The Parable of the Soil: A Secret of the Kingdom

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: “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 ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 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, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 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.’ “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 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. Those on the rocky ground 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. 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. 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.

Pray

Jesus had a large crow with him.

And he begins to tell this parable, a parable that would be revelation to his Galilean audience.

The parable is about this farmer who went out to sow his seed.

The sower just scattered the seed.

One seed fell on the path.

It was trampled, and a bird ate it.

Another seed was thrown.

And it fell on rocky grounds.

The plants withered because they had no moisture.

The sower threw another seed, and it fell among thorns.

The seed became a plant, but the thorns choked it.

But then, there was this one seed that fell on good soil.

The seed on good soil became a plant that yielded its crop, a hundred times more than what was sown.

After Jesus had said this parable, he said, whoever has ear, let them hear.

In other words, whoever can hear, needs to listen to what Jesus is saying here.

The disciples had heard Jesus’ story about the sower.

But they wondered what it meant.

What does this story about a farmer throwing seeds all over the place?

What does this story have to deal with God and life?

Then Jesus answered his disciples:

There are secrets about the kingdom, and I am going to tell you about them.

But to others, to others who are not close to me, who might just want to know secrets just to know them, I speak in parables.

So, the story we read about the sower, the farmer, that’s a parable.

And Jesus tells a whole bunch of parables.

The Greek word for parable is

Παραβολή

It can mean a lesson or a proverb.

Parables were stories or a saying that was designed to illustrate a truth, through comparison or simile.

They were maxims.

C H. Dodd, a very famous scholar of the last century, summarized a parable as

a metaphor from nature or common life, arresting the hearer by its vividness or strangeness, and leaving the mind in sufficient doubt about its precise application to tease it into active thought.

Their sort of like the wisdom literature of the Bible.

It’s an interesting story.

It’s relate-able because it uses images from nature or common life.

On one level, everyone could understand parable, even a child.

But yet, to really understand parables, you need to meditate on them.

It requires reflection.

Parables make you an active participant.

As you understand the parables, you have to make a choice—

will you follow the truths of the parable or reject them?

This probably why Jesus used parables often.

With parables, you take responsibility for your own faith—will you be active in listening, and meditating,

will you be active in practicing the truths?

Or will you just hear it and forget about it.

Speakers who wish to control listeners by telling them exactly what to think and to do don’t use parables.

They just tell them what to do.

But speakers, like Jesus, who want their audience to think and be active in their learning use parables.

They want you to be active and to make a choice.

But even though people who had ears who heard these parables, these stories

They didn’t understand the meaning.

It remained a mystery to them

The meaning remained a secret to the masses.

Jesus quoted the Scriptures, as he regularly did, to describe his audience.

The New International Version Chapter 8

though seeing, they may not see;

though hearing, they may not understand.

Jesus quoted Isaiah 6:9 to describe the state of his audience.

You might or might not remember Isaiah 6.

Isaiah 6 is the story about the prophet Isaiah, when he went to the temple.

He saw the angels crying holy, holy, holy.

Then, God called and ordained Isaiah for the ministry:

Isaiah would speak God’s word.

But his audience would hear, but never understand.

See, but never perceive.

Jesus’ ministry was similar to the ministry of Isaiah.

Just like Isaiah, Jesus would preach the word of God

say things that were true,

but the masses would hear, but not really understand.

They hear the word of God—they heard the story—but they really didn’t get it.

Even though the truth of Kingdom of God was being proclaimed to them in parables, “outsiders” may not get it.

God was speaking to them, but their hearts is not in the right place.

They weren’t active in their learning.

One scholar said,

The Gospel of Luke The Sower and the Seed (Luke 8:4–15)

people can become so dull and heavy and blunted in mind that when God’s truth comes to them they cannot see it. It is not God’s fault. They have become so mentally lazy, so blinded by prejudice, so unwilling to see anything they do not want to see, that they have become incapable of assimilating God’s truth.

Therefore, they don’t seek to find the answers from Jesus.

Only the disciples asked the answers and receive the secrets of the kingdom—because of their relationship with Jesus.

Jesus then proceeds to disclose the secrets of the kingdom, which kinda relates to the relationship to outsiders and the word of God.

