The Sower and His Seed
We are back in our series through the Gospel of Luke after taking a few weeks off to do some spiritual remodeling. This series was originally designed to go through the end of the year but recently I realized that would require skipping over a lot of really good material, so we are going to slow things down a bit. Understanding who Jesus is and how He lived is so important I don’t want to rush through this. As Christian our primary focus must always be Jesus. So we are really going to dig deep into His life and get to know Him better. What was originally a 22 week series will now take us more like 60 weeks so we are going to be in Luke for just over a year finishing up next October.
This week we are going pick up in Luke 8:4. We left off with Jesus at the house of Simon the Pharisee where a sinful woman comes in and anoints Jesus’ feet with perfume. When Jesus leaves He goes on tour traveling from town to town proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. He makes His way back to the town of Capernaum where Peter lives and He begins teaching again. Don’t let the brevity of the transition fool you; Jesus has been busy. He has been healing people, casting out demons, dealing with some family issues. We see Him again out by the Sea of Galilee teaching on the shore. As He is teaching the crowds begin to grow. People are flocking from all over to hear Jesus speak. So as He has before Jesus gets in a boat and goes out onto the water to use the water as a natural amplifier for His sermon.
Jesus is famous for His parables, they are His trademark. A parable is a story or used to illustrate or teach truth. Jesus does not just use parables for analogies. He often uses them to make the main point of His message. Throughout Jesus’ ministry parables will confuse and frustrate the religious people and captivate the hearts and minds of those who are sincerely following Him. This is the first time Jesus entire sermon is a series of parables. From this point on parables will play and dominant role in Jesus teaching.
Lk 8:4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: Lk 8:5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Lk 8:6 Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Lk 8:7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Lk 8:8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Jesus used parables of everyday life to explain the spiritual reality of the kingdom of God. He makes regular use of certain metaphors in His parables. Masters, fathers, and kings represent God, servants and workers represent God’s children, seed represents the Word of God, and the harvest stands for judgment. In most of Jesus parables there is one main point given to each major character or group in the parable. In Jesus ministry He tells forty parables. He only interprets two. This is one of them. So we know this is an extremely important text. This parable of the sower sets the stage for how we hear everything that Jesus has to say. This parable determines how we will respond to Jesus.
Palestine was an agricultural society. In Jesus day farmers would walk across their fields. As they walked they would grab handfuls of seed from a sack they were carrying and throw it across the ground. Very different from how we farm today. Most farmers in America will spend time planning and organizing the planting process. They will plant seeds in nice organized rows and spaced evenly apart. We plant very strategically in order to ensure maximum effectiveness.
Their farmers didn’t really care what kind of soil the seed landed on because the more the sowed, they more they could harvest. They wanted to make sure that all the good soil got seeds. The difference between how we plant and how they plant can be seen in the animal kingdom. Most mammals will have a few offspring. They will put a lot of time and resources into protecting those offspring and they have a high success rate. Insects on the other hand will lay a thousand eggs. Of those thousand eggs about eight hundred will not survive to adulthood. In the West we plant like mammals, in the East they plant like insects.
There are four types of soil which serve as metaphors for our hearts: first, the hard path. As people walk along a path the soil becomes compacted and dense making it virtually impenetrable for a seed. So the seed that falls here is picked up birds and produces no fruit. Then there is the rocky soil. This is a thin layer of soil with limestone or rock underneath. The soil is shallow and lacks moisture which makes it impossible for the plant to develop a solid root system. Seeds that feel here would grow fast and wither away quickly also bearing no fruit. Some seeds feel among thorns. These are weeds that grow up along side the plant. Many of them would be attractive, they would grow with colorful flowers but they would soak up the nutrients and choke out the crop. Again, there would be no fruit. Lastly there is the seed that falls on the good soil. This seed avoids the path, the barriers of the rocks, it stays away from the weeds and grows to produce an abundant crop.
These four soils represent how we respond to Jesus. But the soil isn’t any different. The difference is what else is in the soil. Some have rocks, some have weeds, and some have been made hard from the constant pounding of feet. We all start off with the possibility of producing an abundant crop for the kingdom of God.
