"Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” - Matt 13:8-9
The Parable of the Sower is one of Jesus's most well known parables. In it He tells of a man who planted seeds on 4 different soils:
1. The Path
2. The Rocky Ground
3. Among the Thorns
4. The Good Soil
He later told His disciples that the seed represented the Word of God.
The seed produced nothing when it was planted in the first three soils. But when it was planted in the fourth soil, it produced up to a hundredfold return.
It is important to consider that the seed did not change. The exact same type of seed was planted on each of the different soils, but only in the fertile soil did it produce a harvest.
Have you ever wondered why the same Gospel has caused radically different reactions in different people? Does God favor some people? Does God only allow some to taste His goodness?
The Gospel acts as a nice self-help tool for some people, and it seems to cause anger and resentment in other people. The Gospel utterly transforms the lives of some people, and it has no seeming effect on others.
Same seed, different results. Why?
The seed is identical but the soil upon which it is planted is not.
The seed is the Word of God, and the soil is the state of our soul.
The Gospel does not transform everybody because not everybody desires to be transformed by it.
Many of us have grown content with weeds overtaking our gardens. We have no desire to clean our lives up. God cannot resist our free will. God cannot force us to choose His ways over our ways.
In order to be transformed by the Gospel, we do not need to attain to a certain level of intelligence, discipline, or power. We don't need to strive for anything. We don't need to work really hard to build something for ourselves. Rather we need to go the opposite direction. We must simply identify the weeds in the garden of our mind and begin plucking them out.
It will not be long before the soil becomes fertile enough for the Word to take root.
And when it does, there is no power in this world capable of stopping it from producing a plentiful harvest.
Blessed are the pure in heart
for they shall see God.
Matt 5:8
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