The seed is the word of God.

—the word of God which created the heaven and the worth.

The word of God that redeemed the nation of Israel.

The word of God that brought hope to Israel through the prophets.

And the word of God that Jesus preached.

So the sower is he or she who preaches the word of God.

It doesn’t necessarily mean a preacher who is behind a pulpit in a church.

It could be an employee who shares God’s truth with everyone.

And it’s important to note that the sower puts the seed everywhere.

There’s something we can learn from that.

As the sower scattered the word everywhere, we should scatter the word of Go, everywhere.

The sower isn’t like, “Uh, I don’t know if the seed would grow over there on the path.”

No, she just throws the seeds.

Likewise, we just preach the word.

Show and tell people about the goodness of Jesus.

Don’t think, “Uh, I don’t know if those people will receive the word...

I don’t know if the word would grow in the group.”

No, just preach the word.

Preach the word.

And your audience will have the choice to trust the word of God and repent or to reject the word of God.

In the parable, the whole act of sowing the seed is proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom—that Jesus is king.

Then Jesus talks about the places where the seed falls.

The seed that fell on the path represent those who hear the word.

But the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved.

Some of you, your heart might be like the path.

You sit here, you hear the word of God.

But devil steals the word from your heart.

Don’t let the devil do that.

No, keep that word in your heart.

If you let the devil steal what God has said through his word, you will not believe or be saved.

You will not believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

You will not be saved from the powers of the world, from Satan, from your wickedness.

You need to grab this word and keep it close to your heart.

I like what Cyril of Alexandria said,

New Testament III: Luke The Devil Snatches Good Seed off the Path

The seed is the Word of God. Those on the way are they who have heard. Afterwards, the devil comes and takes away the Word from their heart, that they may not believe and be saved. We see in a moment that the hardness of the ground causes the seed on the pathways to be snatched away. A pathway always is hard and untilled, because it is exposed to every one’s feet. It does not admit any seed into it, but it lies rather upon the surface, ready for any birds that will to snatch it away. All whose minds are hard and unyielding, and so to speak, pressed together, do not receive the divine seed. The divine and sacred admonition does not find an entrance into them. They do not accept the words that would produce in them the fear of God and by means of which they could bring forth as fruits the glories of virtue. They have made themselves a beaten and trampled pathway for unclean demons, yes, for Satan himself, such as never can bear holy fruit. Let those who are awake, whose heart is sterile and unfruitful, open your mind, receive the sacred seed, be like productive and well-tilled soil, bring forth to God the fruits that will raise you to an incorruptible life.

Don’t have a hard heart.

Don’t have a closed mind.

I’m not saying blindly accept God’s word.

But see it as it is and believe it and accept it.

And then,

Tell the devil that you value this word over everything.

This Bible, what God has said, are the words of life

And the god of death will try to keep you dead.

I like the practical advice Symeon the New Theologian gave:

New Testament III: Luke The Devil Removes the Word of Catechesis

When you come out of the church, do not begin to be distracted toward empty and useless matters, lest the devil come and find you occupied with them. It is like when a crow finds on the plain a grain of wheat, before it has been covered with earth, and picks it up and flies off. The devil removes the memory of these words of catechetical lectures from your hearts, and you find yourselves empty and deprived of beneficial teaching.

You need to have a different heart.

A heart that receives the word.

A heart that is active in church, hearing and learning everything that you can.

Otherwise,

As one scholar said,

Everyone may “hear” the word, but not all will believe and be saved.

You may hear the word, but your brain is elsewhere and the devil comes and steals what you heard.

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Jesus explained that he seed that fell on the rocky ground represents those who hear.

They sit hear just like you.

In fact, you might be one of them.

They hear the word and they receive it with joy.

They are like, “What God’s kingdom has come?

The evil of this world has been dealt with through Jesus?

God has a plan?

Jesus loves me?

This is so awesome!”

Maybe you can relate.

During Jesus’ time, there people like this.

They heard Jesus’ teachings, and were happy to hear that the Son of God had come to set them free from bondage, sin, and hurt.

They believed the words of Jesus—awesome!

But in the time of testing, they fell away.

All followers of Jesus will be tested.