Lk 8:9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. Lk 8:10 He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, “ ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’
The disciples are with Jesus on the boat where He is preaching. They find His message confusing. Like the disciples the crowds are bit confused as well. Jesus doesn’t explain to the crowds, but He answers the disciples privately on the boat. The kingdom of God is not a puzzle to be solved it is a mystery to be revealed. We don’t need to reason our way to it, we need to listen for God’s explanation. Those who listen will understand. The more they listen the more they understand. Those who do not listen will not understand. It’s like any relationship: the more time you spend with a person where you are really paying attention to them, the better you will know them.
Lk 8:11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Lk 8:12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Lk 8:13 Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. Lk 8:14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. Lk 8:15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
Jesus then explains to us what the parable means. The sower is Jesus. The seed is the Word of God. The sowing of the seed is the proclaiming of the Word of God. The different soils are our different responses to Jesus. The path refers to people who have no desire to hear the word of God. They are like a brick wall. The seed can hit it but all it will ever do is bounce off. Some people’s hearts are hard. They can hear God speak but refuse to listen. They can see God work but refuse to accept it and will not give the seed an opportunity to grow. They refuse to respond to the Word of God.
Then there is the rocky soil, these are people who are not secure. They accept the Word of God, they grow quickly and with joy but it doesn’t last. Their faith cannot endure persecution and trials. They believe when things are good but when the hard times come they do not have the root system to survive. When these people go through trials rather than clinging to God, they walk away from Him. They are shallow and driven by feelings not by conviction. They want the comfort and the life that Jesus offers, but they don’t want to have to follow Him.
The weeds are competition. They prevent the plant from growing and getting the resources it needs. These are people who live with a divided interest. They are caught up in life’s worries, in riches, or pleasures that prevent them from maturing. The Word gets in and it grows but it grows along side other things. Things that distract us from our walk with God and prevent us from truly devoting ourselves to Him. The weeds come from denying God access to the entirety of our heart. These weeds are distractions. Wealth, power, popularity, success, these things can get in our lives and hinder our relationship with Jesus by battling for the throne of our heart. Jesus doesn’t want to be a part of your life. He wants to be your life. Jesus wants all of you.
Then there is the good soil; which refers to people who receive the word of God and obey it. These people do not just listen they hear the Word of God. They apply it to their lives, they hold on to it even in trials and through suffering. The one who digs in to the Word of God, who seeks to understand it, to grow and to apply it to their lives is the one is the good soil. They make Jesus the center of their lives. It is all about Him, those who realize that and live accordingly are the good soil. Good soil is fruitful. It produces a harvest. Good soil allows for growth, development, provides resources. Our task is to prepare our hearts to grow and produce abundant fruit. We might start in the wrong place but if we are willing to let that seed in, it will transform our lives. We are changed from being a seed to being sowers.
We get to choose which soil we are. The hard soil can be plowed, rocks can be removed, and weeds can be pulled out. With proper attention there is no reason all the soil cannot be good, productive soil. Some us don’t see Jesus clearly because of pain. We have been hurt and disappointed in the past and so we put up a wall. If we don’t let Jesus in then He can’t hurt us like everyone else does. Some of us we get excited but we lack perseverance. We like the idea of Jesus and of the life that He offers but we don’t want to make sacrifices to get it. Some of us want Jesus in our lives, we just don’t want Him to have control of everything. Becoming the good soil means letting go of the pain, it means really dedicating yourself, it means stepping away from all the distractions so that our lives can be all about Jesus.
We tend to be very conservative. Jesus is not. This is what is so amazing about Jesus: He is generous. He is not worried about waste He is worried about people not having the opportunity to respond. Jesus offers His life to everyone, even when we knows some people are not likely to accept it. Now as we have been transformed from seeds to sowers we have been giving the task of sharing His Word with the world. We are not told to judge the type of soil. We are not supposed to hand pick who gets it. We are just supposed to share it with everyone, with anyone. The sower throws seeds everywhere.
Throwing out all this seed can seem like a waste. A lot of us think like that. We think it is about the success rate. We think: that person is too far gone. They are too much work. Someone like that will never accept a relationship with God. Some of us have probably had that said about us at one point. The soil can change. Think back to what kind of soil you were when Jesus got a hold of you and what kind of soil you are now. It is not our job to determine who is worthy it is our job to offer the life Jesus brings to everyone. Jesus knows there are not lost causes only lost people. Everyone no matter what type of soil they seem to be deserves and opportunity to change. Jesus loves lavishly and unreasonably. He never gives up on anyone and will do whatever He can to save everyone. So should we.
