Mark 4; 1 - 20

This parable ought to be called the parable of the four soil conditions. The first three soils are non-productive. We are tempted to say that they are victims, but if we look closely we see they are not victims, but perpetrators of their own doom. 

The first soil is hard. It is hard because of emotional rebellion or selfish resistance to God. We all have the capacity to refuse to hear God's word in some area of our life. That hardness makes it impossible for us to even hear the call of God for our lives and leads to greater hardness or hardness in other areas of life.

The second soil was shallow. On the surface things may have looked good. The life of faith is easy when things are good, but things are not always good. Circumstances may be a testing and refining from God to purify us. They may be a temptation of the enemy to ruin us. From our own perspective we may not be able to tell the difference. The results reveal our character and what is under the surface. How would we fair under persecution and affliction? Note also that the Lord says, "They have no firm root in themselves."  In persecution and affliction we cannot rely on others.

This third soil appears to be doing well, at least longer than the rocky soil. Notice the two forces at work in the demise of these plants. There is the “deceitfulness of riches” and the “desire of other things”. It is not riches or things themselves that are the problem, but our attitude toward them. If we believe money and things can solve our problems then we are these weeds. How are riches deceitful? Why are things desirable? The Lord is speaking of both the miser and the spender here. They both believe that “having” will satisfy. If worry about money is a problem, either in having enough to get what you want or hanging on to it, then you are in the weeds.

We see the soils are not passive victims, but active participants in their own ruin just as the good soil is an active participant in its productivity. We see here a partnership between the soil and the seed, between the word and the disciple.  Grace is the opposite of earning, but it is not the opposite of grateful service and effort.