As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
Matthew 13:4 NIVUK
‘Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: when anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path.
Matthew 13:18-19 NIVUK
During lockdown, one of my pleasures, especially in the middle of a stressful day, was to go for a walk in woodland near to my home. What is special about this woodland is that it’s not tame: there are no asphalted and fenced off pathways. So as you walk, you are walking on paths made by others who walked before you.
When this happens, the ground becomes packed and hard. Seed can’t penetrate the hard soil, so little or nothing grows. Essentially you are walking along a narrow man-made scar in the landscape.
This happens all across the world – particularly in the developing world. Paths worn hard through simple treading line the sides of fields and woods the world over.
This is what Jesus is talking about here. Not a hard soil formed by natural phenomena, but soil packed hard through treading.
Hardness not formed by nature, but by the actions of people.
Just think about that for a second.
The lack of productivity comes not because the soil is arid, but because the soil has been packed and beaten until it becomes hard.
Jesus here is talking about people. People who bear scars and callouses. People who have been mistreated. People who hurt.
People who are so hardened that the seed of the Word of God cannot penetrate to their heart.
And do you know who have the hardest hearts to penetrate with the Word of God?
Those who have been hurt by so-called Christians.
There is a warning for every Christian here. If we value the Word of God at all, we cannot harden people to it by the way that we treat them. To use another metaphor, we cannot put a stumbling block in their path (2 Corinthians 6:3). We have to pay attention and treat people with love and respect, the way we would wish to be treated ourselves (Romans 13:8-10).
But how do we know if our hearts are hard?
Very simple. If you hear someone speaking from the Word of God and they appear to be talking about you, how do you react?
Do you argue with them in your head?
Do you try to justify the way you are living?
Do you get angry or flustered?
Do you try to deflect and start to wonder if someone else is listening, because this message is really for them?
Does your mind wander to something, anything else other than the word being preached?
Then you have a hard heart.
If that is the case, be warned: hardened ground can only be fertile one way – by being broken up. And the harder you are before God, the more He may need to break you.
When clay is soft, a potter can remake it into anything he needs. But when clay is baked hard, its ability to change is really limited to either what it is now, or to broken shards of pottery.
The only other way to change a hardened heart is to give it to God and to ask Him to change it, because He will, if we ask Him (Ezekiel 11:19, 36:26).
Having a hard heart is no recipe for happiness – quite the opposite.
Having a hard heart is no recipe for productivity for the Kingdom of God. It must be broken for the Word of God to take root.
I pray you do not have a hard heart:
So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested and tried me, though for forty years they saw what I did. That is why I was angry with that generation; I said, “Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.” So I declared on oath in my anger, “They shall never enter my rest.” ’
Hebrews 3:7-11 NIVUK
Prayer
Lord Jesus, as I read Your Word, hold it up like an x-ray to my heart. Show me if I have become hardened. Take my heart of stone and give me a heart of flesh, I pray. I want to receive your Word and be productive for you. Amen.
Questions
1. What made the pathway hard? How can we avoid doing this to other people?
2. How can we know if our heart is hard? Is your heart hard?
3. How can a hard heart be made soft again? Are you willing to undergo this?
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