The ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience

 Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.  And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities -- Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.

And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable:  "A sower went out to sow his seed.  And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.  Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.  But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold."  When He had said these things He cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

Then His disciples asked Him, saying, "What does this parable mean?"  And He said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that

'Seeing they may not see,
And hearing they may not understand.'

"Now the parable is this:  The seed is the word of God.  Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.  But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.  Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.  But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience."

- Luke 8:1-15

Yesterday, we read that one of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him.  And He went to the Pharisee's house, and sat down to eat.  And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil, and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.  Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, "This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner."    And Jesus answered and said to him, "Simon, I have something to say to you."  So he said, "Teacher, say it."  "There was a certain creditor who had two debtors.  One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both.  Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?"  Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more."  And He said to him, "You have rightly judged."  Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman?  I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head.  You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.  You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.  Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much.  But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little."  Then He said to her, "Your sins are forgiven."  And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?"  Then He said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you.  Go in peace."

 Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.  And the twelve were with Him, and certain women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities -- Mary called Magdalene, out of whom had come seven demons, and Joanna the wife of Chuza, Herod's steward, and Susanna, and many others who provided for Him from their substance.  My study bible explains that these women mentioned here in Luke were with Christ and remained faithful to Him until the very end (see Luke 23:49, 55).   They were also the first to receive and proclaim the news of His Resurrection (Luke 24:1-10).  In the Scriptures, my study bible notes, the number seven often symbolizes totality and completeness.  This indicates that Mary called Magdalene had been thoroughly given over to darkness before her healing.

And when a great multitude had gathered, and they had come to Him from every city, He spoke by a parable:  "A sower went out to sow his seed.  And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; and it was trampled down, and the birds of the air devoured it.  Some fell on rock; and as soon as it sprang up, it withered away because it lacked moisture.  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it.  But others fell on good ground, sprang up, and yielded a crop a hundredfold."  When He had said these things He cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"    Jesus gives the "classic" parable of the Sower, the parable that begins His preaching in parables in Matthew chapter 13 and Mark 4.  This parable becomes central to His ministry as it is a parable of Himself.  My study bible tells us that in the Old Testament, there are many metaphors of sowing and harvesting, as this was part of the daily life of an agricultural society. 

Then His disciples asked Him, saying, "What does this parable mean?"  And He said, "To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is given in parables, that 'Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'"   My study bible explains that mysteries are not obscure intellectual concepts, but rather they are the presence of the Kingdom of God which can't be defined.  It says, "A person's unwillingness to understand Christ's parables is due to rejection of His Kingdom."  John Chrysostom teaches here:  "If the blindness were natural, it would have been proper for God to open their eyes; but because it was a voluntary and self-chosen blindness, He does not overthrow their free will."   Should that have been done it would have been no simply "no advantage for them, but an even greater condemnation."   Jesus' quotation is from Isaiah 6:9.

"Now the parable is this:  The seed is the word of God.  Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.  But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away.  Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.  But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience."  Jesus gives the explanation of the parable to His disciples, and to all of us who read the gospel. 

What we note here is the effort required for the word of God.  Jesus is the Sower who sows the seeds which are the word of God.  His explanation for the parable is interesting.  We see a gradient difficulty in each "step" or location of the seeds.  The first, the seed by the wayside, is easily snatched away, before any faith can happen at all.  The second, the seeds on the rock, is received with joy; that is, with some acknowledgement of the goodness of the word.  But there is no rootedness to it; when temptation comes immediately the response to the word is gone.  The seed among the thorns gives us a greater difficulty:  one imagines that these people indicated in the parable are those who've already passed through the first two stages indicated by the seed by the wayside and the seed on the rock.  But the thorns are the difficulties in life:  cares, riches, and pleasures -- all the things of this world that distract us and keep us occupied, and seem so overwhelmingly to be all that there is of life.  But the ones that fall on good ground are those who, "having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience."  Jesus does not promise an easy or simple salvation.  Rather, here, even the very act of telling a parable requires some kind of response on our part, some kind of interest and work at this, work at understanding what He's telling us, work at keeping His word, and a kind of doggedness, if you will, in the keeping of that word:  a noble and good heart, an active "keeping" of this word, fruit borne only with patience.  This implies work, effort, a dedicated kind of devotion that is implied in the "noble and good heart."   The words "noble and good" in the Greek indicate a kind of beautiful soul:  someone who is both beautiful (in the sense of that which is beautiful because it is good) and intrinsically worthy, of great value.  Both of these words, translated as "noble" and "good"  -- καλος  and αγαθος -- are essential to the ancient Greek vocabulary of philosophy and literature and are used in many ways to indicate an idea of something that appeals because of its very goodness, the things of God that are worthy and valued in true essence, and thereby things that truly bear the goodness of God.  This marriage of beauty, goodness, and truth  is important for us to understand if we are to grasp the meanings here.  It is important to understand how, in a true sense of who we are, real goodness is appealing and beautiful in and of itself.  This kind of "noble and good heart" is linked with the virtue of patience, a person who can bear suffering and setbacks with faith and persistence:  faith in the word of God.  In this, we can understand how our love of the truly beautiful plays a role in our faith, and persistence in the good things of God.  One may consider beauty, in this sense, to be the building block of everything we understand as decent, truly human in the fullest possible sense of the goodness we are capable of being and building in the world.  That is, all the things that make life worth living and give us what we would consider to be a civilized life, full of the potential of beauty and goodness.  Coupled with Christ's admonition that this takes patience, we come to understand that this is a great undertaking, this work of faith.  We come to know and understand the beauty of God as that which takes us human beings also into such beauty, worth, and value.  Let us remember how to bear that faith in the word of God into the world when things get "ugly" or difficult or don't go our way.