Be Better Dirt

Be Better Dirt

Matthew 13:1-23

Do you want to be productive for God?  Do you want your life to count?  Do you want the best life you can have?  Well, it won’t come by having the best house, the best car or the best job.  It will come by being better dirt.

Welcome to the wonderful world of parables!  Jesus loved teaching through parables, and we’re going to look at a bunch of Jesus’ parables. 

Parables are interesting things.  In simple terms, a parable is a comparison.  (We actually get the word parable from the same root we get the word parallel.)  Jesus didn’t invent the parable, but He sure perfected it! 

Parables are interesting things in the way they work: they both reveal and conceal.  What I mean is, parables are windows into spiritual reality through common experiences.  That’s how they reveal.  But they also conceal: it’s possible to hear a parable and not get any insight into spiritual things.  You just hear it as a story, or you twist it around and hear it for what you want to hear. 

One of the first parables Jesus told is commonly called the Parable of the Sower.  Matthew, Mark and Luke all contain the parable.  Sometimes it’s (more accurately) called the parable of the soils.  We’re going to look at this as it’s found in Matthew 13, and I think it will help us a lot if we take the time to read the whole passage, Matthew 13:1-23, with a few comments as we go:

First, the setting and the parable (1-9):

¹ That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ² Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ He who has ears, let him hear.”

Next, Jesus explains a little about parables to the disciples (10-17):

¹⁰ The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”

¹¹ He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹² Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. ¹³ This is why I speak to them in parables:

   “Though seeing, they do not see;
   though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

   ¹⁴ In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

   “‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
   you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
¹⁵ For this people’s heart has become calloused;
   they hardly hear with their ears,
   and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
   hear with their ears,
   understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them.

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷ For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

There’s the reveal/conceal paradox of parables!  Finally, Jesus explains the parable (18-23):

¹⁸ “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰ The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. ²² The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. ²³ But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

OK, what we have here is a sower sowing seed, four kinds of soils that the seed falls on, and four different outcomes or responses based on the nature of the soil.  And all this stands for four different ways people respond when they hear the word of God. 

The immediate context tells us that Jesus is talking about His own ministry.  In another parable in the same passage, the person who scatters the seed is “the Son of Man”, the Messiah.  Jesus is preaching the word, and a lot of people hear the word, but only a small portion respond to the word in faith and follow Him.  That’s the parable.

Now, today, Jesus is still scattering seed, and when His word is sewn through preaching, teaching, and sharing the word that changes lives, only a small portion responds and becomes that person who “hears the word and understands it.  He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (v. 23)

Here’s another way to get the message of the parable.  Jesus also tells us what makes a person unproductive soil.  Let’s follow that angle and look into the parable and find three things we have to get rid of to be better dirt for God to grow good things in.

Break up the hard soil (13:3-4, 18-19)

The first kind of soil described in this parable is ‘the path’.  There were paths through and around farmers’ fields and it was inevitable that some of the seed being scattered would fall upon these hardened paths. The paths were packed down hard because people walked on them.  Seed couldn’t penetrate that soil, so the seed ends up as bird food. 

Jesus is referring to people whose hearts are so hard that the truth of His word cannot penetrate their lives. Just as a seed cannot grow unless it penetrates the ground so the seed of God’s word cannot grow unless it can penetrate the heart.

The only remedy for hard soil hearts is plowing.  Is your heart nice and mushy and soft for God’s word to penetrate, or have you also become hard, unyielding, and unteachable? 

Maybe you didn’t plan to be hard soil.  Maybe you’ve been walked all over, you’ve had it rough and you’ve gotten tough.  As a result, you’ve built a kind of psychological/spiritual wall to protect yourself, and in process, you’ve become a cross-armed resister of anything that will upset your illusion of having everything under control.   Word of wisdom here: hard soil receives no seed.  Hard hearts cannot hear the voice of God. 

So how do you break up your own dirt?  Think of hard soil as resistant soil.  What’s the opposite of resistance?  Surrender. 

If you look again to v. 19, we’re reminded of an important element in what happens when the soil of your heart gets so hard:

When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

Hardness gives the devil—the evil one—a landing strip into our lives.  The first sin was Satan’s attitude of resistance to God.  The first human sin involved turning away from God’s word—from the scattered seed—by ignoring the commands about the tree in the garden. 

It’s then no surprise to read what James’, Jesus’ half-brother, writes in James 4:7:

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.   

Submit to God.  Have a soft heart toward God.  Have a soft heart toward His word.  Have a soft heart toward the preaching and teaching of the word of God.  Expect God to speak to you, and don’t assume that that you’re always right.

Resist the devil, not the word of God.  It’s one or the other.  You can’t resist God and the devil.  Either you’re on one side or the other.  Peter learned that when He suggested Jesus didn’t really have to suffer (that was God’s side) and Jesus rebuked him by staying, “Get behind me, Satan!” (Matthew 16:23)

So break up the soil of your life.  Don’t resist God in any way.  Be soft to Him.  And repent of being hard toward Him.  Next,

Put down deep roots (13:5-6, 20-21)

One striking feature of the land of Israel is how there seems to be rock everywhere.  In much of the land, only a thin layer of topsoil covers rock.  In the parable, the word fails to take root because the rocky soil keeps the plant from taking root.  That’s the reason the plant fails: the rock blocking the roots, not the hot sun. 

So, how’s your rockiness versus root score?  That is, are you putting down deep roots, or are there too many rocks in your soil? 

