Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Give Us This Day

Home
Evangelical
Luke 8:1-15 – The Soil of the Soul

Luke 8:1-15 – The Soil of the Soul

Last updated on: March 30, 2017 at 9:00 pm by Fr. Charles Erlandson

Luke 8:1-15 – The Soil of the Soul 2017-03-30T21:00:39-05:00 Fr. Charles Erlandson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

** Sower and Seed **When I was a kid, I always wanted to be a mad scientist, mixing up different colored potions to unlock the mysteries of the universe. Of course, the fun part about chemistry for most people isn’t all the technical stuff – it’s to see how chemicals react.

In Luke 8, Jesus Christ challenges you to consider perhaps the most important reaction between two things that you could ever ponder: the reaction between the Word of God, which brings life, and your eternal soul. This morning, Jesus asks you to consider what kind of soil you have been, and how you have responded to the Word of God in your life.

In Jesus’ parable, God Himself is the sower, the one who sows the seed. The Word of God is the seed itself, the seed by which God’s presence comes to us. This seed contains the germ of eternal life: it is a living thing because it is the voice of God calling each of us to Himself. But it will only grow in proper soil. And it is the soil that most interests Jesus in His parable. He is interested in the condition of your soil, the condition of your soul.

He asks you this morning to carefully and honestly consider what kind of soil you have been.

As we listen to the teaching of our Lord, it is important to remember that the kind of soil you are can be changed: otherwise His teaching would be fatalistic and offer no hope but only a terrible description. By turning from God, good soil can be made bad. But by turning to God, the creator of the soil as well as the seed, bad soil can be made good and fruitful

Some seed fell by the wayside, which is not even really soil. The seed that falls by the wayside will not grow at all because the soil is too compact and is constantly being stamped down. The birds of the air will snatch it away because it cannot even be buried to grow. This kind of soil is the people who refuse to hear the Word of God at all. It’s less likely to be people who go to church regularly (though it could be). Some people grow up going to church or attend for years but may never have really opened their heart to the Word of God. They have either actively rejected the Word of God or passively ignored it.

The Word of God will not survive in such soil, but will die. In human terms, such a person who has rejected the Word of God – and therefore has rejected God Himself – will also die and not see eternal life. Only if there is a change of soil – a change of heart – is there hope.

The rocky soil is soil that has a thin layer of dirt over rock. Every seed has stored food in its seed leaves, which are called cotyledons. That’s what we’re eating when we eat peanuts or peas or lima beans. So the seed can grow up quickly by itself, but it needs healthy soil from which to obtain the rest of the nutrients. If the roots cannot grow, because the soil is superficial, then the plant cannot develop to the point that it can support the life of the plant. Eventually, the plant will die.

This kind of soil is those who hear and receive the Word with joy when they first hear it, but they fall away with temptation (of which there are always many). They’ve heard the Word of God, but then times get tough and they haven’t let God work deeply enough in them. Or it’s like a marriage in which the exuberant joy of the honeymoon is over and the couple are now disappointed when every day isn’t like the first day they fell in love.

Such a person, if he allows his condition to continue, will, in time, die, just as the seed on the wayside. It’s possible that some of you may be in this condition. I’ve known a lot of Christians who are the rocky soil, and they need the grace of God as it comes through you and me. You yourself may have had a time in the past when you first heard the Word of God and you rejoiced. But then over the years, maybe even for reasons you don’t remember or understand, you just seemed to drift away.

Such people, if they continue to fall away, will die apart from God. And yet there is hope for this kind of soil, for this kind of person. If they turn back to God, He can break up the rocks that prevent their roots from going deep. Such people, if they truly seek God, can develop more roots.

But they will require moisture and nourishment, and fertilizing and weeding. They must seek God in the Church, in prayer, in Christian fellowship, and we must go out and meet and encourage them, for they are part of us.

In the thorny soil, the seed indeed begins to grow and survives past infancy. But over time, the plant begins to be choked out by thorns. The plant continues to live, but each year it becomes less and less healthy, and it will not bear the fruit that such a plant should produce. These are those who have truly received the Word of God, but it is choked out by cares of this world, by riches, and by pleasures.

