Reflection on the soil

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 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

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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 their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰ The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ²² The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²³ But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Many people have read the parable of the sower in the gospel a lot of time. I remember last year, my cg went through the OIA method and we 'tried' to apply the method to this parable... we failed miserably although by the grace of God, it was still a fruitful session. But after that session, I am constantly concerned about how people interpret this parable. From what I have heard, it seems that people always interpret this as a parable of our relationship with God. But nowhere in the passage does this allude to our relationship with God, rather it alludes to the conditions of our heart and how we receive the word of God (though this will affect our walk with God). It talks about how the four different kinds of heart conditions (liken to soil) and how our reception to God's word is directly affected by the conditions.

It is not my intention here to go deep into the four conditions but recently, I just heard something which helped me to see this passage differently from a fresh perspective. You see, we have always focused on the conditions of the soil, which is rightly so, since seeds cannot grow well in bad soil. However, we forgot to look at the kind of seed we plant into the soil. The passage states directly that the seed is the word of God. It assumes that we are planting the word of God into our heart. But is that so? I was at a talk, conducted by Prof Neo Boon Siong, who is an expert in dynamic governance and organisational change and he was talking about this example about a seed which he tried to grow. He mentioned that he tried planting seeds from cooked dates... which is not going to happen since the seeds are dead and they will never grow in the first place. The context behind this example is change. He shared that in order for change to occur, we need to plant the correct seed, and nothing will happen if we plant dead seeds.

In a similar fashion, we need to think about what are the seeds that we are planting in our hearts right now. The correct seed - the word of God, will grow to bear fruits, assuming it is planted on the right soil. The wrong seeds, like worldly wisdom contrary to the bible, can likewise grow in the right soil, but it saps up the nutrient and it grows the wrong kind of fruits.

Another point to note about the seeds, that is we need to know what it takes to grow the seed and know what we want to grow. The second question is obvious, you dun grow durian using mango seeds. If you want the fruits of the Holy Spirit, you grow the word of God in your heart. And if you want to see fruits, you have to work, in partnership with the Holy Spirit. The bible instructs us to keep in step with the Spirit. It is work, in the sense that we need to commit to ensure that the word bears fruits. It is never the case that we listen and see, and then expect something to happen out of nowhere.

And so, these are some reflections on the soil. The right seed, and the right soil with the right soul will bear the right fruit.