Parable of the Soils
Notes
Transcript
This is a familiar parable for most of us. Usually the whole passage including Jesus explanation is read. But its easy to approach familiar passages and assume that we already know what is that’s going to be said, and so we can be tempted to switch off… and say hey, I’ve heard this one, its rerun, I’ll just tune out.
Weirdly this parable has more in common with listening than seeds, harvesting, evangelism, or any other topic that’s been dragged from this passage.
Thanks to a very clever man with the awesome name of Klyne Snodgrass! His work helped to clarify to me that the understanding of this parable comes from the OT passage Jesus quotes to the disciples after teaching this parable publicly
He said, “Go and tell this people: “ ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
This passage is from the beginning of the prophet Isaiah’s ministry. Go calls him to go to the nation Israel & speak God’s message to them. Now we can read these words and think - man God is mean! He’s already pronounced judgment - God’s saying He knows already that Israel isn’t going to listen to His prophet & they refuse to listen, have hard hearts, & don’t understand anything - harsh, right?
But actually this was a prophetic message - like much of prophecy in bible - it’s a warning. God’s telling Israel in a specific prophetic way, that unless they listen, understand, & obey God’s messages of warning then they cannot find healing, restoration, salvation
God places the responsibility on the people to be willing to listen to God, hear the message & obey instead of repeating the mistakes of previous generations of not listening to God’s messengers & so falling into evil, sin, & tragedy
That is the key to understanding this parable - so let’s have a look at it now in 3 parts - The Seed, The deaf soils, & the hearing soils
The Seed
The Seed
Jesus had just left a house full of people where he was teaching (probably Peter’s house at Capernaum) and escaped with the disciples to the lake shore. As they sit down, this massive crowd gathers around him - so Jesus goes out in a boat from the shore so he can turn around & face them - easier to speak & be heard by a crowd when facing them from a distance
So Jesus begins teaching by using a word picture - a parable - to get across an important idea or principle to his followers
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.
Now what’s important about this parable isn’t the sower, or the seed, or the conditions around how the farmer sows the seed - the whole focus of this parable is on the soils
However Jesus uses this very common practice of farming crops - sowing seeds, to create a picture everyone there would know & understand
When a farmer sows a seed - he does so expecting something in return right? Otherwise why bother… The farmer invests time, effort, resources, into the process of ploughing & sowing or depositing seed into the soil in order to reap the rewards on his investment
The idea of investing in something that over a long period of time reaps a reward is a common theme in Jesus teaching. In this parable the seed is God’s message, God’s Words, the scriptures... God speaks his word to us & if the conditions are right, that word will reap a reward, a crop, it will be fruitful in our lives...
We all understand this concept don’t we? My wife & I are having a house built, which sadly has been delayed. But hopefully by the beginning of next year our home will be finished. Now I hope we get to live in it, but perhaps we might have to move, I don’t know. But the reason we’re investing our money in the house is so our children will in the future reap the benefits of our investment - hopefully it will even have a positive benefit for their children too!
The same principle applies to God’s Word as Jesus is laying out in this parable. So now lets look at the soils this seed is being sown into...
The Deaf Soil
The Deaf Soil
Jesus gives three negative soils in this parable - there’s nothing significant about the number of soil scenarios, he’s just trying to cover the various areas or scenarios where the seed of God’s Word fails to be received or heard...
So we have the Path, the Rocks, and the Thorns; Later on in Matt 13 Jesus explains each of these scenarios & what they mean, but I think perhaps you may remember these so I’m going to use some phrases from biblical scholar Craig Keener to help us summarise these;
As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
The Path - refers to the “in one ear out the other” group . Those that fail to even try to listen & understand gospel
Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.
The Rocks - refers to the “Shallow Commitment” group. These are people who when things get difficult in their Christian walk they give up & turn away from their faith
Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants.
Last The Thorns - refers to those “Distracted by the World”. These are people who allow other things to become more important than their relationship with God - like wealth, success, fame, family, relationships etc.
Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.
Now Jesus on many occasions, warned the disciples & us that following him is difficult, that we will come up against hardships, that it would be a daily battle to follow him
There were many who heard Jesus teaching yet struggled to let go of the world or face up to the hardships & struggles of following Jesus & gave up…
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
Like the man unwilling to give up his wealth & put following Jesus first
From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.
Jesus followers who thought He was asking just too much from them and turned their back on him
Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: “Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? And don’t you remember?
Even Jesus disciples really close to him, & followed him everywhere struggled to hear & understand all Jesus taught them
Even today people we see well known Christian leaders deciding to turn their backs on a relationship with Jesus & following his teachings in order to meet the worlds demands. Like this guy Joshua Harris, who was a controversial Christian author & pastor, who wrote books on the need for moral uprightness in young people & having 1 wife for life. He then decided that "By all the measurements that I have for defining a Christian… I am not a Christian." apologizing for his past: " self-righteousness, fear-based approach to life, teaching of my books, views of women in the church, and approach to parenting as well as his views on the LGBTQ+ community."
Now we can read these sorts of articles (and there have been a lot in recent years) and we can think - what hope is there for me if these people can’t make it?!
The Hearing Soil
The Hearing Soil
All this negative stuff can feel pretty overwhelming but Jesus finishes his parable on a positive...
Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears, let him hear.”
The word translated hear in Hebrew is often also translated as obey. In the Jewish world there was a clear connection between hearing God’s Word & obeying or doing what has God said.
That’s why Jesus ends his parable with he who has ears let him hear...
Jesus places the responsibility onto us - its up to us to be willing to listen & hear God’s Word, & then up to us to obey. If we do this over the long term then we will reap the spiritual benefits.
God has always used strong challenging & polarising language to communicate to his people - from the OT prophets all the way to the Apostle Paul, God forces us to face the consequences of our current sinful thinking & actions while encouraging us to rethink & change
So in this parable Jesus is challenging us with the questions - are we guilty of listening superficially or casually to God’s Word? Are we guilty of hard hearts preventing us from understanding God’s Word to us?
I don’t know if you ever saw the 2004 documentary Supersize Me - it was a social commentary about the fast food industry and the impact it has on our health.
Since that time we’ve been bombarded with messages about the importance of eating properly & the dangers of eating too much junk food, carbohydrates, & sugars.
Although we all know what we should do many of us still keep doing what we know isn’t good for us - we either listen superficially / casually to the healthy eating message or we come up with excuses why it doesn’t apply to us
But in the parable of the sower Jesus is saying that if we listen to the gospel, apply ourselves to understanding it, then be obedient to it’s principles & way of life then our lives will be far more fruitful & satisfying.
Now I’m not saying that following Jesus will make you rich & famous - no! But listening, obeying & following Jesus will ensure that your eternal future is secure as well as your life now will be guided by God so that you grow into a loving, caring, peaceful, generous, gracious, forgiving person who will positively impact the next generation...
And the best thing is it’s never too late to start listening - remember Jesus multiplying the loaves & fish to feed 5000 people? God can accomplish amazing things with even the smallest of things… be it height, be it character, be it age, or what’s left of life… in God’s hands, your life can make a difference...
So I want to leave you with just one question - which soil are you? Are you the hard deaf soil? Or are you the soft hearing soil?
The choice is your’s - will you choose to have ears that listen, understand, & obey Jesus?
Let’s prayer
Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus to us, who gave us so much wonderful teaching for us to grapple with
I ask that your Holy Spirit would open our ears that we may hear the voice of your Son through the scriptures
& that the Spirit would soften & stir each one of our hearts that they would not only comprehend your word but also apply it to our lives
May each one of us become fruitful one-hundred fold for your kingdom
Amen