You will be tested.

In the times of Jesus, people were tested through persecuting and rejection.

One early Christian noted,

New Testament III: Luke Persecution Causes Confusion and Loss of Faith

Let us consider those others of whom Christ said, “And those upon the rock are they who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and they have no root. These believe for a while and in time of temptation depart away.” There are men whose faith has not been proved. They depend simply on words and do not apply their minds to examining the mystery. Their piety is sapless and without root. When they enter the churches, they feel pleasure often in seeing so many assembled. They joyfully receive instruction in the mysteries from him whose business it is to teach and laud him with praises. They do this without discretion or judgment, but with unpurified wills. When they go out of the churches, at once they forget the sacred doctrines and go about in their customary course, not having stored up within themselves any thing for their future benefit. If the affairs of Christians go on peacefully and no trial disturbs them, even then they scarcely maintain the faith, and that, so to speak, in a confused and tottering state. When persecution troubles them and the enemies of the truth attack the churches of the Savior, their heart does not love the battle, and their mind throws away the shield and flees.

If you believed in the words of Christ, you were mocked, ridiculed, and judged.

Today, we are tested with our friends, with decisions we make, and with rejection and social persecution.

If your heart is like rocks,

the plant will die.

The word of God won’t grow because you let go of the word of God when things got tough.

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The seed that fell on among thorns, did grow, but it was choked by the thorns.

This represents those who hear and believe, but their growth is limited by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures.

Because of these things, these individuals can’t mature.

They are those who come to church every week, have been going for years, but they are same today as they were when they first stated.

And the reason for this is that the life’s worries, riches, and pleasures trapped them.

Life’s worries are those concerns—which might be important.

But you over focus on them and forget about what God had said.

Being wealthy is not bad, but riches can be bad if they are your focus.

You might believe in God’s word, but your love riches causes you to fail to love your neighbors, which is contrary to word of God—you should love your enemies.

Pleasures are also not bad by itself.

The word for pleasures is

ἡδονή

It is the Greek word whereby we the word hedonism—the philosophy that the main goal of life is to experience maximum pleasure.

In the Greek world, ἡδονή was used to talk about any type of pleasure or desire.

But in the New Testament, the authors recognized that ἡδονή—pleasure—can be bad.

Look, the church has sometimes seen all pleasure as bad—and that is false.

But we shouldn’t go to the other extreme—that all pleasure is good.

ἡδονή can be bad and good.

Bad pleasure can cause foolishness, disobedience, and deception.

It can blind from what really is happening.

ἡδονή can cause you to do things that are bad.

Just because something brings your pleasure, doesn’t mean that it’s good.

Pleasure can be bad.

As Jesus said here, it can limit your growth.

Say you find somethings in this world that are pleasurable but are actually sinful—contrary to God’s word

If you continue to practices these sins, you will not grow spiritually anymore.

You may believe but you need to be careful about life’s worries, riches and pleasures.

Finally, and I pray that all of us may have this type of heart.

Jesus talked about the good soil.

The good soil represents those who hear the word of God, and they have a good and noble heart.

They hear the word and hold fast to it.

And they persevere

When things come their way, when they are tempted, they persevere and keep the word of God in their hearts.

They kept on going—and they had fruit.

The fruit in their lives was that their lives were changed—they were following the things that Jesus had said.

If you have a good heart, last week when you heard about Jesus’ teaching on loving one’s enemies

You didn’t just think that it was a good teaching.

You believed it.

You said to yourself,

I am going to love my enemy.

And you did just that.

You loved your enemy.

And it was hard.

Your enemy didn’t reciprocate that love.

You felt foolish.

But you persevered in God’s word.

You kept on loving.

You kept doing what Jesus has said.

And let me tell you, just as the seed that landed on good soil yielded fruit, you will see the fruit of your labor, of being persistent.

I pray that you may hear this, and take it to heart.

Don’t just listen, but actual do.

As we saw in the parable, hearing isn’t the problem.

But the quality of one’s hearing is the issue.

Will you let the devil take the word of God from your heart?

Will you let the tests of life take the word?

Will you let the pleasures of life take the word?

Or will you listen and persevere?

I pray that you will persevere.

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