The Sower

Many Parables

There are less than 40 parables in the gospels. 7 of them are given to us in this chapter. They were all given in one day and probably all given in only a short period of time. Jesus told four parables to the crowds that came to listen to him, two of those he apparently explained only to his disciples. He then left the crowds and went inside to give three more parables to his disciples.

all of these parables seem to be related, they all center around a particular subject and they all were given on one day one after another. If in three years of ministry and four recorded gospel accounts we 1 out of every 6 parables told by Jesus all occured in one setting, in one day, and about one central teaching that seems like it might be important. not only that but Matthew gives us 28 chapters and almost an entire chapter is used for this event, a chapter that is nearly twice as long as the average chapter in Matthew so more than 1/28th of the book is this one particular teaching on this one particular day.

The first of these is a well known parable that I think is often either misunderstood or misapplied. This parable is known as the parable of the sower.

Matthew 13:1–23 NASB95

That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach. And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. “Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. “Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. “And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. “He who has ears, let him hear.” And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. “For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. “Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. “In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, ‘You will keep on hearing, but will not understand; You will keep on seeing, but will not perceive; For the heart of this people has become dull, With their ears they scarcely hear, And they have closed their eyes, Otherwise they would see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, And understand with their heart and return, And I would heal them.’ “But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. “For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. “Hear then the parable of the sower. “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. “And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. “And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”

So Jesus tells this parable to the crowds and they don’t understand it. Then his disciples ask him about it and he tells them that it was not given to the crowd to understand it but it has been given to them to understand. Fortunately for us we are part of the in crowd and we have also been given the explanation and that is where we want to focus today.

The first example was the seed that is sown by the road. Now in those days many roads were not paved, they were just places where many people had traveled and the earth was packed down time and time again by people and animals and carts. Now what do you suppose would happen if you threw some seed out in that kind of soil. The soil is not loose, it has not been plowed, it is packed tight. There is no place for the seed to go and ti would be hard for the root to take hold, even so there would probably not be time for the root to even try before someone passed by and the seed stuck to their foot, or the hem of their garment or the hoof of their animal and the seed would have no chance to take root.

I was once soil of this type. I was hard hearted, letting nothing in. I thought I had it all covered, I thought I had it all figured out. It was not that the word of God was not out there, it was not that God did not try, it was not that no seed was sown it was just that I was too hard and too unwilling to let anything in so that the seed had no chance to sprout. I could not understand, I did not want to understand, I was in no way receptive to God or to his word or to his kingdom and so whenever the seed of the kingdom of God was sown in my heart I did not let it in, I was as hard as a road that had been packed down by hundreds of feet. In fact my heart had been packed hard by hundreds or thousands of hurts and rejections. I had long since decided to protect myself from getting hurt by deciding not to let anyone make me soft, not to let anyone get to me, not to let anyone become important enough to me that their words or actions could hurt me, I had hardened my heart. I was like the soil beside the road.

The next type of soil is the rocky soil. Now if you plant a seed on top of a rock it may do fine for a while. During the rainy season when water is plentiful the water hits the soil and sits on top of the rock and it is easily available to the plant so the plant can grow. As long as the water comes regularly and the nutrients are found in the soil, as long as there is plenty of sunlight and it is not too hot or too cold the plant thrives. I am not a gardener but I do know enough to know that some plants are like that. We have been considering sodding our yard with grass. Some grasses grow better in direct sunlight and some are better in shady places. Some grasses need lots of water and some are drought resistant. Some grow well in the climate found in this area and some do not. Some plants have to be protected when there is a freeze warning and some get by on their own. A plant with no root system, like one that is sown on a rock cannot survive when water is hard to find. When the surface water dries up and the only water left is down deep in the ground a plant with no root dries up.

Some people are easy come easy go kind of people. Some people hear the word of God and respond to it right away, no struggle, no resistance, no fighting. It is almost a joy to tell such people about God because they respond so enthusiastically and easily. Others argue, debate, struggle and seem to take forever. Some of those who are so easily won over are also easily lost. When the word of God comes along and sounds good to them they immediately accept it, but when trouble comes, when someone attacks what they have accepted, or when someone has an idea that also sounds appealing they easily change their mind. They have no root, no depth. They cannot withstand hardship or challenge, they are easily swayed.

I once knew a man who felt he had been called to preach. He was always telling me about the latest idea in the latest book he had read. I would ask him about it and we would begin to talk about the idea, its merits and its problems and he would soon have to stop the conversation because he had not gotten very far in the book or thought out the idea very thoroughly as of yet. I served in a church with him for about two years and he started a lot of books and found a lot of ideas that he was always excited about. In all of that time I don’t think he ever finished any of those books or implemented any of those ideas in his ministry. A new thought or idea would come to him from the latest hot book and he would immediately latch on to it and accept it with all of his heart, but as soon as the next new book or the next great idea came along he left the first idea to wholeheartedly support the new one. As a result he never seemed to make much progress. As soon as an idea began to sprout something new would come up and he was off again in a new direction. All of these ideas were planted in rocky soil and they never seemed to grow much root.

