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The Parable of the Sower
~Matthew 13:1-9~
In-person service at Temple Baptist Church
(850 Venice Blvd., at Oak)
William S. Epps, Senior Pastor
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1The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. 2And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 5Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: 8But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. Matthew 13:1-9 King James Version (KJV)
The Parable of the Sower Explained.
18“Hear then the parable of the sower. 19When any one hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart; this is what was sown along the path. 20As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21yet 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.[a]22As
for what was sown among thorns, this is he who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the delight in riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23As for what was sown on good soil, this is he 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.” Matthew 13:18-23 Revised Standard Version (RSV)
May the word of the Lord be like a seed planted in the soil of the heart of the believer and bring forth fruit to the glory of God.
Introduction
Jesus was and is a master teacher. He knew His subject. He knew His pupil. He knew His methodology. His subject was the kingdom of God. His pupils were those of a few types as described here in the parable; some were like a path that had been hard packed and seemingly impenetrable; some were like a stony place where it is hard to get a root in the ground to secure the seeds growth. Some were so consumed by the worries of this life and living, that they choke the possibility of receiving what they need to live, strive and thrive. Some are like good soil that produces fruitfulness.
This is the first recorded parable of Jesus is “The Parable of the Sower” (Matthew 13:1-23) which is equally the story of the seed and the soils. Earlier that day Jesus had a confrontation with the Pharisees and religious lawyers about His claim to be the Son of Man and the great gulf that separated them from God’s Kingdom. They could not bring themselves to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. There had also been a demand by His mother and brothers for a private talk – perhaps to persuade Him to call it a day. But Jesus declined them special access saying that the only relationship that ultimately counted with Him was what He had with those who do, “the will of my Father in heaven” (12:50).
Jesus had cast out devils; He’d healed the sick and He taught the precepts of the Kingdom but still they didn’t understand. Soon He would be leaving Galilee and setting His face steadfastly towards Jerusalem, there to meet increasing opposition and eventually the cross. How was Jesus to get His Message of the Kingdom of God through to the people in the crowds, full of expectancy, hanging on to His every word? The word “Kingdom” had excited the common people with the expectation that a powerful, dynamic messianic figure would drive out the Roman oppressors and restore the national pride once more. But the extraordinary thing is, Jesus didn’t choose that route. He told them a story instead – a parable. These fascinating stories would be the window of understanding.
Interpretations of most of Jesus’ parables are not recorded, but in this instance we have it spelt out line by line from His lips so we don’t need to speculate. The disciples and Jesus’ circle of followers had asked Him what it meant. They were ready for the manifesto of the Kingdom. It turned out to be a simple lesson in gardening! But behind the imagery of the Sower, the Seed and the Soils, there are solemn and serious truths.
Jesus is pictured sitting in a boat with great crowds gathered on a beach. Jesus entered into a boat in which He might be the less pressed, and heard better by the people. Jesus teaches us to make the best of the conveniences available to us, which God ‘s providence allots to us.
The parable is an encouragement by Jesus to His followers, warning them that much of their work in proclaiming the kingdom will appear as a wasted effort, but promising them that God will bring forth results far exceeding their expectations (Ecclesiastes 11:6) The parable is told against the background of what are to us strange farming methods, such as sowing before plowing or before the ground has been cleared.
The parable as a mode of communication was in wide use among the rabbis of Jesus' day. At first the sower is the Lord. The soil is the one who hears. The seed is the word, and the enemy is the evil one. Suddenly, the hearers are compared with the seed sown on different types of soil. This continues with the hearers being compared to the soil.
The sower is our Lord Jesus Christ, by Himself, or by His disciples who teach and share the word. Preaching to a multitude is sowing the seed; teaching is sowing the seed of the word. The seed is the word of God. Seeds fall on different kinds of soil. While the good soil brings forth plentifully, other soil does not yield as well. So it is with the hearts of people, whose different characters are here described by four sorts of ground.
Consider what it means that Jesus sows seeds of the word into our lives.
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The first type of ground is that which describes the heart of a person.
Seeds on the worn paths of life. As the sower walked down the field, some landed on this impenetrable soil and “birds came and ate it up” – in other words “the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown.” These are people who clearly say, “NO” to the Gospel. Sadly, they hear the Word but it rolls off them like water off a duck’s back. It’s as if their hearts are coated in spiritual Teflon so nothing sticks. They think they’re being clever, sophisticated, not being taken in by all this Kingdom-of-God biblical stuff! They are coated with what seemingly is impenetrable to receive anything but what they already have. Then the possibility of new growth is taken away. How many missed opportunities have there been in life due to the impenetrability of what people have concealed in their lives so that they are impervious to the truth that can add an unfathomable dimension. But don’t think it can’t happen to us as professing Christians! How the seed of the word of the Lord does not find expression in the lives of those who profess to know the Lord and yet do not practice the Lord’s word makes clear in the vernacular of a composition that says, "treat everybody right".
Consider what means to have a character and heart
like a path that is trodden down.
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The second type of soil is the rock.
There was a thin layer of soil on an outcrop of rock, allowing seeds to germinate but the plants could never get good roots. When the sun beat down, they withered and died. Jesus said it portrayed “the person who hears the word … with joy. But since he has no root, it lasts only a short time.” It’s possible to make an enthusiastic initial response but it doesn’t last; it’s all emotion. The cost of being a Christian hasn’t been counted. In a time of trouble or persecution it’s evident that the profession of faith has been superficial. The stony heart lacks the roots to be grounded in a faith that will not shrink though pressed by every foe or woe.
Consider what it means to have a character and heart like stony ground.
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The third type of soil is seed among thorns.
