16 Feb 2023
“Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: when people hear the message about the kingdom and do not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their hearts. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to people who hear the word and at once receive 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 people who hear 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 people who hear the word and understand it. They produce a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown”. (Matt. 13:18-234)
Notice that the Lord was using the parable to illustrate how various ones respond to the message about God’s kingdom. The ‘soil’ can be likened to the ‘heart’ – whether it is suitable for the seed to grow in – the ‘seed’ is likened to the message and the response of unfruitfulness, fruitfulness, is parallel to the negative or positive response of the heart to God’s message that yields spiritual unfruitfulness or fruitfulness as the case may be.
Three other factors are brought in by the Lord and they are ever so relevant to all in different times and generations.
The first is the mention of the evil one – our enemy. The enemy specialises in casting doubt on God’s word and message, and when there is ignorance and deception, the message does not produce fruitfulness in the hearer. This is ‘pictured’ in the evil one snatching away the message from the heart of the hearer. If we think that the evil one is just imaginary or unreal – beware!
The second has to do with the hearers likened to the plants having no root; trouble and persecution quickly cause the hearers like the plants to fall away. This is a reminder from Scripture that those who take deep roots downward would bear fruits upwards – the message and the word from God ,when received, are ‘digested’ and ‘assimilated’, and they bear the fruit of the Spirit.
The seed falling among the thorns are likened to individuals who receive the message from God but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches ‘choked’ them causing spiritual unfruitfulness and ‘death’.
We have seen earlier in verses 13 to 15 that the problem is a hardened heart, calloused, and no longer tender and receptive to God’s Word. But the heart becomes hardened because of the activity of the evil one, the lack of vigilance, growth, and commitment on the part of the hearer, and the overwhelming influence and ‘choking’ of the worries of life and the deceitfulness of riches (not just physical wealth but the offers of the flesh and the passing pleasures and cares of life). It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus also warned us to keep a close ‘watch’ on our heart. Scripture tells us that out of the heart comes forth the issues of life. If we are not watchful and vigilant, then the heart becomes ‘contaminated’ and slowly but surely, it becomes unresponsive to the message of God – the hearer becomes one who listens without understanding and who sees without perceiving, and God’s desire to heal him falls on ‘deaf ears’. Let us hearken to the word of the Lord so that we can indeed be spiritually fruitful and not be like white ‘tombstones’ with dead bones within.