The Parables of Jesus, Part 2: Preparing our Hearts

The Unfruitful Fig Tree (Luke 13:6–9)

“And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’”

The Parable of the Soils (Matthew 13:3–23; Mark 4:1–20; Luke 8:4–15)

• Matthew 13:3-23: “And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.” Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: “You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.” For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’ But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. “Hear then the parable of the sower: When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

• Mark 4:1-20: “Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them: “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’” And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

• Luke 8:4-15: “And when a great crowd was gathering 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 along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.’ Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience."

There is a lot going on there and it may not be necessary to include all three Gospel writers' version of the parables (when available), but I feel it's important to include them all for instances when there may be minor discrepancies.

The theme I want to take away from these two parables, as the title of this post would suggest, is "preparing our hearts." This probably isn't a totally new concept to most people who went through Sunday School or attend church on any kind of regular basis, but I do think it is a concept that everyone can reevaluate in new stages life and one that nominally religious folks may not be as familiar with.

In an interview at UC Berkley in 1963, Malcolm X was asked why he thought the time was right for a "Civil Rights Movement." His answer was a sort of parable that, in paraphrasing, described a seed that was planted in the soil and remained dormant until a "season of change" in the environment surrounding the soil allowed for the seed to bloom into something beautiful. Sometimes I think that God probably operates in a similar capacity in our hearts. Recently I found myself a bit confused as to the direction He wanted for my life. The more I prayed about it, and the more I prepared myself for a "season of change," the more I found the answer becoming more and more clear.

I'll put it another way. Growing up I had a pitching coach named Les who, after HOURS and hours and hours of pitching lessons, became one of the most important mentors that I had in my young life. I went to Les for life advice all the time. He was often the first one I called when things got really consequential. I'll never forget sitting in my basement of my first house during my first year of teaching. I can't remember what the incident was now, but it was one of those "call Les" incidents.

The wisdom that Les left me with that day took me over five years to understand. See, Les' common response to whatever I was calling him about that day was, "Have you prayed about it yet?" Sometimes I immediately knew what his answer was going to be after about 10 seconds, and it was always a good reminder of what Christ would want me to do first when trying to solve a problem. However...on this particular occasion I needed a real-world answer from a real human being and, for whatever reason, I was not exactly thrilled with the, "Have you prayed about it yet," response that I got from Les that day.

I didn't realize at the time the wisdom that was packed into Les' question. What it took me entirely too long to realize is that, "Have you prayed about it yet," was really another way of saying, "Have you prepared your heart for the RIGHT answer yet?" When dealing with problems in my life I often get a solution that I want to work, but it's difficult when what you want and what you know is right don't align. When I reflect on decisions that I've made in the past it's easy for me to see where I made excuses to force a solution, or where my solution wound up being obviously the wrong solution.

The beauty in the question, "Have you prayed about it yet," is that it really cuts straight to the core of the real issue at hand. Any time you are faced with a tough decision to solve a problem you have to, at some point, identify what you believe is the BEST solution, or the RIGHT solution. Then you inevitably wind up ranking other solutions in some capacity based on what you want to happen and/or what would be the easiest solution. "Have you prayed about it yet," to me, could also be rephrased as, "Have you prepared yourself for the RIGHT answer?"

I think this is a small example of how we can dissect these parables from Jesus. The parable of the fig tree is perhaps the easier one to look at in this regard. In the parable, the fig tree is not producing fruit and the owner of the vineyard was ready to cut it down. The vinedresser convinced him to let it be, that he would fertilize the tree, prepare it to grow fruit, and then they could reevaluate. In this instance the vineyard owner is ready to make the easy decision. The tree isn't producing so let's swap it with another. The problem is that, apparently, the vinedresser had not properly prepared the tree. He had to dig around it, potentially pull some weeds out from around it, and spread manure to fertilize the tree so it had what it needed to produce. This is, for me, an example of praying to prepare your heart for the "fruit."

The parable of the soils is a bit more complex. In this example there are several ways in which the soil has been "prepared" and how the seed reacted to the soils once it was planted. Jesus makes it clear in this story that in order for a seed, or perhaps an idea...to succeed, the soil (or environment) must be properly prepared for the seed. In other words, we can have solutions and ideas all we want, but we must prepare ourselves for the RIGHT solution. Likewise, we can pray for God to give us solutions, to put us in the right places, to grant us wisdom, but if we don't pray that he prepare our hearts first, it's possible that we could miss God's direction for our lives.

This is one of the most meaningful quotes from the parable of the soils as it relates to my views on the parable: "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart." Whether or not you believe that "the evil one" will literally come and distort your view of what is right, I think the metaphor still works in the sense that, without the proper preparation of your own heart and mind, it's possible that you could miss even the loudest calls that God sends to you. This is something that I have been working really hard on lately. Anytime I find myself asking for something in prayer, I also pray that I may prepare myself to receive the answer. I try to focus on being intentional about looking for signs that may be meant to guide me. After all, if I'm going to ask the Creator of the universe for something...I feel it's worth the effort to go out of my way to look for the answer.

Anyway...I hope that makes sense. The parable of the soils has been on my mind for a while and I think it's a really important, incredibly deep lesson on the importance of prayer and preparation when we are trying to find guidance and growth in our spiritual lives.