The Parable of the Sower (Part Three)

The Good Heart.

It’s a relief to get to this part of the story, but the three previous soils and hearts are part of a reality checkup. They are there to tell the Twelve, and thousands of us who follow generations later, that among those who say no to the offer of Christ are people with a prepared heart, ready to say yes. Lydia of Philippi was like that. She listened carefully, the Lord opened her heart, and she was saved. She went home and shared the truth with her household and a church was born.

The Samaritan woman’s response at the well is an interesting exception. As I read John 4, it seems to me that she displayed all four kinds of soils and heart attitudes. Let’s review her spiritual journey:

John 4:4 says that Jesus needed to go through Samaria. The average Jew did not do this. So deep was the hostility between Jew and Samaritan, that on trips north Jews bypassed Samaria. They would cross the Jordan, travel along the river until Samaria was passed, and then enter Galilee. So why did Jesus need to go through Samaria? There was a spiritually thirsty Samaritan divorcee who needed to hear about the “living water.” He met her at noon that day and told her the good news. Their conversation was the longest Jesus had with anyone in the four gospels. But notice the steps in the journey:

A Hard Heart. Jesus’ request was rather simple: “Give Me a drink” (v.7). Just four words. But His words were met with a brusque response. “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (v.9). John adds that the Jews had no dealings with Samaritans. It was a racial dislike. Hundreds of years earlier, the northern kingdom of Israel had been taken captive by the Assyrians. Jews and Gentiles had intermarried. Samaritans, their descendants, were looked upon as impure and tainted. They had their own mountains and temples and customs. To say that the two peoples had no dealings was putting it mildly. That’s why this woman answered so bluntly. She was a wayside listener.

A Shallow Heart. When Jesus described the living water as so satisfying that she would never thirst again (4:14), the woman had an immediate eagerness to take a drink and not have to make the noon trek to the well. She exhibited the shallow soil, ready to make a decision without understanding sin and repentance and the transforming power of the gospel. She was not ready.

A Divided Heart. At this point in the story, Jesus brought up her personal life. Knowing full well her situation, He told her: “Go call your husband.” There are several explanations given for the reference to her husband. My view is to that Jesus was probing her heart to see where she had gone to find “soul satisfaction.” It was in marriages—five of them. Five times men had said “I do” and after a time said “I don’t.” To use a picture from Jeremiah, she had been drinking from broken cisterns that hold no water. Men had failed her. There was a God-shaped vacuum inside of her that only the living God could fill. She needed to forsake her broken marriages and follow Jesus, who gives this promise: “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’ ” (John 7:37-38).

Finding Messiah. As their conversation progressed, the woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming” (v.25). Jesus responded, “I who speak to you am He.” That’s the moment she left her past and abandoned the water jar in exchange for living water. Without any formal evangelistic training, she ran into Sychar and began sharing the good news about her Savior. At last, the message had found good soil in a prepared heart.

Readers of the parable of the sower can be encouraged today: There is good soil in your church, on your mission field, in your city, in your dorm, on your campus. “Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Psalm 126:5-6)