The Unnatural Soil | Mark 4:1-20

Mark 4:1-20

Jesus informs us that there are four types of heart soils, but that only one is unnatural. These other soils – the soil that is hard, the shallow, rocky soil and the soil that is kind to weeds – do not require God’s touch at all. Like the grounds we would find walking through fields, along ocean shores, or in the middle of desserts are the same grounds that we find in Jesus’ parable.  With the exception of one, these soils are natural and common to the earth and behave exactly as the surrounding, wild terrain.

When a gardener works a patch of ground to plant a garden he first prepares it.  He tills the hard ground and then he pulls up all the weeds, removes the rocks and takes out anything else that would inhibit the growth of his seeds.  Then, after the soil is prepared, he plants.  And if the gardener would desire for the ground to return to its natural condition he would simply do nothing.  He would stop tending the ground and allow for the weeds and the elements to slowly take over the ground he worked so hard to prepare.

This is a key theme overlooked in our parable: A gardener takes wild ground and tames it.   He works a patch of ground that couldn’t naturally tolerate flowers and fruit that are desirable to him, and he transforms it into a fertile bed that’s ready to receive whatever he wants to plant.

The Holy Spirit is the Master Gardner. He waters hard, dry ground and softens hearts with the Word of God. He tenaciously tills the stony ground of stubborn hearts and prepares them to receive the Gospel. When he plants the Gospel, the well-prepared soil receives the Lord Jesus in the fullness of love and happily obeys his commands. And the Spirit is always busy pulling weeds, pulling those idols from our hearts that would otherwise make the Gospel boring and unlovely to us, so that the Gospel will grow unimpeded by the native plants that normally thrive in the soil of our hearts.

If left to themselves, our hearts would see the weeds rise up and choke off the Gospel or they would bake ever harder under the hot, blazing light of Gospel truths. But when the Spirit of God plants the Gospel in a good and well prepared heart, it becomes useful to God and produces a harvest of righteousness for the sake of spreading the Name of Jesus Christ.

Tagged as: fruit, Gospel, hearts, Holy Spirit, Jesus, weeds