The parable of the sower (part 5)

We’ve been looking at the parable of the sower. In the last two articles we looked at the first two types of soil Jesus described in the parable, and what condition of heart those types of soil represented. Today we will look at the third soil type Jesus described and the “heart condition” that it represents. I mentioned earlier that the condition of our hearts can always be compared to one or more of these soil types. I say one or more because there are times when the condition of our heart is similar to several of these different soil types at the same time. But I believe that the soil type we are going to look in this article is the most common soil type among professing Christians today – particularly Christians living in America. Because of this, I believe that we must give special attention to this particular soil type, seeking to understand its characteristics, so that we don’t become it.

In Matthew 13:7 Jesus described the seed of God’s word falling on this type of soil like this: “Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.” Luke 8:7 says it slightly differently, telling us that the thorns “grew up with” the seed of God’s word, and “choked it out.” And Mark 4:7 says essentially the same thing, but includes the phrase, “and it produced no crop.” Together these passages paint for us a simple but powerful picture of one plant being “choked” by another one. The word “choked” in this passage literally means, “strangled” and refers to cutting off someone’s source of breath.

Anyone who has done some gardening has probably seen this principle in operation. It happens at several levels. For example, a weed can “choke” a plant in a literal sense by actually wrapping either its roots or its branches around the roots or branches of the plant and so restricting its growth. This can be seen vividly in certain types of ivy-like plants that grow up trees and kill them in the process. But a weed can also “choke” a plant in the sense of simply growing very close to it and using up most of the water and nutrients in the soil – the very water and nutrients that the plant needs to grow.

When Jesus explained this parable to his disciples in Mark 4:19, he made it clear that the “thorns” in this type of soil represented “the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things.” In Luke 8:14 these “thorns” are described in essentially the same terms: “worries, riches and pleasures of this life.” Jesus went on to tell his disciples that once these worries, riches and pleasures “enter in” to the heart of man, they will “choke the word” of God that was sown in them, with the result that it “becomes unfruitful.” (Mark 4:19)

Plants have a limited amount of soil that they can draw nutrients from, depending on the size of their root system. If a weed of some kind is using up the bulk of the nutrients that are necessary for the growth of that plant, then its growth will be stunted. Furthermore, as anyone who has ever gardened knows, there is more to reaping a harvest than simply putting some seeds in the ground and waiting for a few months. Anyone who does that should not expect to get much of anything at harvest time. The simply fact is, farming anything requires a lot of time and energy spent watering, cultivating, fertilizing, guarding, and otherwise nurturing the plants.

The same thing is true when it comes to the seed of God’s word producing a crop in our hearts. It takes time, water, cultivation, fertilization, meditation, and nurturing for the promises of God’s word to produce their fruit in our lives. And if we are giving our time, attention and energy to “worries, riches and pleasures of this life,” then the growth of the word of God in us will be stunted as well, and it will ultimately produce no fruit in our lives. Unfortunately, as I said before, much of the church falls into this category. The soil of our hearts is so crowded with “other things,” that very little real fruit of God’s promises can be seen in our lives.