The Parable of the Sower is given in Luke 8:4-8, and explained in verses 11-15. It is a parable concerning the condition of one’s heart (v.12). At one time I believed that this parable discussed four different types of hearts or people who heard the word of God. However, I heard a sermon years ago where the speaker showed that there is only one thing keeping each of the first three problem cases from being good ground. For example, the wayside needs to be broken up with a plow, and the rocks must be removed, and the thorns or weeds need to be pulled up. Any ground could be made fertile in order to yield a good crop. It was at this time that I began to believe that this parable speaks to each of us about four stages of our own hearts, as we grow in Christ. There is a great danger that anyone of us could get stuck in any one of these stages for a season at any time in our walk with Christ. Any one of these stages may characterize one’s life for a period of time, just as they do for the world that does not believe. On the other hand, there may be one or two stages that any particular person may skip entirely or spend such an insignificant amount of time there that it is hardly noticeable that a problem ever existed.
First Jesus addressed my own insensitivity to the Gospel in his description of the seed cast on the wayside (Luke 8:5). The birds symbolize the devil or his servants who take the seed out of a man’s heart (Luke 8:12). The wayside symbolizes a hard heart like the hard ground of a well worn pathway upon which nothing grows. I may have had a habit of always doing things one way or thinking about a matter along a certain line. I am very adverse to change and so very insensitive to another way of looking at a matter or doing a thing. Perhaps a change would be for the better, but my insensitivity to the need stands like an enemy that cannot be overcome. My heart is hard in this area, and my eyes are spiritually blind. I cannot help it, because it is the way I am. One may as well try to teach a blind man to see as to get me to change in a matter to which I am insensitive. It just cannot be done… at least by man. It takes a miracle to change a heart, just as it takes a miracle to open the eyes of a blind man. I have no idea how much more of my own heart remains to be plowed up, but I strive to place all my insensitivity in the knowing hands of my Savior God, Jesus Christ.
The Lord has brought me through many things, from a church breaking up to having to choose between friends who taught me about God and plowing my own way through difficult times. Jesus was with me through it all, helping me through hurtful situations when brother was against brother and father against son, to even the rejection which came from those who would claim I was not a Christian when I tried to change my church home. Through it all Jesus was with me as my hard heart was plowed up and the wayside was made sensitive to his word and his Spirit within. Today, I praise him for it all. Softening a hard heart is painful at times, but rewarding in the end. Praise God!
Smoodock's Blog 