“Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, ‘Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear’” (Mark 4:3-9).

About four months ago, Kathy sent me a note concerning a discipleship program she wanted to help begin at our church. For several years, I have been pondering how we could have a more vital local evangelism and discipleship program. Because we are involved in Living Waters for the World, I have pondered how we might develop a more intentional evangelism program for our Living Waters installations. Because our church has an active local and international missions program, I have wondered how we might do something in the area of evangelism and discipleship that was truly international–something that would work in America and overseas. As I began to read about the program Kathy sent me, I became very excited, because it seemed to me that it potentially answered these questions.

Part of the program Kathy sent to me is built upon the “Parable of the Four Soils” found in all three of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Immediately, the idea came to me for a four-week sermon series entitled, “What Kind of Soil are You?” Once the staff got their mind around the idea of four sermons on one parable of Jesus, they suggested that we change the title to “The Four Soils: Working in God’s Field.” For the next few blogs, will be looking at one aspect of the Parable of the Four Soils and then talking about how this parable challenges us as we grow as disciples in Christ.

I think it was about thirty-five years ago that I first read this parable as a new Christian. I’ve now read it many, many times through many phases of life. This story, which is absolutely one of the most important of Jesus’ parables, challenges and enlightens every Christian in every phase of the Christian life. I have experienced times when my life looked like each of these soils, and I hope the next weeks will help readers think about how they can become better disciples of Christ in 2015.

Jesus often taught in parables—seemingly simple stories that, properly understood, open up the reality of God and God’s Word in new and powerful ways. Some people can pass over the parables just because they seem so simple. This is a great mistake. When I was a new Christian, I liked the clear passages of the teachings of Jesus and Paul because they helped me the most. These days, I like the parables more and more. Twenty years as a preacher have shown me how hard it is to be simple and clear. Twenty years as a preacher has taught me that the most profound lessons cannot really be taught propositionally. They must be taught in such a way that they enter the heart of the person. Jesus was a master of this art.

The philosopher Soren Kierkegaard talked about the importance of indirect communication. Direct communication is when we state a proposition or lesson clearly and didactically. We leave the reader no choice but to accept or reject what we are saying. There is a place for this kind of teaching. There is, however, another kind of communication. This kind of communication we may call “indirect communication.” Here we leave the reader open to understand the story or concept in different ways. In his book, Fear and Trembling, Kierkegaard tells and retells the story of Abraham and Isaac in different ways, all the while making the reader think about Abraham and his faith, and how unusual this faith was. [1] By this method, he hoped to help the reader—and all of us—come to a deeper understanding of Christian faith. This is exactly what Jesus is doing in his parables.

The Battle Between Farmers and Birds

In Mark, the Parable of the Four Soils is found after Jesus has been introduced as the One who brings the Kingdom and the Good News of the Kingdom to Israel. By this time, he had gained a certain amount of notoriety and opposition to his teaching had begun to develop. The parable is set near Capernaum, by the Sea of Galilee. The crowd that came to see him was so large that he got into a boat and began to teach (Mark 4:1-2). One can imagine that in the crowd there were those who wanted to know more and those who really came to criticize Jesus.

Jesus tells a pretty simple story about a first century Jewish farmer. It is very possible that, as Jesus was teaching, he looked up and saw a farmer sowing seed and told the parable as a farmer was actually doing exactly what he described. [2] If this interpretation is true, Jesus was both using a story and an object example to reinforce his teaching and to support the memories of his listeners.

In Jesus’ day, fields were crudely prepared.  A farmer would go through his field, remove rocks and other impediments to growth, rough the ground, clear thorns and weeds, and then sow seeds by hand. Many of the fields around Jesus would have had paths running through them, perhaps running from the Sea of Galilee up into the hills beyond. A farmer might walk down one of these paths sowing seed by hand. As he threw the seed, the wind would catch some of it and blow the seed back on the path. Other of the seed would travel out, some to the very perimeter of the little field. After sowing, a good farmer would then cover the seed as best he could with dirt to prevent birds from eating most of next year’s crop. Some of the seed, however, fell right on the path where it could not possibly grow. There, the land was filled with rocks and the dirt beaten hard as concrete by passing feet. Nothing could live there. Therefore, whatever was left on the path sooner or later was going to be eaten by the birds.

