The Parable of the Sower and Seed (Luke’s edition)
Introduction: This parable of the sower and seed is recorded in each of the so-called synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). The Lord Jesus Christ used parables or stories like these to give people something to think about.
Farming and fishing were about the only ways people could find food in those days so it makes sense the Lord would use a feature of life as a figure of speech. Best of all, this is one of the parables which He not only gives, He also explains, and makes it easy for us to understand!
1 The parable delivered
Text: Luke 8:4-8, KJV: 4 And when much people were gathered together, and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable: 5 A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. 8 And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
This chapter begins after the Lord had shared a meal with Simon, a Pharisee (7:36-50). While there, an unnamed woman, a “sinner (usually interpreted to mean an immoral woman)” had anointed the Lord’s feet with ointment, then washed His feet with her tears and wiped His feet with her hair. The Pharisee seemed to be upset, if not appalled by these actions, and wondered in his heart if, as we might say, “Does He know who she is? Why is she doing this, and why does He allow it?”
Jesus replied to this with the parable of the “Two Debtors”. As Jesus explained, two men had debts: one, owing nearly two years’ worth of wages; the other, only about six weeks. Neither could pay off the debt so the lender forgave the debts of both. Jesus asked Simon who would love the former lender the most; Simon (grudgingly?) admitted it would likely be the one who had been forgiven the most. Jesus went on to show that the woman had proved her love by her deeds; Simon had almost insulted his Guest by not showing three common courtesies which were practiced in those days.
Now, after this, the Lord is going here and there preaching the Gospel (8:1-3). Besides the Twelve Disciples, who followed Him, a number of women ministered to Him but the text doesn’t clearly state these women actually followed Him. Regardless, some of these women (Mary Magdalene, for one) were sometimes more faithful than the disciples (John 20, e.g.),
And it’s at a certain time and a certain place, which Luke does not mention, that a group of people had come to hear what Jesus had to say. There were times when the Lord spoke plainly, giving no doubt what He was saying, but this was another time when He used a parable. He started some of the parables by saying, “There was a certain man, who did something. . .” and continue. Here He used a figure likely well known to those listening, namely, farming. Matthew (13:1-9) and Mark (4:1-9) mention Jesus was near the sea (of Galilee) when He spoke this parable. Luke doesn’t give the location but that’s not important. What was important is that people had come to hear Jesus—and they weren’t going to be disappointed!
Then Jesus began to deliver the parable. “A sower went out to sow his seed . . .” and I’m sure that spoke directly to the hearts of those hearing Him. Now, it’s true that Isaiah and Micah had both prophesied that the Israelites would, one day, beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks, but that day hadn’t happened in the days of Jesus and they won’t happen for a long time to come. I’ve read in a number of sources that the fields weren’t actually plowed, as we think of them, at all (like, deep-thrusting plows made by various farm equipment makers). The sower might take a stick and scratch a small hole in the dirt, drop in the seed, cover the hole with the (original?) dirt then move on. One man could literally sow a lot of seed in just one or two days, apparently.
And Jesus continued. He mentioned some “fell” by the wayside. Again, the seed landing or falling by the wayside could be because the sower himself was careless, or some of the seed had slipped out of his hand, or the wind might have blown the seed away from the field and onto the path or wayside. Even worse, the seed which fell by the wayside was “trodden down”—nobody either cared or noticed about good seed found in a bad location! Seed won’t grow on a sidewalk! Some problems like this one haven’t seemed to change very much, have they!?
Some other seed, Jesus added, fell on a rock then shortly afterwards withered away. The seed couldn’t find moisture. I remember one individual (name withheld) who explained to me that for seed to grow, it need sun, soil, and water, and balanced amounts of each. Nobody had to worry about sun in Israel, especially in those days (Jerusalem, for example, is roughly parallel to or on the same latitude as Waycross, Georgia or 31.76904 compared to 31.214123) according to an Internet search.
Now, whether by accident or otherwise, some of the seed fell among thorns. I doubt the sower was intentionally throwing seed into a plot of ground where thorns were obviously growing; maybe he was just throwing out small portions of the seed and knowing (or caring?) where the seed would land. Something else was and is possible, as many of us who have tried to grow things found out: we could try to remove the thorns, thornbushes, whatever, but they grow back, and grow back quickly! That’s one idea I found at https://biblehub.com/greek/173.htm under the topical lexicon section.
To be honest, thorns did have one practical use: Solomon mentioned in Ecclesiastes 7:6 that the laughter of a fool was like (the sound of) the crackling of thorns under a pot (paraphrased, see also https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5518.htm for more info about this type of thorn). This meant that the thorns could possibly be used as part of the fuel of a fire. Got rid of some thorns, too!
Even so, some of the seed fell on “good ground” which, it seems, might have been rare in Israel in those days. Lange wrote in his commentary that the soil had “become” good thanks to the preparation by the farmer (https://biblehub.com/commentaries/lange/luke/8.htm, paraphrased). The results: a harvest yielding 100 times the seed sown!
