Parable of Sower is a great story that helps to reflect on the receptiveness of our hearts. A dry land cannot be productive until it is allowed to be plowed. As a farmer, I had a great experience of preparing land for sowing. It includes the process of watering, manuring, plowing, and seeding. Our hearts are compared to soil. It needs to be prepared through hearing, understanding, discerning, and living the Word of God. The seed of the Kingdom of God is the Word of God which needed to be sown in our hearts to build God’s Kingdom.
Jesus expounds the mysteries of the Kingdom of God through parables. Chapter 4 of the Gospel of Mark contains three seed parables, including the Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1-20). As Raymond E. Brown noted, these parables illustrate the various responses of people to Jesus' proclamation of the Kingdom of God. The Parable of the Sower specifically highlights the receptiveness of the hearers through the four types of soil. God's Word is powerful; it can transform your heart into good soil. We should prepare our hearts to be healthy soil, which means being ready to receive God's Word into our lives.
There are four types of soil:
- Wayside soil represents those who stand far away from Jesus. They don't know Jesus fully and are merely passersby who don't have time to come close to God.
- Rocky soil represents those who are hard-hearted and critical of Jesus. They get to know Him but refuse to believe.
- Thorny soil represents those who allow worldly forces to overwhelm them. They don’t have time for Jesus.
- Good soil represents those who believe in Jesus and live according to God's Will.
The Word of God has inherent life that transforms good soil into something fruitful, rather than remaining barren. When we feel that God's Word is not effective in our lives, the problem lies in our hearts, not with God's Word.
Do not try to deal with God's Word; instead, let God's Word deal with you. God's Word is not a device to be used, but a divine gift to be lived.
"The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever." (Isaiah 40:8, RSV)
Fr. Raja MSFS
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