When I was thinking about this parable, I had two images in mind almost immediately. The first was the Alfred Hitchcock movie “The Birds.” [3] If you remember the movie, you will recall that the movie depicts a town in California that is suddenly attacked by swarms of birds who try to injure and even kill human beings. It was very scary! It turns out that Hitchcock’s use of birds as a main character in a horror movie is not without precedent. Jesus does the same thing! It turns out that the Bible just occasionally uses birds, and especially black birds, as a symbol for evil. [4]

The second memory was a memory of reading Edgar Allen Poe’s poem “The Raven” when I was in Junior High or High School. We all remember the constant dark refrain in the poem, “Nevermore!” The  Raven in that poem was really pretty scary. The poem ends with the Raven depicted as a demon like creature. It reads like this:

“Prophet!” said I, “thing of evil – prophet still, if bird or devil!
By that Heaven that bends above us – by that God we both adore –
Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,
It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels name Lenore –
Clasp a rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore.”
Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

“Be that word our sign in parting, bird or fiend!” I shrieked, upstarting – “Get thee back into the tempest and the Night’s Plutonian shore! Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken! Leave my loneliness unbroken! – quit the bust above my door! Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!” Quoth the Raven “Nevermore.”

“And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting
On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;
And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon’s that is dreaming,
And the lamp-light o’er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted – nevermore!” [5]

Jesus, when he explained the parable to his disciples, identified the birds with the Evil One, Satan, or the Devil who prevents and devours human connection with God if at all possible (Matthew 13:19; Mark 4:15; Luke 8:12). This identification must have some common resonance in the human psyche. We all have a kind of fear of irrational creatures that can peck at us and harm us.  For farmers, until quite recently, birds were predators that might eat up a crop if not scared away by the farmer with scarecrows and the like. In Jesus’ day, no farmer would have wanted to see birds near his field eating his seed or his crop. We are not supposed to like these birds or the idea that we might be like the seed that falls on the rocky path. This is a place no sane human wants to be or should be.

The Battle in our Hearts

The parable, then, portrays a battle between God and the Evil One, a battle that is being fought on level of the human heart. God is constantly sowing his message of love, mercy and grace into our lives and into our hearts. The question is not, “Does God love us?” The question is, “Are we open to the message of God’s love?”

Over and over again in the Bible we are told that God is interested in the heart. For example, In Proverbs, the writers often talk about the importance of the heart:

“My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you;  bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:1-6 [emphasis added]).

In Jeremiah, when the prophet speaks of what God will do when the Messiah comes with the Kingdom says: “This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time,” declares the Lord. “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts” (Jeremiah 31:32-33). In Ezekiel, God makes it even plainer when the prophet says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26).

As we mentioned more than once in the wisdom series, the human heart in the Old Testament is more than an organ for pumping blood to the organs of the body. It is the human person at the depth of the being of the human soul. It is the unique combination of our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual being. It is what makes “us” us. One reason why Jesus uses parables is that he is after more than how we think. He is after a change of heart. He wants us to change our entire orientation toward reality. He wants to change how we think, act, feel, and how our thoughts, emotions, and actions impact our personhood.

The Prophets and Wise Men of Israel recognized that the human race has a heart problem. We are all subject to hardness of heart, towards God, towards family members and friends, and towards other people. Jesus tells this parable to warn us that one of the problems we human beings can have is to have hard hearts. Therefore, when God sows some seed of the Spirit, some seed of Grace, some seed of his Kingdom, some seed of his Love, into our lives, one thing we can and often do is to harden our hearts and reject what is being offered us.

Most Christians understand that it is never an excuse to say, “The Devil made me do it.” There may be times in my life when the Devil made me do it, but in each of those times I can look back and see that Chris was cooperating with the Devil in some way. The fact that we are being tempted, the fact that we face overwhelming spiritual opposition, the fact that our faith does not seem to be bringing us the life we hoped for and desire, does not excuse our bad or faithless behavior. Our best bet when tempted is not to harden our hearts, not to reject the love of God, and to be sure that the seed of God’s word falls in a field ready for it to grow in.

Jesus, the Parable, and Us

This Parable of the Four Soils is not easy for a number of reasons. In the parable, we see in the person of the farmer the person of God, who sends his message of grace by prophets and others. We also see Jesus who has been sent by God to share the good news of the Kingdom, as he just told is in Mark 1:15. [6] Finally, we see the figure of those who shared the Word with us and those with whom we share the Word. The farmer is God, Jesus, and each person from the days of Jesus until now who ever shared the Good News with another person. [7]

The Seed is the Word of God, the Good News of God’s love for the human race: of God’s forgiveness for our sins in Christ,  in the love of God showed on the cross, and in the salvation and New Life we can have in Christ. The Seed is that in us that can result in a crop of love, peace, godliness and joy in our lives. We might think of Galatians in this regard where Paul says:

“The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires” (Galatians 5:19:24).