That may have made the crowd want to learn more. Certainly the disciples did, as we’ll see, but let’s remember that Jesus didn’t say anything about the type of seed (wheat, barley, whatever) or the time of the year when this seed was sown. The Lord did have more to say, but for now He seems to have walked away from the crowd.
2 The parable discussed
Text, Luke 8:9-10, KJV: 9 And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? 10 And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.
Luke doesn’t mention, but Mark 4:10 does, that Jesus and the twelve disciples were alone. That’s when they asked Him about the parable—they had heard it, just like the others, but it’s clear they didn’t understand it; at least, not all of the points Jesus wanted to make. Thus, they felt led to ask Him about the parable.
And I believe the Lord was happy to do this. One, there is no indication that any of the people in the crowd asked Him anything about the parable, and, two, the disciples were about to receive some perhaps startling news. Jesus first told them that they had been given or, maybe, selected to “know the mysteries of the kingdom of God”.
Mystery, as used here, didn’t mean something that was unknowable, or couldn’t be known (has anyone tried to understand calculus, for example? For those of you who could, as our Australian friends might say, “Good on yer, mate!”) Rather, in the days when Jesus walked the earth, a mystery was something that had to be revealed, and only to those who were worthy (paraphrased from https://biblehub.com/greek/3466.htm). Paul would, several years later, explain the “mystery” that God’s plan was to break down the wall between Jew and Gentile in order to make up an assembly or church of both groups (see Ephesians 3:3-6). This isn’t the only time the word “mystery” appears in the New Testament. Perhaps someone would like to do a study about it!
To be honest, I have struggled some about the “mysteries” of the kingdom of God. By that, I mean there is a goodly amount of Scripture to describe it, but then again, maybe there was or even is still more. Besides, the people of Jesus’ day may have had only a limited knowledge of the kingdom of God—or, worse, about the Word of God itself. All they had was the Old Testament at the time and the people may not have known what to make of it.
But there’s another reason, and it’s sobering to me. Jesus told the disciples that He spoke to the people in parables, comparisons or figures of speech, so that they would not understand. That was something the Old Testament had already mentioned: in Psalm 78:2, the writer (Asaph) wrote, “I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old”. The LORD had told Isaiah, “And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not (Isaiah 6:9).”
Even so, it’s worth a look to see how Jesus handled this type of communication. There were times He told the people plain truth. Other times, like this, He used parables but as Dr. Spiros Zodhiates mentioned in the “Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible”, Jesus knew that most of the people wouldn’t believe the message Jesus gave them.
Further, Dr. Zodhiates continued, if they had understood the truth behind the message, they’d be responsible and accountable for that knowledge. Thus, Jesus gave them something to think about without exposing people to future judgment (paraphrased). I’ve read and heard from numerous sources that one is not accountable for what they don’t understand but are accountable if they do understand. Another person once said that the truth we ignore today will condemn us tomorrow if we don’t act on it.
Now Jesus was ready to explain and define the parable to the twelve disciples.
3 The parable defined
Text, Luke 8:11-15, KJV: 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those by the way side are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. 13 They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. 14 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. 15 But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
When Jesus delivered this parable, it’s likely the people heard it as just another interesting story. After all, there’s no record anyone except the disciples even asked Him anything about it—in fact, some might have thought, “Uh, why is a carpenter telling us a story about farming?” Some, humanly speaking, may have considered, “We already know this, so what’s the point?” but did nothing about it. As best I can gather, all of the crowd left to wherever they desired to go.
But now the disciples had asked Jesus what He meant by the parable and they were going to get that explanation. First, Jesus said that the seed, which was sown, was the word of God. Certainly He didn’t mean there were scraps of parchment, papyrus, whatever, floating around and waiting to be buried in literal soil. There is something that maybe He did mean to say.
In each synagogue mentioned in the New Testament, there were scrolls of the Law and the Prophets. That was still true many years later when Paul and Barnabas stopped in Antioch of Pisidia (Acts 13) and heard the reading from the Law and the Prophets—how can one read anything, unless there was something to read?
Yet long before that, the LORD had instructed Israel to write at least part of the Law on their door posts and gates (Deuteronomy 6:9) as well as keep parts of the Law close to their bodies (Deut. 6:8). During the days Jesus walked this earth, Pharisees kept phylacteries bound on their hands, etc. (Ellicott’s commentary gives additional information about this and the history, online at https://biblehub.com/commentaries/ellicott/matthew/23.htm). We may never know this side of Heaven how many Jews besides the religious leaders actually did this.
And yet there’s another way of looking at this. The Hebrew/Aramaic Old Testament was written for Israel, and there’s nothing wrong with that. The Israelites of days gone by had at least the Word of God in their own heart language. That would have worked in Israel, but a few things did take place that meant change. For one, the Jews began living in other parts of the world (just look at the roll call of locations in Acts 2!) and spoke Greek in order to learn how to live with the original inhabitants. Second, they had a translation of the Hebrew Old Testament into Greek called the Septuagint or, for brevity, the LXX. Whether they were aware of it or not, the Jews were sowing the seed everywhere they went to live!
