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How to Change Your World

Do you like change? Admittedly, change can be threatening. But maybe you’d like to help someone else make needed changes—in their opinions—or in their life. What’s the best way to get their attention and help them change?

As we look today at the parable of the sower, notice that it’s told as a story within a story. Here’s how the inside-story reads in the gospel of Luke, in chapter 8, verses 4 through 8.

“When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’ ” (NRSV).

Have you ever wondered why Jesus told this story? In its setting, there was nothing particularly interesting about it—and in fact a lot of people wandered away when He started telling stories.

Apparently, after telling this story, Jesus was left with mainly His disciples to talk to. Most of the people weren’t even interested enough to ask what it meant.

But that’s the very point of the parable. Jesus is speaking about the people in the crowd. He speaks about four different types of soil, but he’s really speaking about four different groups of people. This story is not really about the sower or his seeds, but about the soil.

And the question to be answered is: How do you get seed to take root and grow? If you want to succeed in implanting new ideas in someone’s mind, what steps must you take? If you want to bring about change for the better in your own life, what sort of preparation do you need to make?

Well, let’s look at the four kinds of soil Jesus talked about and see what we can learn:

What kind of people are represented by the path where the seeds fell and were quickly eaten up by the birds? Jesus answered that question this way: “ ‘Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved’ ” (verse 12, NIV).
Jesus puts good and evil on the map and draws a line between them. The words Jesus speaks are the good seed—they’re intended to make good changes in the soil—the hearts—they fall on. But in the world there’s also a devil, and the devil doesn’t want the good seed to grow. He doesn’t want people to make changes for the better.

Satan may even sit in the pew, right beside us in church, like the sparrows and starlings we see on the shoulders of the roads at harvest time, gathering up whatever has been spilled from the grain trucks on their way to the co-op. Satan is ever-so-willing to steal any good seed that may come our way—and he’ll do it, unless we have the soil of our hearts properly prepared to receive Jesus’ words.

There’s another group of people in the crowd listening to Jesus preach. They are the stony ground hearers. There’s something in their hearts that keeps the seeds from taking deep root. Some hard spots that resist the penetration of Jesus’ words.

The good news of the kingdom seems too good to be true when they first hear it. It sprouts up and starts to make changes in their lives. But then it hits a hard spot. . . .

Friend, this part of the parable challenges me. Is there anything in my heart that resists the Word of God? The parable challenges me to constantly reexamine my own life and make sure that I’m giving Jesus’ Word enough room to put down roots in my heart. When times of persecution or hardship come, will I be able to stand the test? Or will I wilt away like a plant that doesn’t have deep roots?

Thorny ground represents a third type of listener. There’s nothing wrong with this soil. In fact it grows weeds just fine! And it nourishes the farmer’s seeds also. But it’s not cultivated soil. It’s got too many other things going on for the message of the kingdom to produce fruit.

Let’s face it, life is busy. By nature, all of us are probably thorny ground hearers.

If we want Jesus’ words to grow in our hearts, some things may have to be rooted out to make room. Things that would occupy our time, occupy our minds, steal away our lives minute by minute, and keep us from nurturing the good seed. It’s so easy to let our lives get crowded with things that keep us from having time for Jesus. Do you need to do some weeding in your life? There’s a rich promise if you’ll do it.

Because the fourth group of people represented in today’s parable are represented by good soil.

What makes this soil good?

Really, it’s no different from the weedy ground, or the soil along the path, except for one thing. Preparation.

If you’ve ever seen a picture representing the sower in this parable, you might have seen the drawing I’ve seen. It shows a man with a bag of seed walking along scattering seed as he goes. But if you study up on the agricultural practices of people in biblical times, you’ll learn that that is not all there was to planting. Before the sower could go out to plant his seeds there were a couple of things that had to happen to prepare the soil.

The first thing necessary to make good soil in Palestine is rain. The climate there is a lot like the climate in the southwestern United States. During the summer months the soil gets very dry and hard. It would take it jackhammer to break it up. Any seeds you tossed there would be like the seeds that fell on the path. So the farmer has to wait for the rain to come in the fall.

Once the soil has been softened by the rain, it’s ready to be plowed. Plows in biblical times simply scratched the surface, making a little furrow, just deep enough to give the seeds a place to grow. Often the farmer would walk behind his ox and plow, dropping seeds as he plowed.

Jesus’ hearers understood the kind of preparation that was necessary for successful planting. If they cared to think deeply about His teaching, the message would ring true in their hearts. Jesus wanted them to think about the condition of their own hearts. Had they been softened by the influence of God’s Spirit? Had they done the work necessary to open their hearts to receive the seed?

That’s where the “outer story” of our story-within-a-story becomes important.

It holds the key to opening our hearts to change. And it’s the key to helping others change as well.

In my mind’s eye, I see Jesus telling this story (probably in much more detail than we have it recorded in the short-hand version in the Gospels), watching carefully to see how people responded, then crying out, “ ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear!’ ” (Luke 8:8, NKJV).

Then, story over, I see Jesus walking slowly along the shore of Galilee, seeing who will follow Him—who’s still “with him.”

Only a few stick close.

Mark tells it this way in his Gospel: “But when He was alone, those around Him with the twelve asked Him about the parable” (4:10, NKJV).

Only these determined followers would find out what the story meant. The seed of the good word of Jesus wouldn’t grow in anyone else’s heart. But these few were determined to understand the message. They were actively seeking truth.

Jesus had helped inspire them in their search by hiding the message in a story.

And here’s the secret message in this whole story-within-a-story: If you really want someone to learn something or find out something and treasure it; hide it from them! Let them discover it. Let them put forth the effort to find it. When they’ve done that, they’ll treasure it in their hearts and nurture it and pull up any weeds that might choke it out. The very act of seeking the truth will have prepared—plowed—their hearts and made them ready to receive the good seed! If there are stones or hard places in the way of the truth growing there, they’ll tend to that as well.

Jesus understood that. And His words changed the whole world, because people who sought truth and found it in His words treasured it, and shared it with others.

But maybe you’re not having much success in taking the good news you’ve received and planting it in others’ hearts.

Remember, the parable of the sower is a story within a story. Don’t miss the outer shell. Taking its lessons to heart can help you change yourself, and change the world around you! What I learn from this story is that Jesus was not aggressive in forcing His message on others. He simply set it before them and let them come to Him if they wanted to understand it better.

You say you want to change the world for the better? Read the story of the sower again, and learn from the Master Teacher how to change the world!