It is with good reason that elsewhere Jesus said that you cannot serve both God and Mammon. There is a competition between God and the world in such a person, and the things of this world, like an addiction, begin to assert more and more power over the person. By the end of a period of years that person, often without realizing it, has begun to serve and desire something in his or her life above God.

It may have started innocently enough. It may have been, for example, that a man desires to provide well for his family or wants to avoid the poverty or deprivation his parents faced. But he finds himself over the years focusing so much on the job and its income that he becomes blind to other things: God, the church, perhaps even the family he has worked so hard to provide for. He finds himself enjoying more and more the fruits of his labor and thinks more and more of the good things he can get for himself. At some point, He begins to forget that it is God who has given Him these good things, and He begins to think He can practically do without God at all, even though he would never deny that God was real.

I’m not suggesting for one minute that this is the way it has to be or that in receiving the good things of this world with thankfulness and humility we will necessarily all be led astray. But the constant warning of the Jesus Christ is to beware that riches or any of the good things of this world don’t lead us into temptation or evil.

Such a person, ultimately, brings no fruit to maturity. He himself may survive until the end but with no fruit. Or he may die a slow death. This is one of most common soils I’ve seen. It’s all too easy for us be enticed by living in the most prosperous nation that has ever existed. Christians fit in too easily into our culture and buy into all it means to be in America in the 21st century – for good and for bad.

To some degree, we are all being choked by the things of this world, and God is calling us to give them up so that we have life and have it more abundantly.

There is one more soil – the good soil, the soil that is the way soil was created to be. It is the soil in which things grow and produce an abundant harvest of more fruit. Such people are those who truly fulfill God’s first commandment to be fruitful and multiply, for they take the Word of God, eat it, grow strong, live by it, and go feed others and teach them to do the same.

What makes the good soil “good”? Three things. Those who are good soil listen to the Word. They have noble hearts and good hearts. They have an initial faithful response to God.

Second, they keep the Word, meditate on it day and night, and keep it in their minds and hearts. These are those who have discovered the mystery of patience, which is that like the growth of a plant the growth of a Christian is gradual and requires work and cultivation. They have a continual, progressive response to God.

They act on the Word when they hear it. What is taken in becomes a part of the plant or person and then comes back out so that they bear fruit. Their initial and continual growth leads to perpetual growth in God’s garden.

I’ve been privileged to see this very response of faith, this good soil, in many Christians.

God is calling you this morning; He is calling you by His Word. He desires to see how you will respond, not just for a moment but for a lifetime. The way to become or remain good soil is the same for all four kinds of soil. Soil by itself is inert – it can’t change itself and it needs someone to nourish it. The soil of the human heart must seek God. You must go to the source of life Himself.

Whether you are on the wayside, or are rocky, or thorny, you must turn from yourself and turn to God. Find out what it is in your life that prevents you from hearing and responding to the call of God on your life. If you are the good soil, then you must continue the way you began and not trust in self. As St. Augustine said: “When God is the sower, and we are the ground, we are called to work to be good ground.”

May we all ask God for His grace to help us to be good ground.

Prayer: Almighty God, Lord of heaven and earth, I beg You to pour forth Your blessing upon the soil which is my life and make me a fruitful plant in Your garden. As You have planted Your Word in my life, may You also prepare the soil of my heart to receive You once again that in You I might have life and have it more abundantly.

Resolution and Point for Meditation: I resolve to meditate on which kind of soil I am most like. I further resolve to find one way in which God wants me to act, based on which kind of soil I currently am.

Sower and the Seed – Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license

Give Us This Day Devotional

parable of the sower and the seed

soil

Word of God

Previous Post

March 15, 2017

Luke 7:36-50 - Anointing The Feet

Next Post

March 17, 2017 Luke 8:16-25 - Robin Hood in reverse

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Book Reviews Featured Give Us This Day Give Us This Day Devotional love me love my wife Love My Wife Reformed Catholicism Blog Spirit-Reality Take This Cup Uncategorized

Select a Month February 2022 November 2021 October 2021 August 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 September 2018 July 2018 March 2018 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 August 2011 July 2011 May 2011 April 2011 March 2011 February 2011 January 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Hebrews say is living and active?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Faith The church The word of God Prayer