Jesus refers to the soil of the heart where a person, “hears the word, but worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.” This person answers to the call of God by saying, “YES, BUT...”. Their life becomes clogged with rival interests and competing loyalties which sap energy and enthusiasm. Whatever stage of life we are in, there are any number of distractions, resulting in spiritual immaturity and arrested development. Thorns, for they came in with sin, and are a fruit of the curse (Genesis 3:17-19). “The ground is cursed because of you. You will eat from it by means of painful labor all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the fields.”
They are good in their place to stop a gap, but a person must be well armed. Worldly cares are great hindrances and they are entangling, discomforting, and vexing.
Consider what it means to have a character and heart with thorns and thistles.
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The fourth type of soil is good soil.
Jesus said that the qualification for good-soil is that it “produces a crop”. “Fruit” says Jesus, is “showing yourself to be my disciples” (John 15:8). What distinguished the good ground was fruitfulness? “You will know them by their fruits.”
Matthew 7:15-20
What kind of fruit do good crops grow, rather in a field or a person? What kind of crop are you producing? “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:23-23
While many would be glad to hear a good message of good news from sacred writ, Jesus says the crop that is produced by the soil on which it lands is a depiction of the heart of the hearer. Let the word of the Lord be like a seed planted in the heart of the believer and bring forth fruit to the glory of God.
Consider what it means to have a character and heart of good soil.
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“Keep your heart in all diligence for out of the heart flow the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23). “As a person thinks in his heart so is he.” Proverbs 23:7
It has been said that the harden path on which the seed is sown is the heart and character that has be cloaked with impenetrable covers so that the hearers are easy prey for the seed to be snatched with its pearls of wisdom from the word and make it of little or no effect.
Then there is the stony ground which depicts a heart and character of a person who is not rooted and grounded and anchored in the Lord as the word of God, so that the word is not firmly penetrating, so as fruit starts to grow without any depth of roots, evaporates is scorched and withers away.
Then there are the seeds sown among the thorns which depict the heart and character of the person whose life is consumed with the cares of this world and delights in riches that chokes the word and it becomes fruitless. Worldly cares are fitly compared to thorns. Worldly cares are a great hindrance to profiting from the word of the Lord. The deceitfulness of riches does the mischief for they deceive us when we put our trust in them.
What distinguished the good soil which depicts the receptive heart and character of the person who does not let anything prevent him/her from producing fruit? Nothing hinders the fruitfulness of good soil. Notice Jesus did not say that the good soil doesn’t have any stones or thorns but that good soil, as good hearts and character, produce good fruit despite what would make it difficult. Good soil is known for its fruitfulness.
The hard packed path of prejudice that parades as preference and principle, a path where not much grows, where life and opportunities are too quickly snatched away. I’ll bet he knew what it was like to live between a rock and hard place. Life withers on rocky ground because you can’t put down roots. There’s no security or stability and the sun scorches. (Imagine security and stability scorched away by situations of all sorts). He surely walked amongst the thorns that could choke the life out of you (the cares of this world: violence, fear, anger, and poverty). I have no doubt that those thorns wrapped themselves around him and his family choking away dignity, security, trust.
We tend to read and try to understand parables through the lens of our world and worldview. The result is that we hear but do not understand, we see but do not perceive. The parable does not make sense. A farmer goes out and sows seed on a public pathway, on rocky ground, and amongst the thorns. That is simply wasteful, inefficient, and ineffective. Some would say it’s bad farming. The sower is not much of a farmer. You can’t plant seeds among the rocks and thorns or on a path and then act surprised or complain that nothing grew. The story Jesus tells simply does not fit in our world. To know that is the beginning of understanding this parable.
Consider what it means that the Lord sows seeds everywhere,
here and there, and in all types of characters and hearts.
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Parables offer a different perspective, a new worldview. They give us a glimpse into God’s world and what God is like. They heal our ears and our eyes so that we might hear and understand, see and perceive from God’s perspective.
As different as the four soils are they all hold two things in common. Seeds and the sower. The sower sows the same seeds in all four soils with equal toil, equal hope, and equal generosity. The sower does so without evaluation of the soil’s quality or potential. There is no soil left unsown. No ground is declared undeserving of the sower’s seeds. This is not about the quality of dirt. It’s about the quality of God, the divine sower. We want to judge what kind of dirt we are -- God simply wants to sow His life in ours.
Seeds here. Seeds there. Seeds everywhere. That just seems like poor planning. Given today’s economy that’s just wasteful. By today’s farming practices it is inefficient. With the cost of seeds and the time spent sowing, it may not even be profitable. These are not, however, the sower’s concerns. They are our concerns. Thankfully this parable is about God’s faithfulness and not about farming, soil quality, or how things work in this world. In the sower’s world wastefulness gives way to hope and possibility, inefficiency to love concern, and profitability to generosity and graciousness. Every part of your life has been sown with the seeds of God and you know what happens to seeds, they produce fruit.
Conclusion
The Lord has need of servants to till his field today.
So kindly he has led us to walk in wisdom’s way.
I pray for grace to help me with my heart to say.
O Blessed Savior, count on me.
Count on me, count on me,
for loving hearted service glad and free;
Yes count on me, count on me,
O blessed Savior count on me.
I count on thee dear Master, for cleansing in thy blood,
For constant streams of blessing, a never-failing flood;
To ever-new fruition I see thy mercies bud,
O blessed Savior, count on me.
Now gird me for the battle when evil powers oppose,
And give me faith and courage to conquer over thy foes;
I pledge thee my allegiance, my soul no other knows,
O blessed Savior, count on me.
I’ll bear another’s burden along a lonely way,
Or Teach that burden-bearer with confidence to pray;
In service ever loyal, at home or far away,
O blessed Savior, count on me.
Consider what it means to have the Lord count on you to
receive the word and produce fruit to the Glory of God.
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