Reading Luke 8:4-15: On Flourishing in the Gospel

Reading Luke 8, on the Parable of the Sower.  I love the idea of the quality of the ‘soil’ of one’s heart, as it were.  The parable is interesting in that Jesus talks first about external conditions that would prevent the seed of the gospel from taking root, but then ends up focusing on the soil itself.  So, seeds sown on the wayside just stay on the surface, and won’t be able to take root before the birds come to eat them.  Seeds sown on the rocks spring up fast, but have no root.  Seeds sown among the thorns are, in a sense, just sown in the wrong place – they might take root, but there just isn’t room for them to grow. 

Seeds sown on the wayside are those with quite hard hearts – they just won’t let the gospel sink into their souls, for various reasons.  Seeds sown on the rocks are those who do embrace the gospel with joy, but when they are tested – that is, when they face adversity of some kind – they cannot thrive in the gospel.  So, tribulation and persecution can make us unfruitful.  Yes indeed.  In this parable, the persecution scorches the plant, which has already sprung up, but which does not have roots deep enough to access the water and nourishment that it needs. 

Seeds sown among thorns are those who do initially flourish in the gospel, but other things – such as ‘cares of the world’, or a love of riches, an excessive focus on pleasure, choke out a love for the gospel.  First, thinking about the word ‘choke’.  The Greek word here means to choke in the sense of putting pressure on something.  So the idea here is that something is pressing down on us – that is, there is pressure.  Pressure from the outside, and pressure from the inside.  Pressure because the cares of the age are real and difficult and demand answers which we might not have, and also pressure from the inside – anxiety, self-doubt, the importance of appearances.  And the idea here is that the seed fell among thorns, and then the thorns sprung up.  So it’s like there was something in the heart that was already there – a propensity to conform, to propensity to compete, to care unduly about what others think, a propensity to love the world, maybe.  So the seed falls where there is this propensity to love the world, and then the love of the world puts pressure on the plant; it chokes the plant, so it does not bring forth fruit. 

Second, thinking about the word ‘cares’.  ‘Cares’ is from the Greek word merimna, which can also mean ‘worries’, ‘anxiety’, or ‘distraction’.  It refers to the idea of a person being divided or fractured into parts.  So, when you are taken over with certain worries or fears, it is hard for you to be ‘all in’ the gospel, as it were. 

And the passage here says that when someone is taken over with worry, anxiety, or distracted by a focus on riches or pleasures, then they will not mature in the gospel – with ‘mature’ coming from the Greek telos, which means ‘end point’, or ‘final flourishing’ of a thing.  And indeed, when we get to the ‘good soil’ part of the parable, Jesus says here simply when the seed takes root in a ‘good’ and ‘fine’ or ‘noble’ heart, and that person ‘holds fast’ to the gospel, or ‘takes possession’ of it, then that is the person who will bring forth fruit in the gospel.  For them, the gospel will mature, and they will flourish in their testimonies.  Notice, too, that the word ‘mature’ or ‘flourishing’ can be used in two slightly different ways – to ‘flourish’ in the gospel, or to have the gospel ‘flourish’ in you.  It becomes one and the same thing. 

But back to the ‘quality of the soil’.  Jesus says here that it is the person with the good and honest heart, basically, where the gospel can take root properly.  The Greek words are agathe and kale – meaning ‘good’ and ‘noble’ or ‘fine’ – which are both used in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics to describe the virtuous person.  The idea here is that the ‘good’ and ‘fine’ person has become that way through some kind of good moral habituation, which takes place over a period of time, through a series of experiences.  So, the terminology here referring the ‘good and honest’ heart makes me think of a person who has been prepared to hear the gospel in one way or another through a series of life experiences.  And here is where the wonder comes in regarding God and the way He prepares us in all sorts of ways to either accept the gospel, or to grow in the gospel once we accept it.  Our agency in this is to allow our hearts to continually be prepared for further growth.