‘He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.” His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?” He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables, For they look, but they don’t really see. They hear, but they don’t really listen or understand. This fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah that says, ‘When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend. For the hearts of these people are hardened, and their ears cannot hear, and they have closed their eyes— so their eyes cannot see, and their ears cannot hear, and their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them.’ “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, but they didn’t see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn’t hear it. “Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds: The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced. The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”’ Matthew 13:3-23(NLT)
In our reading Jesus tells of a farmer who decided to sow seed across his land, which included soil of varying fertility, illustrating the point that the success of any seed depends entirely on the ground it lands in. The seed has life in itself – all it needs is the correct growing conditions.
Jesus describes the seed as being “the message about the kingdom” (v19). The kingdom of God is found where God is actively ruling and the seed therefore represents any message that teaches us how to live the King’s way.
There is a lot of relationship “seed” in the Bible that we have to receive like the fertile soil. It teaches us how to conduct every relationship we have.
Today’s first challenge is to explore the Bible and discover what God has to say about each specific relationship we currently have, then secondly to commit to conducting them His way. Doing this is us allowing kingdom seed to take root in the relationship soil of our lives; choosing to be like the fertile ground in our reading, rather than the hard or rocky soil.
Your resolve, then, is to be like the fertile soil in this parable.
Now let me explain one more thing that emerges from it.
The problem with fertile soil is that everything grows in it. While we concentrate on nurturing the good seed we planted, weeds always seem to emerge alongside. We don’t always know how they got there, but we do know they need to be pulled up as soon as they are spotted because, as Jesus says, they will “choke it, making it unfruitful” (v22). Relationships only thrive if they are both carefully nurtured and kept weed free.
One small weed, left unattended for long enough can become so large and influential that other plants suffer. Similarly, if we allow the little “weeds” of poor relationship habits, attitudes or practices go unattended, they will choke and potentially kill a healthy relationship you value.
On the remaining days of this devotional we will be looking out for little “weeds” in our fertile relationship soil and learning how to deal with them quickly, as well as exploring how to enrich our soil with healthy “relationship feed”.
Before entering full time Christian Ministry I was a building surveyor and have often seen walls, drains and even whole buildings undermined by a large root that was simply left unattended for many years. That root started as a little weed that was left unattended. Relationship weeds can be just as destructive if not removed early on. That’s why it is so important we learn to be expert relationship gardeners!
from Rooting Out Relationship Killers by Stephen Matthew