good soil

I noticed a couple of things today while reading the Parable of the Sower from Matthew’s Gospel..  First of all, it’s the parable of the sower, but most of the attention and detail goes to the types of ground that the sower works with.  Secondly, the celebrated product is a fruitful harvest.  I wonder if the PTB* struggled with naming this parable…

In A Nutshell
The Sower (Father God) sows the seed (word of God).  The seed falls on 4 types of ground (hearts of people):
1. path— hard hearts, no understanding, seed snatched away by the evil one
2. rocky–shallow, no root, doesn’t last through difficult days
3. thorny–seed grows, but is choked out by the cares of this world
4. good–bears fruit, yields 100, 60, or 30-fold what was sown.

100, 60, or 30 times production.  Incredible fruitfulness.  Huge harvest.  There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground, does there?  The seed in Jesus’ story either misses its potential or produces a great harvest.  He doesn’t say that some seed falls on pretty good soil and manages to avoid the birds and kind of puts down deep roots and stays pretty clear of the weeds.

I have to ask: Am I producing fruit like Jesus says I should?  What would my family, my neighborhood, my church, my workplace, my town look like if my life was 100X fruitful?  Or 60, or even Jesus’ minimum of 30X…What would that look like?

What does it take to become good soil?  Is that even possible?  I know that if my yard/garden soil is bad, I can tinker with its composition, adding elements to change it’s nature and character.  Can my character be tinkered with?

The good soil (good soul) is described as one who hears the word and understands it.  Of course, there’s the absence of weeds, the depth for roots, and the softness of the soil as compared to the path.  Those factors make a difference.  I suppose you could say that if I hear and understand the word then I’ve taken care of weeds, rocks, and hard-heartedness.

But it appears that Jesus is making a case for us to hear and understand the word of God.  So what are you hearing from God, and how are you applying it to your life?

*PTB=powers that be.  I don’t know who named all the parables, but I’m guessing that was a pretty big job.  Can you imagine the weight of that role, knowing that every Sunday School teacher for all time would be teaching using your words, that every preacher would one day say, “Turn to the Parable of the Sower…”