Preparing the Soil

Introduction

Have you ever considered the state of your soil? Being from a small rural farming town, soil was a fairly frequent topic. I would hear some of my friends talk about acreage on their family farms that was better than other areas. The soil had a good water source, but not overly saturated. It had the right amount of clay and sand for an optimized loam. In preparation for seeding, they would first disc the soil to displace rocks and break up clods and surface crust. As a little boy, I remember walking behind the tractor my brother was driving as he disked. If big rocks surfaced, I’d gather them up and take them to the edge of the field. When we were done disking, the field would next need plowed to further cut and granulate the soil, inverting it for proper seed reception. Soil was a big deal back home, and obviously, it is a pretty big deal here in Matthew 13. But before we get into the meat of the message, let’s first approach our Lord in prayer.

Context

So, Jesus has been in some discussion with the “religious authority” of the time having been challenged on his decision to heal on the sabbath. In fact, they have even plotted to kill him. That is some pretty serious conflict.

Jesus is driving out demons and being accused by that same religious faction of doing so by the power of satan. Jesus rebuts by asking which makes more sense, satan driving out satan or God driving out satan. If it is the latter, then the kingdom of God has came in the person of Christ.

Next, Jesus launches into an ancient Hebrew “Ted Talks” on identifying a tree by its fruit which segues into him clarifying about his true family when his presentation is interrupted by the presence of his mother and brothers.

So you can see how we would arrive to seed planting. We began with the Pharisees pulling a Maury Povich demanding to know who the real father of Jesus is. Then Jesus talks about identifying a tree by its fruit and what true family is. It all seems relative and naturally brings us to today’s topic.

The Importance of the Soil

The first thing that we need to do is identify in this parable who plays what role. Let’s be clear that God is the sower, Jesus is the seed, and that you, I and the rest of humanity is the soil. That is important to understand in this portion of scripture. It may be a given, but lets leave nothing to chance.

So, at first glance, this may seem to some to be more about the seed and the sower than it is anything else. And in some instances, perhaps that’s a fare approach to the text.

Obviously, the sower is God and there are some things that we can gather from this about the character of God. Some would say that this farmer is wasteful, sowing seed in areas that aren’t primed for reception, germination and growth. He is throwing it on every kind of soil rather than utilizing it only on the good. But rather than see a wasteful sower, I think here, we can affirm that this is a generous sower. This is a sower who has an endless supply of seed and wants to offer opportunity to every inch of ground to receive and produce. And that would be an edifying and insightful take from this scripture, wouldn’t it!?!?! But that would not really get the point across that Matthew wants us to grasp here.

The main point that Jesus is trying to make is the importance of the soil. Jesus engineers his presentation by offering what the different types of poor soil are, and does so under an offering of parable. There are some grammatical practices in use here that suggest that Jesus is trying to keep some from ever understanding, but that is not quite the case. The better explanation is that much of the audience refuses to listen with spiritual ears, thus never fully grasping the life-changing nature of his message. God does not exclude some from the opportunity of salvation, it is their own unbending heart that does that. So here, Jesus isn’t hiding the opportunity in as much as he simply wants them to spiritually seek the true meaning.

Some may remember the story of Lazarus and the rich man in Luke. Lazarus dies and went to glory while the rich man died and went to hades. The rich man called out for Abraham, and begged him to send Lazarus to his family to change their hearts, but Abraham said that if they did not listen to Moses or the prophets, they would not even heed the words of one who has risen from the dead. It is not a matter of hearing the message, it is a matter of heart yielded to receive, apply and nurture it.

This section of scripture offers opportunity for us. So if Jesus constructed this message by sharing that birds ate the seed on the footpath, the sun scorched the plant with shallow roots, and thorns choked out the tender plants, then let’s reverse engineer his message to understand what good soil is so we can prepare the soil that is us.

The Soil on the Path

Jesus says, in Matthew 13:4 “As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them.” A path would be a foot-worn, hard compacted soil. Seed could not possibly pass through such a soil. It would simply sit atop the soil awaiting an opportunistic bird. It is not a failure on the part of the seed, but a failure of the soil to properly receive it.