The Evil One wants us to harden our hearts to the things of the Spirit so that we will be concentrated on the things of the flesh and miss out on the blessings of God. God wants us to be filled with the seed of his spirit and grow in the fruit on the spirit can give: love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I think most of us can think of times in our lives and areas of our lives when and where our hearts have been less than receptive to God. We are not to judge, but most of us, I think, can think of people we have known whose fundamental problem was a hard heart. Jesus warns us that there is a God and there is an Evil One. The Evil One can and does try as best he can to kill any hope of spiritual growth in us. I don’t know about you, but I have experienced times when I just made a resolution to avoid a temptation—and right after that resolution, I was tempted! At such times it is good not to have a hard heart.

This problem of hard hearts can give us pause as we share the gospel with others. No one likes to be rejected. The parable gives us a kind of answer to this problem. The Sower knows that some of the seed is going to fall along the path. The birds will in fact eat some of the seed. Nevertheless, the sower sows. As Disciples of Christ, we too must sow knowing that not all the seed we sow will bear fruit. One of the commentaries I read quotes an inscription from St. Paul’s Cathedral in London that reads: ““Fear not to sow because of birds!” [8]

January 2015: Reflecting on Our Walk with Christ

I am excited to be able to take one whole year and concentrate on what it means to be a better disciple of Jesus Christ. When Kathy and I begin a trip, we take out maps and think about the journey we will take. Then, Kathy begins to get maps of specific places and perhaps books and brochures about the places we will see. When I begin looking at the map I always begin by finding Memphis and tracing the journey. We all begin somewhere and the best way not to get lost is to figure out where we are and where we are going right at the beginning.

We are all beginning the journey of 2015, and our own personal journey of the coming year. It is a good idea to begin with a time of centering on the truth of where exactly we are on the journey. Some of us are at the very beginning of the life of faith. Some of us are halfway through our discipleship journey. Some of us are near the end. We are all somewhere on the journey of discipleship.

Our hearts are also somewhere in some condition. I have been through times when my heart was hard, shallow, thorn-encrusted, and fertile. This week in staff meeting, I made the comment that each one of us—each human being—is a strange combination of hardness, shallowness, thorniness, and depth. I think we all find ourselves in more than one place in the parable. That is a good kind of taking stock as well. It is good to ask, “Where am I hard, shallow, cluttered with desire, deep and fertile.

The purpose of this taking stock is not just to take stock. God is not interested in our reaching some mental idea of where we are on the journey of discipleship. Looking at a map is part of taking a journey. It is part of beginning the journey of the year to come with a commitment to developing a soft, deep, fertile heart, filled with seeds of God’s love and growing a great crop of fruits of the spirit in our own lives and in the lives of others.

Prayer: God of Wisdom and Love: Thank you for this wonderful parable of the human heart. You came to show us what we were intended to be and to give us a glimpse of the wonders of your Kingdom. You call us to enter this kingdom of wisdom and love as little children. Help us to hear this story with the ears of little children and to understand in the depth of our souls its meaning for our lives. In Jesus Name, Amen.

Copyright 2015, G. Christopher Scruggs, All Rights Reserved

[1] Soren Kierkegaard, Fear and Trembling (London, ENG: Penguin Books, 1983).

[2] William Barclay, “Mark” in The Daily Bible Study Series Rev. Ed. (Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1975), 88ff.

[3] “The Birds”, wr. Evan Hunter, dr. Alfred Hitchcock, based on the novel by Dauphne Du Muaurier starring Rod Taylor and Tippy Hendren (1963).

[4] This parable is not the only place in Scripture in which birds are used as symbols for evil. Revelation 8: 2 reads: “And [an angel] cried mightily with a loud voice, saying Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and hated bird!” This is not a univocal idea, however. Doves for example, are often used as symbols of the Holy Spirit.

[5] Edgar Allen Poe, “The Raven” https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome instant&ion=1&espv= 2&es_th=1&ie=UTF 8#q=the+raven+poem+text&revid=1280564404 (Downloaded January 8, 2015). Poe in writing of a raven is drawing upon our human fear of beasts that might peck and kill in a moment of irrationality. Birds, like parrots can speak, and thus appear almost human or possessed by a demon while still being brutes.

[6] Mark 1:15 reads, “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!”

[7] If one surveys commentaries and sermons on the parable, one finds writers and preachers focusing on each one of these alternatives.

[8] This quote is found in Hallford E. Luccock, “Exposition” in Volume 7: The Interpreters Bible: The Gospel According to St. Mark George Buttrick, ed. (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 1951), 696. The inscription is found on a bronze tablet found in the cathedral in memory of Canon Samuel Barnet who worked in London’s east end for many years.