I was rooting through papers on a corner of my desk looking for a document when I came upon one sheet of paper that caught my attention. On it was a single sentence printed in a large bold font: “Still other seed fell on good soil.” (From Mark 4: 3-9)
While I pondered those few words my thoughts drifted to Martha at the tomb of Lazarus. Jesus tells her something extraordinary— “He who believes in me will live, even though he dies.” And right there, a short distance from the tomb he asks a faith-summoning question: “Do you believe this?”
As I reread the words in front of me, “Still other seed fell on good soil”, the Lord’s question to Martha pressed in…Do you believe this?
The parable of the Sower tells us that in this present age the gospel message will be sown in the world like seed and that there will be varied responses. Looking at the four soils of the parable we might think that evangelism is actually a case of three against one. In fact, we hear so much more about the three fruitless soils than about the one fruitful soil that, over time, our perspective can become distorted.
The Three and The One
First, there is the trio of fruitless soils: the well-trodden path, where the birds eat the seed; the rocky places where nothing takes root; the thorny patches where the plants are choked and produce no grain.
Against this backdrop Jesus makes an astounding statement, as he did at the tomb of Lazarus. He begins with the little adverb, still: Still other seed fell on good soil. If we replaced the word, still, with synonyms, it could read: Nevertheless, other seed fell on good soil. Or again, all the same, other seed fell on good soil.
Our focus must be on the potential of the one, not on the unproductive three. Jesus promises that there is a fourth soil and that it will produce a great harvest. We must believe that no matter the condition of the world’s vast harvest field, some seed will fall on good soil.
Jesus also makes a massive correction to the three-to-one calculation. He assures his disciples that the seed falling on good soil will produce an unprecedented harvest, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times.
The parable of the Sower holds three encouraging perspectives: a context, a contrast, and a commitment.
The context
The good soil is one soil among other soils. It’s not fenced off or isolated. It’s one patch of soil among others. When the Sower goes out, he seems unconcerned about the seed that will inevitably fall on unproductive soil. There’s no way around it; the fruitful soil is among fruitfuless soils. Nevertheless, he goes out and, as Jesus puts it, he scatters the seed.
The contrast
The seed represents the Word which is the message of the kingdom. The soils represent the different types of hearers and the varied responses to the Word according to the condition of people’s heart. Some hearts have become hard, some are superficial, and others are taken by the ambitions of this world, rendering the seed unfruitful. The good soil, however, stands in sharp contrast against these three and, by God’s grace, produces an extraordinary harvest.
The commitment
The Sower goes out to sow because he’s a Sower! He is neither deterred nor discouraged. His mission is to sow. Only later will it be clear that some seed fell on a hard path where the seed can’t penetrate, some on rocky places with no depth, and some among thorns unable to bear fruit. But he will reap an abundant harvest where the seed fell on good soil. He believes the promise. His commitment to sow is well-founded.
In Jesus’ day a yield of 10 to 1 was considered a good crop. In this parable the Lord tells us that in spite of resistance and rejection the sowing of the Word of God in the world will produce a yield of 30, 60, even 100 to one!
We’re called to sow in a massive field with lots of hard, rocky, thorny hearts. But Jesus assures us that in our cities and towns and neighbourhoods there are receptive hearts.
We are witnessing a social transformation as we’ve never seen. The secularization of societies, ours included, is profound. But this does not diminish the weight of the promise that Jesus made.
The sowing of gospel seed changes lives and societies. This is how God builds in the ruins of a disheartened world. At EHC, we see this all over the world, often is the hardest places.
Let’s believe Jesus. Let’s continue to share his precious gospel with as many people as possible, everywhere possible. Some seed will always fall on good soil.