Mark 4:13-20 “Then Jesus said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? 14 The farmer sows the word. 15 Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 17 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; 19 but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. 20 Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown." NIV
What kind of soil are you? This parable is all about your heart! Every word of God that goes forth enters the heart of its hearers like seed in the soil! In this parable Jesus is contrasting the many different heart responses that people possess in regard to the word of God. It is insightful for its revelation of the enemies of the heart! Prov 4:23 establishes the preeminence of stewarding your heart by saying “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life,” and yet so many people are careless in regard to the precious gift of the human heart.
It is so easy to live without a conscious awareness of what is going on inside of you. Jeremiah declared by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Jer 17:9 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” KJV Who can know it? Only by staying tender before the Lord and diligently monitoring the condition of our hearts can we truly be aware of our inclinations towards self and sinful indulgence. King David maintained the stewardship of his heart before the Lord by offering it to the Lord in prayer for the searching work of the Holy Spirit to take place. In Ps 139:23-24 he cries out to the Lord and says “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: 24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” KJV
In Mark 4:13-20 Jesus identifies the first enemy of our hearts as Satan’s attempt to steal the word from us before it can ever take root. How many times have you had a momentary heart response to the word of God as you are moved in the deeper places of your being to draw nearer to God and turn from self and sin as a result of either reading or hearing the word of God? Have you ever been impacted powerfully in one of these moments only to see the impact fade away after just a short period of time, maybe even before you leave the place where you were impacted, as other thoughts come flooding in to contend with the life changing potential of what you received? Recognize Satan’s hand! Recognize that Jesus clearly stated that Satan comes to steal the seed, like a bird from the air, before it can ever take root in your life.
The struggle for a living heart does not end with this challenge however. In this parable in Mark 4 Jesus continues on past the place of Satan’s thievery to identify the fact that even if the seed of God’s Word does take root in our hearts the work is not finished. In fact it has only begun! If by God’s grace the Word of Life does begin to take root in us and is received joyfully into the heart it begins to grow because as Heb 4:12 states “the word of God is living and active.” NIV Yet this growth is challenged on many levels.
The second contrast of Jesus in this parable is the contrast of rocky ground. As the Word begins to grow in us the heart that is like rocky ground enjoys a short season of growth but then is quickly overcome by troubles and persecution. It is important to notice that the Lord does not protect us from these troubles and persecutions, but rather presents through this parable a warning that they are coming. Through this warning the implication is a challenge to prepare the soil of our hearts to allow the word of God to grow more deeply in us so that we can withstand the hour of trial!
The first two challenges for the domination of a human heart were primarily outside influences that contend for pre-eminence in the heart of man. Satan’s persistent attempts to steal the Word from our hearts and the troubles and persecutions of life each rise up to contend against sustained growth in God but there is another realm of danger that Jesus identifies in this parable that seems to stand out above the other two as the most dangerous snare to the growing Christian. As we develop and mature in Christ we soon learn to identify many of Satan’s attempts to steal from us. We also grow in strength and maturity through overcoming the trials and troubles that touch our lives. But, the most deceptive snare of the human heart is the voice of our own desires! Jesus identifies the worries of life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for other things as the chief competitor for the control of our hearts. Many people have triumphed over the power of the first two influences only to have their own inner longings that have never been taken to the cross become the very snare of the enemy and the source of rendering their lives fruitless.
Every believer will face the conflict of their own competing desires wrestling for control of their heart. Every believer must confront their own self-will, their own ambitions and their own agendas as they journey on the road to maturity. It is only when we learn to discern the difference between our desires and the desires of the Holy Spirit that we begin to truly produce fruit for the Lord. Many people have stumbled in their walk with God because they could not distinguish between the voice of their own wants and needs and the voice of the Holy Spirit. Worries quench their passion. Wants distract them from their true priorities. Let your heart be taken to the cross of Christ! Let your will be brought to the Garden of Gethsemane and with Christ lift up the enduring prayer from Luke 22:42 “not my will, but yours be done."
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