Football and Good Hearts (Luke 8)

Did you realize your heart could be noble and good even before you hear the word of God?

I’m not a great sports player, but I played my share through my life. One of the things I enjoyed the most was football. In high school we just had flag football for intramurals. It was fun though. I think part of the reason I’m not great at sports is because my ball handling skills just aren’t that great and my depth perception is a little off. So when I would get picked for a team I would tell the QB don’t worry about getting me the ball I’ll just block for you. People are usually pretty happy with that news, they don’t have to figure out how to get the ball to me so it’s all fair for everyone. And I was big enough blocking was something I wasn’t too bad at.

Well it so happened one game I was blocking as usual. We were all lined up and the ball was set in motion. The guy I was blocking somehow got around me and headed for the QB but I was left wide open and with a toss the ball was in my wide open hands and I began to run. It was an amazing feeling flying down the field for a great 30 yd play. I had always thought of myself as a poor receiver and yet when the moment came my hands were wide open and I became a good receiver in that moment.

In Luke 8 Jesus tells the parable of the sower. A man went out to sow some seed. Some landed on the path and was carried away by birds, some on the rocky soil where is only had shallow roots and faded away. Other seed sprung up quickly by the weeds grew up and choked it out. But there was also good soil and when the seed fell there is grew up to a harvest of many fold.

Jesus then explains the different types of soil as different hearts receiving the word of God. Some are afflicted by Satan, others the busyness and cares of life get in the way, and some just loose interest, but there is the good soil. The noble and good hearts open to the word of God and it sinks in and produces a crop.

This is interesting language, because it seems the heart, which is called, deceitfully wicked in other places in scripture can also be good. This is not so surprising sense God promises us a new heart, a heart of flesh instead of a heart of stone. But this heart is good before it receives the word of God so how can it already have the new heart?

What makes a heart good here is it’s openness to the word of God. The heart wide open is ready to receive the word of God and run with it on down the field. The opposite side of this is the hard heart. Pharaoh is an example of this. Moses comes to ask the Pharaoh to let Israel go and the bible says Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let him go, the heart of stone or the heart of flesh.

God must be working with our hearts before we receive the word of God in order for them to be open and receptive. This means he is giving us new hearts even before we actually know who he is! We haven’t received the word yet, so we don’t know him and yet are hearts are good and open when it comes.

God works much further out of the evangelistic book then we think. To get a new heart we must accept Jesus, right? No, it turns out to accept Jesus we need a new heart first.

What an amazing God we serve! He is transforming us even before we know him.

May your heart be open today to receive the word of God and may we be made aware of the good hearts all around us just waiting for us to sow the seed.