What kind of heart would be associated with such a soil? Perhaps pride! A refusal to humble ones self. A heart refusing to admit that it needs something it cannot provide for itself.

A better soil in this instance would be soft and manageable. The soil would be finely broken to receive the seed with no problem at all. How do we prepare our spiritual soil in such a way? By practicing humility in our daily walk. Humility with God, admitting that we need Him in every moment of our lives if we are to spiritually thrive. Walking humbly with others, not allowing anger to pridefully burn.

There are reasons for verses like Ephesians 4:26 “And “don’t sin by letting anger control you.” Don’t let the sun go down while you are still angry,”.

It isn’t always about helping others along. Sometimes, its about fostering spiritual health for ourselves as well.

The Rocky Ground

Next, let’s look at the rocky soil. Jesus said in Matthew 13:5-6 “Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died.”

This type of soil will receive the seed in shallowness, but fail to allow the roots to run deep. It will produce a plant for sure, but certainly not one that can withstand a scorching sun or torrential storm. It will either burn up or be washed out.

For a young tender plant to grow to maturity, it needs roots that can run deep, holding it firmly secure in place and delivering cool water from deep within the ground.

When considering spiritual maturity, I can’t help but reflect on the words of Paul in Colossians 2:6-7 “And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”

The Choking Thorns

And now we come to the soil with choking thorns. Matthew 13:7 reads “Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants.”

This is a soil that receives the seed and allows germination to occur, but in the early stages of its development, the weeds rob it of its nourishment, wraps it up in the thistles and deprives it of further growth, ultimately leading it to death.

Friends, this one is where the majority of us find ourselves failing to spiritually mature. We allow the thorns and thistles of the world to remain in the soil of our hearts. They have become so much a part of our culture that to remove them almost seems psychologically and morally wrong. We want God, but we also want…you can fill in the blank yourselves. Consider the teachings of the early church leaders...

1 John 2:15-17

1 John 2:15–17 NLT

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.

James 4:4

James 4:4 NLT

You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

Colossians 3:2

Colossians 3:2 NLT

Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth.

If we want to prepare our soil to produce the best crop possible, then we have to remove the things of the world from the desires of our hearts.

So What

Friends, having learned so much about soil preparation today, I think that we have a better understanding of why and how to prepare ourselves to produce an optimized crop. The first key is to accept the seed, which is Christ Jesus. Once we have done that, then we need to incorporate some spiritual disciplines into our lives. Some solid practices are to regularly read the bible, go to The Lord in prayer, remove loves from our lives that are inconsistent with His will, fellowship with believers, offer to others our testimonies of His goodness, seek out forgiveness, live humble and meager lives. All of these are spiritual disciplines that we can pack into our daily lives. They help spiritually disk, plow, aerate, and enrich the soil that is us.

I want to share a couple quotes of wisdom before we end. First, The Salvation Army’s very own Samuel Brengle is quoted as having said that “the great battles, the battles that decide our destiny and the destiny of generations yet unborn, are not fought on public platforms, but in the lonely hours of the night and in moments of agony”. This is why these spiritual disciplines in our lives are so important. We fight the devil alone in the wee hours of the night. So we have to be spiritually nourished and maturing to withstand the battle.

Secondly, Dr. Charles Kellog lends unknowing wisdom to Brengle’s statement. Kellog was Chief of the USDA’s Bureau for Chemistry and Soils, and is noted as having one of the most distinguished careers in the history of soil science. He is quoted as having said “essentially, all life depends upon the soil…There can be no life without soil, and there can be no soil without life”.

At the time, I doubt that the good doctor understood the spiritual profoundness of that statement. But our spiritual lives really are fully dependent upon our spiritual soil, and our soil dependent upon the life of Jesus and activity of the Holy Spirit!

So friends, tend your fields for heaven’s sake, and for your own as well!

God bless you!