THE PERSON AND TEACHINGS OF JESUS
THE PARABLES Introduction and The Parable of the Sower
As we were studying the Sermon on the Mount, we discovered Jesus' mastery over language. In the sermon Jesus demonstrates His command over language by using picturesque language, sometimes simply by transforming everyday, mundane thoughts into thoughts both lofty and beautiful: "you are the salt of the earth," "you are the light of the world," "a city set on a hill cannot be hidden," "do not throw your pearls before swine," "judge not lest you be judged," etc. In Matt. 13 Jesus continues to demonstrate His mastery over language in His use of parables.
Just exactly what is a parable? The word is actually made up of 2 Greek words, para ("alongside") and bole ("thrown"). The word then literally means "something thrown alongside." In this sense it means a story "thrown alongside" a certain truth in order to illustrate that truth. It is a story used to illustrate a divine truth.
Just what exactly is the theme of Jesus' parables? The theme (especially of the parables in Matt. 13) is that this world is hostile territory under the dominion of Satan. With the coming of Jesus, God is breaking into this kingdom and establishing His kingdom by the means of Jesus' ministry here on earth. One day the kingdom of God will completely overcome the kingdom of Satan and reign victoriously over the earth. Your response specifically to Jesus, especially to Jesus, determines whether or not you are a part of this kingdom.
THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER AND THE SOILS (13:3-9; 19-23)
Introduction to Parable of the Soils
Whereas all the parables of Jesus are significant because Jesus spoke them, the Parable of the Soils is the most important. Any teaching or event from Jesus' ministry which is found in all 3 Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) is highly significant. Unlike most of Jesus' parables, this one is found in all 3 Synoptic Gospels. Moreover, Jesus claimed that understanding this parable was essential if a person wanted to be able to understand the other parables (Mark 4:13).
In order to understand more fully this parable, you must take into account the historical context of the parable. Jesus did not simply speak this parable because it is a beautiful story. It applies specifically to the situation He finds Himself in at this stage of His ministry.
Although Jesus has performed numerous miracles, the vast majority of the Jewish leadership, and ultimately of the people themselves, rejects Jesus and His message. In fact they claimed that He was operating in the power of Satan (Matt. 12:24). Because they rejected Jesus, they claimed that He was NOT from God, that is, He was NOT the Messiah. According to them the problem was either with Jesus or with His message. Their reasoning was as follows:
In this parable Jesus pinpoints just exactly what the problem is. The problem is not with Jesus or His message. The problem is with the Jews themselves. Moreover, if people today reject Jesus, the problem again is not ultimately with Jesus but with His listeners.
The Parable (13:3-9)
In this parable Jesus accurately describes the agricultural conditions of 1st-century Palestine. The sower did not first till the soil, plant the seed, and then cover the seed with the soil. That sequence took too much time. Instead the sower would take the seed and sow it liberally all over the field. The sower eliminated the first step and just sowed first and then ploughed the dirt over the seed. This saved time.
Although this procedure saved time, it also wasted seed because the sower did not know specifically what kind of soil he was sowing the seed on. The land of Israel is very much different from the U.S.A. It is rocky. Rocks are everywhere. That is not to say there is no good soil. There is good soil in Israel. The land around Bethlehem is so fertile as seen in the fact that the name "Bethlehem" literally means "House of Bread." It's just that to the naked eye you can't see where the good soil is and where the rocky soil is. Moreover, makeshift roads crisscrossed the countryside, even running through the fields. You could not see where the hard roads were until the plants actually began to sprout. Finally, you did not know where the thorny plants were going to emerge because the cold winter had killed off the top portion of these plants. Since the sower did not know where the good, fertile soil was, he naturally spread his seed far and wide in order to make sure he missed none of the good seed. Although he lost seed to the non-fertile soils, the harvest was so valuable in comparison to seed that he basically gained by spreading the seed liberally all over the field.
In the same way we too should sow liberally. Too often we stereotype the kind of person who is going to be significant in the kingdom of heaven. When I was youth director at Lake Highlands Baptist Church in Dallas, a neat family was members of the church. The dad, Jim, had played football for OU during its glory days. The older son, Chip, was the fair-hair, golden boy of the church. His family and the church youth group naturally and justifiably worshiped this young man. Although the younger son, John, was a neat young man, he was basically overlooked by the family and the church.
One day while I was playing the piano, John came up and started singing the song I was playing. When I heard him sing, I thought, "Oh my gosh! This kid has got an incredible voice!" I kept playing higher and higher notes on the piano. The higher I went, the prettier his voice got. I told John, "We've got to do something about this." During the Christmas season the church would set aside one Sunday night for anybody to sing any Christmas solo they wanted to sing; we called it "The Solos of Christmas." I selected a beautiful dynamic song called "Immanuel" (by the Imperials). We practiced and practiced and practiced.
The Sunday night for the solos finally arrived. The music minister had been a little nonplussed when we submitted John's name. He had stuck John in the middle of the program to make sure that he got lost in all the other beautiful solos which were going to be sung that night. When it came time for John to sing, his dad sunk lower and lower into his pew (he had never heard John sing before). Then he started singing. The more John sang, the straighter his dad sat up in his pew. By the end of the performance, John had totally dominated this dynamic, electric song. The church erupted with thunderous applause. From that moment on John started singing for the Lord on a continual basis, performing leads in church musicals and other musical events. As far as I know, he is still one of the lead singers for the main praise team at Lake Pointe Baptist Church in Rockwall, one of our mega churches. That resulted from a liberal sowing of the seed.