Next comes the thorny soil. Now this soil is good growing soil, it must be, look at the crop of weeds it can produce. Why do we weed a garden. Why not just let the weeds grow? Because the weeds use the same water and nutrients that the plants we want use. There is only so much water and only so many nutrients in the soil and if we grow too many weeds then there is no room for the plants to grow, they get too little water and not enough nutriments they could die. But even if they do not die a garden full of weeds just can’t produce the amount of fruit that you want it to. If you want to really have a lot of produce from your garden you need to keep the weeds and thorns out of it so that the plants can grow.

I think all of us have had this kind of thing happen in our life. Remember we are talking about seeds that grow here, people who have heard the word of the kingdom of God and it has taken root and there is life and growth happening, but it’s just no all it could be. Worry about the things of the world and worry about enough money or enough stuff, worry about the government, the taxes, the light bill, the rent, the things of this world take up more and more of your time and energy. It is like having a garden full of weeds chocking out the plants.

My wife and I love fresh peas out of the garden. We had some last Friday night. It has been pretty hot and our garden spot is not the best soil so sometimes it takes a while to get a mess of peas. You go out and pick and get a few and a couple of days later you get a few more. Right now we have our Niece and her husband and 6 kids living with us so it takes quite a few peas to put on the table for everyone. Sometimes we begin to want more peas to eat before the garden has produced enough to feed us. We get just a hand full of peas and have to wait until we have several hand fulls before we can cook them up and have enough for everyone.

Some Christians are like that. They have heard the word, the word has been planted in their souls, it has taken root and begun to bud. But then they get busy with their jobs, with school, with their friends, and none of these things are bad, in fact they are all good things. But we can fill our time up with so many good things, and a few bad ones that we just don’t have any time left over. And then we try to serve God out of the time we have left over when there is none left. So the seed is sown, and it is good seed, it roots and the roots go deep, the plant grows and blooms but not very much. The cares of the world and the other things of life have come in, one by one, like weeds in a garden, and just like weeds in a garden one or two aren’t very bad, a little bit doesn’t hurt much, but one weed makes two and two make four and if we don’t monitor or life, if we don’t weed our garden. Soon there is nothing left but weeds and the fruit we have sown doesn’t produce. Oh you may get a pea every now and then but there never seems to be enough to make up a mess for dinner. If you do fix them no one eats their fill and everyone just leaves dissatisfied and longing for more.

A little bit of Christianity is like that, A big mess of peas fills everyone up and satisfies your longing, a life full of Christ fills you up spiritually and makes for a very satisfying life. A bite or two of peas is frustrating because you never get full and you never get enough, you feel the emptiness in your belly and know that this is not enough, it is not what it should be, it just doesn’t work. A little bit of the kingdom of God is just not enough, you get a little taste of Christianity and you know that there is more, you get a little taste of unconditional love and you feel an ache inside you to be filled with the love of Christ, you get a little touch of fellowship and a spoonful of peace and it is so overwhelmingly frustrating and irritating because you have had enough to know that there is more, you have had enough to whet your appetite but not enough to be filled.

a little bit of Christianity to a lost and dying world is like a spoonful of food to a starving man. You need it, you want it, you know you should have it but it is not enough and getting just a spoonful is almost worse than getting none at all because it just whets your appetite for more, you get so close to being filled that you can see it, you can taste it but you never quite get there. That is the feeling of being chocked out by the thorns.

But there is another way. The last seeds feel on good soil and it produced fruit, some a hundred fold, some sixty and some thirty.

You see you are not the sower, The parable of the Tares tells us who the sower is, you are the soil. Your job is to produce fruit, you were built for it, designed for it, your were planted and placed where you are to produce fruit by the master gardener. When you do not produce fruit you will always feel incomplete and always feel that something is missing. It is your job to bear fruit, and only to bear fruit. God has given you a particular set of gifts just like each seed has a particular fruit that it produces, God has planted you where you are, He is the sower, God will help you break up the soil of your heart so that the seed can root. If you ask him he can remove the biggest rocks and allow your roots to grow deep in your life. He can remove every thorn and every obstacle that keeps you form growing or he may choose to allow you to tower over the thorns in your life and produce fruit anyway if only you will invite him to do it. God wants you to produce fruit, he made you to produce fruit. You will never fill the holes in your life without doing the thing God designed you to do, you will never be satisfied without bearing the fruit God planted you to bear, so bear fruit, be who God made you to be. Live abundantly and lavishly, bear too much fruit, more than you can use.

You see we also like squash and we have some dear friends whose garden has produced more squash than they needed and ours did not do as well, and so they have given to us out of their abundance. They have shared their fruit with us and by doing so they have shared their love with us. Bear fruit, it is what you were made to do.