Is there a Christian anywhere who has
not heard this parable. It seems to be
one of the most popular.
Since the time we discussed the
Parable about things that don’t go together, Matthew’s account of Jesus records
many healings, a sending of the disciples on a mission to proclaim that the
Kingdom of God is near, and a listing of the 12 disciples that followed him for
about 3 years.
Simon—Jesus
called him Peter—and Andrew.
James and
John—the sons of Zebedee.
Phillip and
Bartholomew.
Thomas and
Matthew—the tax collector.
James and
Thaddaeus.
Simon—not Peter
but the Zealot and Judas—yes, the disciple who would betray Jesus.
Jesus had more
direct and stern teaching. If you
acknowledge him before others, he will acknowledge you before his Father in
heaven. If you disown him, he will
return the favor.
We also received
some of the most comforting words in the New Testament.
“Come to Me, all of you who are weary and
burdened, and I will give you rest. All
of you, take up My yoke and learn from Me, because I am gentle and humble in
heart, and you will find rest for yourselves.
For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
The encounters
with the Pharisees became more intense.
Jesus healed on the Sabbath and told the Pharisees that was Lord of the
Sabbath. The Pharisee wanted their own
sign. They wanted Jesus to perform for
them.
As we set the
stage for this parable, we find Jesus venturing from a house, possibly even his
own house as he was in the region of Galilee.
He went to a lake and finding that large crowds were gathering, he
constructed his own amphitheater by getting into a boat and pushing off from
the shore a little. There he would sit
and teach this large gathering that surely had common people and the Pharisees
alike.
You need to read
ahead just a bit to his explanation of the parable, but Jesus was talking about
sharing the Kingdom of God and so the told the parable of the sower.
The sower sows the seed which is the word of God. Who is this? Jesus and his commissioned fit
the bill; otherwise known as the church.
Yes, we are these people.
The seeds falling on the road
represent those who hear the word but dismiss it almost immediately. Comparing synoptic gospels, we see that the
wicked one (Matthew’s version) or Satan (Mark's wording) is what takes the word
away. That sorry ole…
The seeds falling on the rocks
represent those who hear the word, but only accept in a shallow way, perhaps
only intellectually. These types of
people reject the word as soon as it causes them affliction or persecution.
The seeds falling among the thorns
represent those who hear the word, and take it to heart, but allow worldly
concerns, such as health, money, relationships, jobs, and other cares of this
world to choke it. In the Proverbs 3:5
dichotomy, they rely on their own understanding.
The seeds falling on good soil
represents those who hear the word, and truly receive it spiritually, causing
it to bear fruit. This is our memory
verse for the month being lived to fruition.
Little children, we must not
love with word or speech, but with truth and action.
1
John 3:18 HCSB
Good soil produces truth and
action. These folks respond as doers of
the word. They produce fruit for their
Lord and for the Body of Christ.
Here is a question for your
consideration. Jesus told the parable
and then he explained the parable to his disciples, so who would be crazy
enough to try to preach a parable that Jesus already explained?
Have a great week. See you same time and place next Sunday.
Amen. Right?
Maybe, not so fast on the wrap
up. Here is another question. What are we supposed to do with this parable?
The beginning of the answer lies in
verse 18. It says: Listen to what the parable of the sower means. Most of our Bibles give subtitles to
different sections to include the parables, but here Jesus gives the parable a
title. He called it the Parable of the
Sower.
What difference does that make?
Consider our human inclination. We would probably title this the parable of
the soils: Road, rocks, thorny, and
good.
Our own understanding would lead us to
come up with standard procedures for evangelism with accompanying
corollaries. Such as:
· Roads are for traffic not planting. Save you seed for more fertile ground.
· Rocky soil should be better prepared before
planting. If you are not up for the
serious labor of cleaning up the rocks, then save your seed for other
opportunities. Leave the rock clearing
to people with stronger backs and save your seed.
· Weeds and thorns are only in it for
themselves. They don’t share well so
don’t waste your seed there. Really, are
you going to carry a weed eater with you?
How many gallon jugs of Round Up do you want to haul around. You’re an evangelist. Leave the weed clearing to people who are out
of work.
· If you follow these basic tenants of seed
sowing, you will have plenty of seed for the fertile ground.
If left to our own understanding, we
would probably start classifying people we know as rocky or thorny.
“Man, sharing the gospel with that
yahoo was like dropping good seed on a newly paved interstate.”
If left to our own understanding, we
might just skip sharing the gospel with a lot of people. What’s the point?
Most of us would probably not make
this parable about the seed. That part
is simple. The seed is the word of
God. There is no bad seed. The seed is good.
So let’s consider this parable from
the perspective of the sower as this is how Jesus titles these analogies. The sower scattered seed. It went everywhere—on the road, in the rocky
soil, among the weeds, and even in the best of ground.
Why was there no rebuke from Jesus
about where the sower scattered seed?
Should the sower not have planted more wisely? Should Jesus not have titled this parable the
Mostly Foolish Sower? Really, seed was landing everywhere!
Consider what Jesus charged his
disciples with at the beginning of Acts.
He told them that once the Spirit had come upon them, they would be
witnesses of Jesus and his gospel in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the rest of
the world. Think about that. Put yourself in the shoes of these Hebrew
followers of Jesus who were soon to take this good news and share it.
