This parable tells us that seed will only grow and produce a crop where there is adequate depth of soil. I confess this parable has troubled me. Right after Jesus taught it to a very great multitude, he added that these same people were outsiders who only got “everything in parables in order that while hearing they may not hear and understand lest they return and be forgiven.” Yet to a select group he says, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God.”

So is soil depth my choice or God’s? Have I been predestined as sandy soil that only grows stickers, or am I a black topsoil type of guy who will produce big crops? At one time, due to some bumper crops of stickers, I viewed myself as shallow soil. In that season I was tempted to throw up my hands and conclude, “I am just an outsider—a part of the great multitude who get inferior revelation— one fated with a shallow weed-grower of a heart.” But Jesus was not finished: “Do you not understand this parableAnd, how will you understand all the parables?”

In half the translations I studied, the word “any” is used instead of “all,” implying “The Parable of The Sower” is a key to understanding the rest of Jesus’ parables. That is crucial. I would like to share my experience with this parable and begin by saying that I no longer waste time, as I once did, counting my stickers, pondering the condition of my predestined-to-be-poor soil.

Having worked some with the Gardner, there are two things I believe He has shown me about my heart. First, it was predominated by sin; sin was its constitution. Second, and most importantly, that person is dead; he was buried then resurrected in Christ. So, in keeping with our agri-parable, my soil classification was “Sinner. It is now “Saint.” “Saint” is my new identity. Therefore, my new soil type in Christ is fertile, to say the least.

My new soil classification fundamentally alters how I see stickers. If I sin now (as a saint), producing a sticker, it is not evidence of doomed soil. When I see useless stickers today, I do not, as I once did, lose heart, concluding, “Yes, it is as Jeremiah said, ‘The heart is desperately sick and beyond help’—I am just a poor sinner saved by grace.” No. No! Stickers only prove that an old nature, conditioned for years in the world, is still decomposing. Even in my new heart, weeds will grow, to some degree, alongside the wheat—for a time.  Jesus goes on to say, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it shall be measured to you; and more shall be given to you besides. For whoever has, to Him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him.”

Recall: in Him, we now live and move and have our being. Jesus explains that, in Him, we are co-workers in this soil. I believe He is saying he himself is now the Soil of our lives; therefore, we have stewardship responsibility as to what we listen to. This understanding will have great bearing on what is produced from our lives. This is why the Blue Book is the heart-steward’s best friend. It has introduced thousands of saints to a community of kindred-spirits who are selective as to what they listen to. In turn, what they say is rich. We cannot live without this community! Some of our mentors are dead, others are living, but abiding in Christ requires we maintain intimate connection to this community.

There is a great divide in Christian theology regarding the soil of our souls. Where we stand in relationship to this chasm will have many consequences. There is one camp, which sees stickers as proof positive that the soil of our hearts is shallow and infertile, corrupt as it is in Adam. When this camp sees stickers (and trust me, they are looking) they get out the big hoe sermons, which they apparently believe can improve Adamic-soil. The point of each stab of the hoe is to break down the soil—making certain we know the degree to which we are fallen. If our souls cannot bend low enough to lay hold of this, they remain strangers to repentance and forgiveness.

I know this camp well, but I no longer live there. While they see stickers as proof positive, I see them, in Christ, as a false positive. I hope you will hang in there with MwM this week. There is much to consider. As the good soil you are, I pray you may soak in this week’s nitrogen-rich scriptural content.

Father, may our hearts grasp what excellent soil type we are in Christ and that we each have authority over a standard of measure. Help us to envision your 90-fold return in our lives. Help us to understand our part in insuring that Your eternal words do not return to You void. May your Word accomplish Christ’s mission in our hearts. Amen.

 

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