Soil. Matthew 13.

Read Matthew 13 online here.
While Jesus was a carpenter by trade, he knew a thing or two about gardening as well. For one thing, He knew that it’s really all about the soil. If you don’t prepare and tend to the soil properly, your plants won’t grow, let alone thrive. And fruit? Well you can forget about that.

As I was reading Jesus’ Parable of the Soils in Matthew 13, (verses 3–9 and 18–23), I kept thinking about my backyard.

While our ground doesn’t have limestone hiding below the surface, as some of the land around Israel did, we do have clay. Lots and lots of clay. So much so that we find ourselves spending many hours each Spring breaking it up with a tiller and then mixing in good soil, sand and other nutrients.

I wonder what Jesus might have said about that.

Maybe that we as Believers should not just be salt and light in this world, (Matthew 5:13-16), but also compost. By our good deeds and our living out the many other aspects of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount we in essence help break apart that layer in people’s hearts which might not necessarily be “rock hard,” but consistently resistant to the truth being firmly planted, similar to a thick barrier of clay.

Our yard also, unfortunately, has weeds. Many ugly, stubborn weeds. This time of year -- Oregon ’s cold and rainy season, not to be confused with Oregon ’s warm and rainy season -- the weeds almost outnumber the various intentionally-planted trees and shrubs which they flank. When Jesus talks about weeds in this parable, I get weeds.

Fortunately, I have two things that the farmers of Jesus’ day didn’t have: Preen and Roundup. For those of you who don’t wander down Home Depot’s garden aisle very often, the first is a pre-emergent weed killer and the second is a quick-acting spot treatment weed killer for any obnoxious, unwanted growth that makes it past the Preen.

I wonder what Jesus might have said about that, as well.

Maybe that when we are filled with the Holy Spirit and strive to constantly walk in His power, it’s like laying down a protective barrier of Preen against the seeds of sin. (After all, weeds come from weed seeds.) Temptation may germinate in the depths of our hearts, but when it tries to surface up into our thoughts and eventually our actions, God’s Spirit helps us eradicate it.

And what about those times when the weeds of compromise and intentional sin do break through? That’s where Jesus might tell us to “round up” some close friends, Christian brothers or sisters who know us and care about us enough to speak the truth in love and hold us accountable. As a result, these weeds are the ones that are “choked out” while they are still relatively small, before they can spread and take root in our life.

He might have said stuff like that.

Of course, at the end of the day, or more accurately the end of the harvest season, it’s still all about the soil, which is the point of Jesus’ parable. His message to those with “ears to hear” was, and still is simply that if you want to have a productive life full of joy, significance and blessings, your heart has to be high-quality soil throughout the spiritual growth process. Only soil that is fertile, well watered and kept weed-free up, until, and even after the fruit is mature and ready to be collected and shared, is the kind that is guaranteed to yield a greater, more abundant crop year after year after year.

Jesus, the Master Gardener, is still asking the question today, “how good is your soil?”

Today's article written by Steve Robinson.