If we put this in terms of what’s required of us, it’s both a matter of getting the rocks out and putting down deep roots.  Rocks must be removed to make room for roots.  Verses 20-21 says,

²⁰ The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.

The reason so many people wilt when they face hardship is that they have no root system to speak of.  In Ephesians 3:17, Paul prayed that believers would be “rooted and established in love.”   It’s a natural metaphor to describe health and stability.  A shallow, unhealthy, unstable faith just can’t survive hardship. 

Let me, real briefly, give you five dimensions of deep spiritual roots.  If you are well rooted, you’ll have all five of these going.  Here we go:

(1) Worship.  A deeply rooted believer is a worshipper; that means both for gathered times like this, and on his own.  That means moving the rocks of time management and indifference to make it happen.

(2) Discipleship.  A well-rooted believer is growing as a fully informed and fully formed follower of Jesus; he’s growing.  He spends time in the word of God and is connected to a smaller group who together seek to go farther with God.  That means moving the rocks of inertia and laziness to be a growing disciple.

(3) Ministry.  A deeply rooted believer has found ways to serve fellow-believers with their spiritual gifts.  That means moving the rocks of inconvenience and selfishness to make it happen.

(4) Fellowship.  A deeply rooted believer spends significant time with other followers of Jesus.  That means moving the rocks of shyness and apathy to get involved in other people’s lives and to allow them into your life.

(5) Witness.  A deeply rooted believer tells other people about the greatness of Jesus.  That means moving the rocks of indifference and our self-protective nature in order to share Him with others.

Pull weeds (13:7, 22)

If you think of the stony soil as having it too hard—with persecution and hardship—the fourth soil, the weedy/thorny soil has it way too easy:

²² The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

Jesus else says that it’s as hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God as it is for a camel to go through the eye of an needle.  When people have nothing, it’s not that hard to tell them that in Jesus, they can have something, but people who think they have it all—what can Jesus add to their lives? 

Now, I hope that you’re wise enough to know how foolish that is.  I recall an article I read about a Hollywood talent agent.  She said that she knew dozens of the top paid actors in the “industry” when they were unknown.  And of the stars, most had gone from being decent people to being, as she said, “horrible human beings.” 

Success makes people a little crazy.  Make some money, and suddenly you feel the right to spout off on any topic like you’re an expert.  So you have stars that tromp off to Capitol Hill to give testimony on things they don’t have a clue about just because they’re famous.  You have basketball stars who think they’re experts on music and investors who think they’re experts on science.

Success tickles the ear with the suggestion that maybe you are a kind of god yourself.  But it’s a false god; I mean there’s a reason that call the show “American Idol”, not American God, isn’t there? 

All false gods let you down, eventually.  But not before exacting a toll.  Your ships come in, but it sinks in the harbor and takes your heart with it.

Weeds, thorns, they must go.  Look, there’s nothing wrong with success and even wealth, but they are potential gods that have to be kept on a short leash. 

And another thing: this isn’t just a “rich guy” thing.  Over in 1 Timothy 5:10, we’re told that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil.  It’s not just “money”; it’s the “love of money.”  I known many believers who’ve achieved material success, but who don’t allow their possessions to possess them; I’ve also known poor believers who were obsessed with money to the point of compromising their faith to get it. 

If “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth” are choking God’s work in your life, then, pull weeds.    

God’s appointed spiritual discipline to teach us to keep perspective is giving.  Giving is not about “the church needs money.”  Giving is about you and your heart; only as a side-benefit does it finance valuable kingdom activities.  Giving is also about trust; about trusting God, not things, to be your source of security and happiness.

Listen, if God doesn’t have your checkbook, He doesn’t have you.  Some of us blow more on coffee each month than we give to God.  If that’s the case, coffee is your thorny weed, and you need to pull it.  For some of us it’s our yearly over the top vacation.

The thing is, not, “Don’t drink coffee, don’t do on vacation”; it’s really just “Put God first.”  What you do with the rest is sanctified by putting God first. 

There’s an old story about a rich man who went to visit a rabbi. The rabbi took the rich man by the hand and led him to a window. "Look out there—what do you see?" asked the rabbi. "I see men, women, and children," answered the rich man.  Again the rabbi took him by the hand and this time led him to a mirror. "Now what do you see?" "Now I see myself," the rich man replied. Then the rabbi said, "Behold, in the window there is glass, and in the mirror there is glass. But the glass of the mirror is covered with a little silver—representing wealth—and no sooner is the silver added than you cease to see others, but you see only yourself.”   Putting God first takes that silver away so we can see others as well.

So, what kind of dirt are you?  I hope that you are soft dirt, so that the word can enter you easily; dirt with rocks removed, so that the roots of love and service can enter you completely; weeded soil, so that no worldly concern chokes out the word.  I hope you are the soil of v. 23:

²³ But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

Never forget: to be useful to God also means to know the greatest joy possible. 

Hear the word and understand it: in Scripture, to hear means more than to hear a sound; it means to heed the word, to listen with the heart.  This is the one with soft soil, rocks and weeds gone.

And what about the crop?  You don’t scatter seed hoping to just get back what you scattered.  In good soil, seed multiples.  You can have an influence for God that far exceeds your natural capacity—that just won’t bless you, but blesses others too—if you’re the kind of seed that Jesus can use. 

My prayer for us, all of us, is that we be found soil of excellence.  The Sower—Jesus—is sowing seed right now.  Really now…what kind of soil are you?  Folks, let’s all resolve right now—to be better dirt!