Large crowds would follow Jesus in His ministry and
very possibly because they saw the supernatural happenings – the healings, the
deliverance and the raising of the dead.
Besides, He also taught with authority. We can also guess that many of
them were curiosity seekers. They were around to sample the teaching rather
than to hear it. Many must have heard His teachings repeatedly and not believe
a word, and their hearts had become hardened. Others showed signs of spiritual indifference
and were absolutely disinterested. Here we see Jesus conveyed a superb parable.
Understanding the parable and applying it to life will open avenues of
unimagined blessings to a hearer.
Parables are earthly stories with a heavenly or
spiritual truth. This one about a sower was drawn from a rich agricultural context
which His hearers would be totally accustomed to. For us, who are not familiar with
that culture, we need to be a bit more imaginative. Here we see a man with a
bag wore round his waist, a bag of seeds. As he walked through his field, he
would rhythmically cast the seed. Every seed has amazing potential and
limitless possibility. So Jesus used it to symbolize the Word of God. The sower
of course refers to Christ and everyone who would share the Word of God,
whether in a one-to-one witnessing or Bible study or preaching a sermon. The types of soil represent the different
conditions of the human heart on which the seed had fallen. Some of the seed
that the sower cast fell on the wayside. Since they fell on the surface of the
ground, the birds came and just pecked and ate it up. Some of the seeds fell on
rocky soil that was not ploughed. As quickly as the seeds sprout, they also
wilt as quickly under the scorching heat of the Palestinian sun. But some seeds
landed among thorns. Soon those seed would be choked and its growth strangled.
But then some seed fell on good soil, and because the ground was in the perfect
condition for growth, the seed grew and multiplied a hundred fold. What’s
unfortunate is that hearers don’t always have an ear attuned to hearing.
Although some understood, there will always be those who would be dull of mind,
perplexed, and full of doubt. So the seed of the Word has no place in their
hearts to be nurtured and grow. Many would often miss the point because of
inattentiveness. So Jesus called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Just because
the disciples were near to Jesus, it did not mean that they understood
everything He would say to them. Verses 9 tells us so. But like good students
they would ask when they are unclear or in doubt. So they came to Jesus seeking
for the interpretation of the parable. What Jesus told them in verse 10 is
perplexing. He said, “The knowledge
of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I
speak in parables, so that, ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing,
they may not understand.’” There is a need to properly understand
this verse or else it will make us think that a parable was told to hide the
meaning of truth from some hearers. What Jesus was saying is this: the condition of one’s heart is the crux of the mater.
It will determine the capacity to receive truth. In Jesus’ days, many religious
leaders heard His straightforward teaching and rejected them, and as a result
the truth was taken away from them. So when we receive the truth and act upon
it, we will find that more will be revealed to us. But for people who reject the
truth, they will ultimately lose whatever little they have. The Word of God
needs more than just listening, it demands that we act on it. We must resolve
to act on God’s Word. Whether the truth be tough or not, the wise thing is to
act on it. If we don’t, we will lose it.
Jesus’s parable on the sower tells us that there are four
kinds of heart that hear God’s Word: a hard heart, a shallow heart, a polluted
heart, and a good heart. Among Jesus’ audience all four types were present. As
it was in the days of Jesus, it is also in ours. Among those who hear the word
of God in church, we will find all four kinds of heart. In verses 11-15, Jesus
gave the explanation to this parable. He pointed to the different reactions
people would have to the message of the Kingdom. Some after hearing the message
have absolutely no response. Their hearts are like pavements, grounds that are
hard. Then there are those who would show some initial signs of life on hearing
the message. They responded with joy but because they are like rocky ground,
the message could not penetrate deeper. So they have no deep roots to sustain
the initial experience of joy and excitement. When such people are confronted
by the adversities of life, they immediately give up their faith. The third
kind of people refers to those that promised to bear fruit on hearing the
message, but these ultimately remained fruitless. Their hearts are like thorny
grounds. They are overtaken by the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of
materialism, and were soon suffocated by their worldly concerns. They soon fall
away from the faith. The last kind is the type of people that responded to the
message with the right attitude of heart. They assimilate what they have heard,
and as they endured the harsh weather of life, they grew in the process and
bore fruit.
Without a doubt, the condition of our
heart will determine our ability to respond to the message of the Kingdom. Is
our heart hard, or shallow, or polluted or a good one? The first three
different states would prevent the message of the Kingdom from taking effect. In
fact they cause us to repel the Word. We all need to have a good heart, one
that’s yielded and ready for the Word. Where are we today? What is the state of
our hearts? We know what we really must be if we are to be impacted by His
Word. Let’s exercise care to prepare our hearts to receive the Word. We must remove
the rock and uproot the thorns. We must allow God’s Spirit to plough and
tenderise our heart and get it in the yielded state. It’s only when we have a
prepared and yielded heart, then can we have a life ready to be impacted by the
message. Then and only then will we be truly fruit-bearing Kingdom people.
No comments:
Post a Comment