Once
upon a time my husband and I had a small garden in our backyard. I grew up with
gardens of various sizes as a child. To this day my brother-in-law is an avid
gardener with a plot the size of a mobile home. Whether small or large
there are a few common requirements and characteristics of a garden, beginning
with the rule: what you put into it determines what you get out of it from
preparation to the seed sown.
Good soil isn’t just a
matter of location. It requires labor. In the Parable of the Soil in Mark 4:3-8, Jesus talked about four kinds of
soil: road, rocky, weedy and good. The seeds that fell on the hard packed
soil where everyone walked became bird food; the ones that fell among the rocks
had shallow roots that were vulnerable to the constantly changing temperatures,
seeds entangled with weeds were robbed of light and nutrients and were choked
out, and the seeds that were planted in the good soil grew and yielded what was
intended in the first place. To get that good soil, hard ground has to be
tilled, rocks dug up and removed, and weeds pulled. As to the seeds, type and
quality mattered. A good garden was an investment of time, effort and resources.
In Mark 4:13-22, Jesus explains what each of
these soil conditions mean when it comes to our lives. The seed that is
sown is “the word.” He used the word “logos,” which refers to a complete
message that the speaker is trying to convey. In Matthew 13:19, it is referred to specifically
as “the word of the kingdom” or kingdom message. The sower sows the message.
The condition of the heart/life, when the message is heard, determines the
response.
It is easy to think about
the plot being sown as someone else’s life. We put ourselves in the role of the
sower sowing the message of Christ hoping it lands on good soil so it produces
a bumper crop. But, let’s step back and take a different, more personal
perspective and look at the soil of our own garden, our own lives.
Where are the road hard –
no grow areas? These can be places of lifelong willfulness that we don’t want
the Lord to touch, things we don’t want changed. They can also be areas of
neglect that once was good soil. We do have a tendency to leave a good thing
alone. However, unattended it dries out and becomes hard. On the other hand,
doing the same thing the same way over and over again has a way of packing down
good soil. Then there are areas of compromise where the world takes a short cut
through our lives and fertile soil becomes a hard, crusty dirt road.
Rocks are not that easy to
spot. They like to sink below the surface and hide beneath a thin layer of good
soil. What attitudes and mindsets lay like rocks in your life? These
usually show up as justifications and excuses, or as expectations and demands of
others. The easiest way to identify rocks is by what prompts apathy when it
comes to self or irritates, aggravates and/or annoys when it comes to others.
The problem with rocks is they are susceptible to circumstances, which can
impact the temperature of our soul/soil. They heat us up or chill us to the
core and any seeds of truth that have begun to germinate can’t handle it and
die off.
As to the weeds, Jesus told
us exactly what they are: “worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches,
and the desire for other things.” (Mark 4:19) It’s a nasty list, but
identifying them in our lives is the first step to pulling them. Warning:
some are rooted in hell itself. Worry, determination to be totally
self-sufficient, as well as discontentment, will choke out “the word of the
kingdom” as each of these seek “this world” answers and provision. They rob us
of son-light and living water we need to grow and be productive.
The next question we need
to ask is what is being planted? Every garden I have ever planted has
been filled with what I like, what I wanted, what I thought I needed, good
quality seeds, but only in a quantity I could manage. As a result, I considered
myself a rather savvy gardener. Did you catch a constant here? “I.”
These standards are easily applied to what we allowed to be sown into our
lives. For me, my “garden” is often filled with what is comfortable,
convenient, controllable and exacts only a cost I am willing to pay. It is
always neat, manageable, logical, useful, and maybe just a bit
impressive. If I was to underscore any of these, it would be logical.
Logical does not fit Luke
13:18, 19.
What is the kingdom of God
like, and to what shall I compare it? It is like a mustard seed, which a man
took and threw into his own garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the
birds of the air nested in its branches.
A mustard seed is a tiny
seed with massive results. (See description in Mark 4:31,32) Who would intentionally take a
mustard seed and throw it into his own garden? It would take over and consume
his entire garden! All that preparation would produce one thing: mustard!
Jesus said that is what the
Kingdom of God is like. Right now, the Kingdom of God in this world or
its impact on this situation seems really, really small. But plant it in a
prepared garden, put it out there and watch what happens. The Kingdom of God
will take over.
It takes time as the
planted seed germinates and grows. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 3:7,8 that while we are
involved in the process of planting and watering, it is “God who causes the
growth.” In Mark 4:26-29, Jesus used another parable in
reference to this period of watching and waiting. “When the crop permits”
indicates everything/everyone has its own timing of becoming mature and ready
for harvest. This season of growth is also a season of trust.
In Matthew 17:20 and Luke 17:6, a mustard seed is used as an
example of faith. Just a minute amount of faith in response to the prompting of
a mighty God is enough to move a formidable mountain, uproot mulberry tree with
its massive and intricate root system, or produce something beyond imagination
that not only bears an abundance of fruit but provides a safe haven for others.
What seed has been placed
in your hand? Are you willing to take it and throw it into your own
garden? The unknowns are, well, unknown. The risks beyond what you already
imagine, including the possibility that nothing will come of it or that it will
become something way beyond comfortable, convenient, or controllable, and thus
demand a high cost of everything you are and have. What you do with that seed
is your choice. It is your garden. Or is it?
What
is the Kingdom of God like? It is like a man (or woman) who took a
mustard seed and instead of putting it in a safe place or throwing it away,
“took and threw it into his/her own garden.”