Following this, Jesus went on to explain the various “soils” on which the seed landed. He first mentioned the seed which fell by the wayside. This “wayside” could have been a more or less public road which people used in traveling, or the path around the selected area for planting or maybe something else. The idea is that seed couldn’t possibly grow on a smooth, probably worn down to the dirt pathway. Besides, who would want to plow a path or walking trail? It’s also likely the seed “fell”, either from, say, a hole in the bag, the wind, or maybe some of the seed slipped out of the sower’s hand.
Worse, Jesus said the seed was “trodden down” or as we might say, trampled underfoot. As incredible as it sounds, nobody stopped to pick up the seed—they walked right on top of it. And for the seed which survived, if you can call it that, what was left became food for the birds.
To take that picture a step further, Jesus explained that the ones on the wayside (the people, not the seed) were the ones who heard but—this is important—the devil came and took away the word from the peoples’ heart before they could believe. That was true in the days when Jesus walked this earth---look at how many times Jesus would preach, teach, quote Scripture, perform miracles and the observers still did not believe!
It’s like that even today, with people of all lands and nations becoming more and more allergic to truth, as someone once observed. Cynicism, relativism, “my truth is more important than your truth”—all of that are among the many ways the devil tries to keep people from the Truth.
Sadly, this strategy works too well and too often. We need to pray for more hearts to become softened, not hardened, so that those people may hear the Gospel and believe it!
Now, after describing the seed which fell by the wayside, the Lord speaks about the seed that fell on rock, likely a thin layer of soil above rocks or layers of stone. It goes without saying that plants send tendrils, “roots”, seeking deeper soil for nutrients plus water. What happened here is that the roots did indeed extend from the planted seed and grew—for a time—until the roots hit the rock and could not penetrate the rock. Admittedly, I’ve seen trees (mostly pines) that seem to grow directly from the rock or hillsides, but that’s not the case in this story. No roots—no fruits—the seed that grew for a while withered and died because the roots couldn’t reach water.
There may be other examples of the soil being too rocky or stony for anything to take root but there’s one that came to my mind right away. Remember when Jesus began His public ministry? And do we remember what happened when He came to announce, after reading Isaiah 61:1 and the first words of verse 2, “This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears”? The people of Nazareth tried to shove Jesus off a cliff (see Luke 4:16-30)! Hardly anything of notice took place in Nazareth after this, did it? Think of the damage a stony heart can do to anyone.
Jesus then explained that these, the seed on rocky soil, receive the word with joy but when times of testing come, they fall away, Were these people ever genuinely born again? We can’t say for sure down here, but we’ll know in Heaven. May we ever look for those who need words of encouragement when they’re needed.
A third type of soil which the Lord mentioned is that which has thorns. These people may be genuinely born again, definitely trusting Jesus Christ for their souls’ salvation. The problem is that as they try to grow, “thorns” such as the cares of this world; riches, pleasures, and the like become more important than living for the Lord. Some sinners admittedly have a lot of baggage from their previous lives of sin but the Lord wants to deliver them from all of that. The world and the devil offer pleasure; Jesus offers peace. The world and the devil offer riches (which nobody can take along at death) but Jesus offers righteousness!
In a word, the world and the devil offer death but Jesus offers life everlasting. The problem every believer faces, and not just new Christians, is balancing the life we live on this earth with the new management which Jesus offers. Oh, sure, we have jobs, duties, and the like—but the question now is, how will I now live after I trusted Jesus to save my soul?
For too many, sadly, the old chokes out the new, and that’s exactly what Jesus warned about. I’ve seen this, personally: someone started off as, I hope, a genuinely new believer, even trying to memorize verses of Scripture. After two to three weeks, the Scripture verses pack went back in the pocket and, sad to say, I don’t know if that individual was ever saved or not.
Seed which falls by the wayside is seed that’s probably lost forever. In the same way, the Devil is working overtime, along with every demon or evil spirit he can turn loose, to keep people away from the truth of God’s Word and the message of salvation. Look at the number of “closed” countries where missionaries are not permitted to enter. Look at the increasing number of regulations and penalties imposed on ministries and believers for simply trying to share the Good News of Jesus! The ground may be as hardened as a pathway, but the Lord has ways for getting His Word to people. May He choose to use you and me to make that happen!
Then there are people who come from a rocky, stony, soil background. We need to find and support these people, especially believers who come from a background where they know little of the True God and His Word. Likewise, let’s help those who are struggling with fighting their way, even a little, with thorns that try to choke out the influence of the Gospel,
And let us rejoice, when the Gospel seed finds good ground, prepared and ready to hear and act on the Good News of Jesus! Once that happens, there’s no limit to what the Lord can accomplish with that particular man or woman.
I hope and pray that someone is you and me!
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
