This week we begin a new preaching series that will go through to Easter, looking at some of the parables found in the gospels. I like to think of a parable as 'a story with a point'. To be specific it is a story with a spiritual point.
We're starting this week with the Parable of the Four Soils in Matthew 13:1-23. It is more widely known as the Parable of the Sower, but the parable isn't really about the sower or the seed - it is about the soil. The seed is thrown onto the field. Whether or not the seed grows and produces a harvest depends on the kind of soil that it lands on.
Just before this story Jesus has been receiving a mixed response from the crowd to his teaching and miracles. Some think he's the best thing since sliced bread. Some think he's the Messiah. Some think he's from the devil. Some couldn't care less and can't wait to get home for their dinner and an afternoon in front of the footie (it doesn't say this in the passage - but they're always there somewhere in the crowd/congregation). How are we to make sense of these different reactions? Isn't it obvious that Jesus is the Messiah and what he's saying is true?
Sometimes we think that the occasional miracle would bring people flooding into church - but Jesus' experience and his teaching here warns us against thinking this way.
Some people will never be touched by anything that God might do - they're like the pathway - the seed never gets in, it bounces off the hard exterior and is eaten by the birds.
Other people will respond immediately because the gospel has a lot to offer - but when it comes to the question of commitment and suffering and sacrifice they don't want to know. They're like the rocky soil where there are no roots, and so the plants just whither.
Others will respond well, and really start to grow, but soon the trappings of this life go to their heads and rather than focusing on Jesus they start to think about money, and influence and power; and they start to worry about this, that and the other. A bit like the plant that is choked by the thorns and the brambles.
But others will start to produce fruit, they will begin to change, they will start to be more and more like Jesus. The kinds of things that we see in their lives are characteristics like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
The question for us is, what kind of soil am I?