Jerusalem—of course. God’s chosen people, you betcha!
Judea—yeah, ok, sure.
Samaria—Really? Nobody likes those people.
The ends of the earth—the rest of the world is
full of pagans, heathens, and people who don’t put gravy on their chicken fried
steak. You can’t be serious.
But Jesus was to be shared
everywhere. The gospel was to reach the
ends of the earth. God’s desire was and is
for none to perish. Of course, Jesus did
not reprimand the sower in his own parable.
The sower did exactly what the sower was to do. He scattered seed.
So, what is the point of the
parable? Win some. Lose some? Some get
rained out?
So baseball metaphors don’t work well
with the parable. What then?
This is the parable of the sower. It is about the sower. The sower scatters seed. That’s what he does. He or she does not carry the burden of the
response around after the seed is scattered.
Jesus told us that his yoke is easy and his burden is light.
Could we possibly bear the burden of
not only sowing seeds but bearing the responsibility for the hearer’s
response? That’s a double-edge sword for
sure.
Our human nature would be to claim the
credit when the seed landed upon good soil and produced good fruit; likewise,
we would accumulate guilt and blame and probably even remorse when the seed
landed upon the road or in rocky soil or among the thorns.
We are the sowers. We scatter seed. Elsewhere in our instructions, we do find
that we should do some watering and fertilizing when appropriate, but in the
context of this parable; we are the sower and the sower was not judged for
where his seed landed.
The sower did what sowers do. They scatter seeds.
Jesus did not say to save your seed
for good ground. He did not say to be
stingy with your seed so it doesn’t run out.
The parable is about the sower and the sower scatters seed.
We must resist our human nature to
classify people based on this parable.
To do so leads us to some outcomes inconsistent with a God who loves us
all and gives us all a chance to respond to his grace.
Jesus did not further explain the
parable. We are left to discern in the
full biblical witness that we have received or just leave the tough parts alone
and stick to what we know. I will
proffer a perspective at the former.
The soil is not a classification of
people ranging from eternal reprobate to the elect. It is the condition of the heart, perhaps the
mind and soul as well. Those conditions
can change.
Not mentioned in the parable is the
Holy Spirit. The sower does his or her
part and sometimes, the seed lands upon fertile ground and the response is
immediate and we celebrate.
Often, the seed will not germinate in
our presence, but we are not to be discouraged. We must not be discouraged! The parable tells us there will be a variety
of responses. It does not say that the
sower is witness to them all.
The sower distributes his seed and it
lands where it lands.
We also need to realize that among the
people who heard this parable in its first telling where some Pharisees. Despite what Jesus had already done, these
religious leaders wanted Jesus to prove himself by doing something at their
beckoning.
Jesus told them, “Tough luck guys. You get the sign as everyone else—the sign of
Jonah.”
He told his disciples that he used
many parables because some of these yahoos would only take the true meaning of
what he taught and try to put more burdens on the backs of men. He told his disciples that they were blessed
to have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Jesus told his disciples, who always
seemed to be dumbfounded, that many prophets and righteous men would have loved
to have gained their understanding. Jesus
used the words of Isaiah to tell his close followers that true understanding
comes from the heart.
So many had calloused hearts and
therefore they had become blind and deaf.
They could not understand the parables with hearts so hard. Jesus spoke to those whose hearts were good
soil and ready to receive the seed and produce fruit.
The disciples would come to understand
what Jesus taught not because they were intellectuals, but because he was
shaping their hearts. What he did not
finish, the Spirit would complete.
This is the same Spirit that can take
a hardened heart and break it in an instant or over the course of years and
decades. This is the Spirit that we must
trust as we witness to others. When we
share the gospel with others, we trust fully in the Lord and we do not rely on
our own understanding.
We do our part. God has not given us more than we can handle
and we should not be claiming personal glory when people respond and become
fruitful disciples. We don’t drown in
guilt when they do not respond.
We do our part. We scatter seed, among many other things that
we are called to do; but in the context of this single parable, we scatter
seed.
The parable is titled The Sower. It is not titled The Seed. It is not titled A Study of the Various Types of Ground—Parable
by Jesus and 10-year study by Oklahoma State University. The parable is titled The Sower.
We scatter seed wherever we go. We take the gospel to the folks across the
street and to the ends of the earth.
That’s what we do.
We don’t judge who might receive and
who will be as hardened as a blacktop road in January. We don’t walk away thinking that the seed we
planted will be burned up or choked out before you know it. What a waste of time and effort. To do these things discounts the work of the
Holy Spirit.
We scatter seed. We pray for God’s Spirit to precede us and be
with us and be with us as we share the good news and continue to work when we
have departed. We scatter seed.
Our desire must be as God’s desire,
that it land on good soil and produce much fruit. That is always our hope. God desires that none should perish. That is our motivation with every seed that
we scatter. Consider this part of the parable once more.
As for what was sown on good soil, this is he
who hears the Word and grasps and comprehends it; he indeed bears fruit and
yields in one case a hundred times as much as was sown, in another sixty times
as much, and in another thirty.
What are we to do? Scatter seed with an easy yoke and a light burden. We do our part. We scatter seeds.
We share the gospel wherever we can.
Amen.
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