us an internal dissonance that leads to a lukewarm commitment to the person of Jesus Christ and life within the kingdom of God.
The Good Soil
Finally, in verse 15 Jesus describes the heart that is capable of receiving the kingdom, “but the good soil represents honest, good-hearted people who hear God's message, cling to it, and steadily produce a huge harvest. The distinguishing characteristics of the good soil is that they hear the Word of the kingdom, they cling to it like a drowning man clings to a life preserver and then with a patient endurance, a persevering through monotony, hardships, and trials and even suffering produce a huge harvest 30, 60 even 100 fold increase over that which was planted. This in a day where a yield of 7-8 times that which was planted was considered to be very good. This is a truly abundant harvest.
Speaking and believing truth (words of life) is important but equally as important is paying attention to the condition of our hearts. For the Kingdom of God flourishes in a good heart. As an exercise, this month consider Jesus’s description of each of the soils and ask the Holy Spirit to show you the condition of your heart. Repent as God directs you and receive the Word implanted that it may bear fruit, 30, 60 and 100-fold.
Author
Pastor Bruce is the Executive Director of God's Living Stones. He lives in Omaha, NE, with his wife Barb. They have two adult children.
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