Well, this sower goes out to sow. When he does, the seed falls on four kinds of soil. Some of the seed fell upon beaten paths which ran throughout the fields. There were not many roads in ancient Palestine; therefore, over a period of time people made informal paths over the fields to get from village to village. The paths were so hard that the seed could not penetrate the ground. They were left exposed to the birds of the air which swooped down to devour the seed. Some of the top-soil in Palestine has a very thin layer because of the rocky ground beneath it. Only after plowing can a person determine whether the layer of the soil is thick or thin. Seed fell upon ground which would produce thorns. The thorns were not visible at first. They too needed to sprout; however, once they sprouted, these thorns choked the grain which sprouted from the seed. The last seed fell upon good soil. An average harvest in Palestine usually yielded 7x the amount of seed sowed; a great harvest yielded 10x the amount of seed sown. In the kingdom of God though the harvest which comes from sowing is 30, 60, even 100x the amount of sowing done.
Explanation of the Parable (13:19-23)
First, Jesus claims that the seed sown is the Word. In this specific instance the Word would be the word of the kingdom of God, that is, Jesus is the king, who has come to establish God's kingdom, and your response to Him determines whether or not you will enter that kingdom. (Be careful in reducing every reference to "the Word" to being a specific reference to the entire Bible. Sometimes when the NT speaks of the Word, it is speaking about a specific message--in this case the message about Jesus and the kingdom of God.)
Second, Jesus says that the 4 soils represent 4 different responses to the message about Jesus and the kingdom. The first response is that of the hardened heart which God's word cannot penetrate. It is left exposed to Satan (the birds of the air) who comes and snatches the word from that person before it can bear fruit.
The second soil represents the shallow person who joyfully receives the word and yet because of lack of depth of character rejects that word whenever persecution arises (the scorching heat of the sun). To me this soil is the most dangerous of the first three. They can come across as so spiritual because they are effervescent. The truth though is that many times they are enthusiastic about the shallow things, things which do not deepen people's relationship with Jesus. They defraud others into thinking that they are growing in their relationship with Jesus, while all along they've only given them a shallow emotional experience.
The third soil represents the person who joyfully receives the word and yet rejects it when that person must choose between materialism and Christ, or between worry and Christ. Of course, we WANT to choose Christ. That though is not the issue. The issue is whether we do choose Christ or we do choose materialism or worry. (Normally materialism is the source of worry. People who are materialistic probably do need to worry.)
The fourth soil which produced the magnificent harvest represents the person who receives God's word and bears fruit. What is the fruit the good soil yields? Some claim it is the abundant life of God; others, leading others to Christ. The truth is that you cannot separate the 2. The Christian who lives the abundant life in the world naturally communicates that life to others. If he is not communicating that life, then he is probably also not experiencing it.
Look at several things this parable teaches. The burden for bearing fruit rests upon the soil. If the message of Jesus is preached and taught, the responsibility for experiencing God's life and leading others to Christ falls upon the soil and not upon the sower. Many times Christians make outlandish charges that if a pastor just did such and such, or if the church used more exciting music, etc., then Christians would do better. The primary responsibility of the minister though is to sow the message of Jesus; after that the responsibility lies with the person. To blame the sower for the poor response especially in this parable is tantamount to accusing Jesus as being a poor sower to His own generation. (I am NOT saying that ministers have NO responsibility. I AM saying that the buck does not stop with them. It stops with the soil, with the listener.)
Moreover, note that Jesus does not engage in psychological justification for the hard heart, shallow character, and thorny life. What Jesus teaches flies in the face of much of what we hear today in the world: "he's bitter because of the bad childhood he experienced" or "they are so materialistic because they had so little growing up" or "their fear stems from the fact that at some stage in their life they were traumatized." The bottom line is that our fears, our materialism, our bitterness--no matter the cause--prevent us from bearing fruit, from experiencing God's life and communicating that life to others. I don't say this to minimize the trauma many people have experienced; I say it to encourage people to deal with these kinds of incidents in their lives (most likely with wonderfully trained Christian counselors) so that they can receive healing and experience the life Christ died to give us.
There is the story of a person who was sitting in his house getting rained on. A tornado had gone through that town and blown a hole in his roof. He's sitting beneath the hole, putting on a poncho so that he won't get wet. People bring him blankets to keep him warm. The bottom line is this: he needed to fix the hole in the roof. Yes, it may take time and it may be a real struggle; however, the solution is to fix the roof and not put bandages on the problem.
We also need to be careful about being too rigid in in our interpretation of this parable. Whereas the poor ground which has little top-soil does not produce a harvest when the sun rises, we need to remember that the good soil was also exposed to the sun (persecution); the birds of the air (Satan) were also circling above the good soil. The difference in the responses was due to the type of soil, not due to the sun or birds. People who are fruitful are likewise persecuted and tempted by Satan; they too face the desire for wealth and riches. The difference is totally in their response.
Moreover, this parable does not discuss the ability of soils to change. There is a dynamic aspect to the soils missing in the parable. (That's the reason we need to be careful in interpreting the Bible.) Some people who are hardened by life can change by the power of God's Spirit; some people who are materialistic can repent and put riches in proper perspective; some who reject Christ in times of persecution like Peter can repent and confess Him during later times of trials. The sad thing is that even good soil can become hardened and shallow. The question is which kind of soil are you right now?
If you want to discover which soil you are, look at your life. Are you experiencing God's presence? Are you living the kind of life Christ died to give you? Is the life you and I are living worth the death of Jesus Christ? If not, then the remedy is to start responding positively to the word that God is specifically addressing you, especially the word about your relationship with Jesus. If you are not hearing God, then according to Christ’s explanation, then you have most likely rejected the word God has previously spoken to you. That can change immediately by determining to respond positively to what Christ is saying to you right now.