“The
Parable of the Sower”
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spirit. Amen. About one-third of the teachings of Jesus which are preserved for us in
the Gospels is in the form of parables. The British humorist P.J.
Wodehouse explains that, “a parable is one of those stories in the Bible which
sounds like a pleasant yarn but keeps something up its sleeve which pops up and
leaves you flat.” Jesus so often spoke in parables because he is the Master Teacher of
all time, and parables are a wonderful teaching tool. It gets your
attention, it sticks in your mind, and most of all a parable always makes you
ask yourself a question: “What does that mean; and how does it apply to me?” Today’s Gospel Reading is probably the very first parable Jesus ever
told, the Parable of the Sower: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was
scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.
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. Other seed fell among
thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil,
where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” The best preachers and teachers take their illustrations from everyday
life, things that people can really relate to. As Jesus preaches from a
boat on the Sea of Galilee, he paints a picture in this parable that was very
familiar to the farmers and country folk gathered on the shore. But a
parable is much more than just an interesting story, a “pleasant yarn.” At
the end of the parable, Jesus says “He who has ears, let him hear.” That’s
another way of saying: “There’s a deeper meaning to what I have just told you. don’t hear this story only with your ears; hear also the deeper meaning, with
your heart.” A parable is “An earthly story with a heavenly meaning.” So,
what’s the heavenly meaning of the Parable of the Sower, and how does it apply
to you? Jesus explains: the seed is the Word of God, and the four
different kinds of soil in which the seed is planted represent four different
responses to God’s Word. “Listen then to what the parable of the sower
means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not
understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
This is the seed sown along the path. The one who received the seed that fell on
rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But
since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution
comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. The one who received the seed
that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of
this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. But
the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the
word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty
times what was sown.” “Which one am I?” Jesus tells this parable to prompt you to ask,
“Which one am I?” Are you the soil of the path, where the seed did not
take root, or the rocky soil, where the seed withered and died, or the weeds,
where the seed was choked out; or are you the good soil, where the seed produced
a good crop? The answer is “Yes.” For the bad news is, by nature we are all like the first three.
God the Holy Spirit did not find in your heart one single bit of fertile ground.
Paul says in Romans, “Are we any better ? Not at all! We . . . are all alike
under sin. As it is written: ‘There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away.” The bad news is, you are the soil of the path, where the seed snatched
away by the Devil; you are the rocky soil, where the seed withered and died
because of trouble and persecution; you are the weeds, where the seed was choked
out by worries and the deceitfulness of wealth. And because you are the
bad soil, producing the thorns and thistles of sin, you deserve the judgment
proclaimed by John the Baptizer: “His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will
clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the
chaff with unquenchable fire.” But the Good News is, you are also the good soil, where the seed
produced a good crop. For, although God the Holy Spirit did not find one
bit of fertile ground in your heart, God’s marvelous, miraculous seed of the
Gospel has a power no natural seed has: the power to CREATE fertile ground where
it is cast, even in sinners like you and me. The Lord describes this
inherent power of his Word in today’s Old Testament Reading: “It will not return
to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which
I sent it.” Peter says, “For you have been born again not of seed which is
perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of
God.” Paul explains to the Corinthians, “I planted the seed, Apollos
watered it, but God gave the increase. So neither he who plants nor he who
waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow.” Paul puts it
this way in Romans: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of
God for the salvation of everyone who believes. . . Consequently, faith
comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of
Christ.” That is the point of this parable: hear the Word, it is your only hope.
Through the seed of his Word, God the Holy Spirit grows faith in your heart,
faith in the Good News, “That God was in Christ reconciling the world unto
himself, not counting men’s sins against them”; “[He] loves us and has freed us
from our sins by his blood”; “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell
in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on
earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the
cross”; “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for
our justification”; “Everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins
through his name”; “For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son
and believes in him shall have eternal life.” Through the seed of his
Word, God the Holy Spirit grows that faith in your heart, and the fruits of
faith in your life: “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” The Parable of the Sower isn’t about someone else: it’s about you.
It’s about the struggle going on in your heart, like the man who cried to Jesus,
“Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” And it’s about the struggle
going on in your life, as Paul wrote about himself, “I have the desire to do
what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I
want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. . .
What a wretched man I am!” Hear the Word, it is your only hope. The Word of God is the one
thing the Devil wants to keep away from you, and he has all sorts of schemes and
tricks to keep God’s Word from being effective in your life. Like the birds who eat up the seed along the path, maybe the Devil can
prevent you even from hearing God’s Word. I think that’s what’s behind
most of the squabbles in Christian congregations and Christian families.
When people stop coming to church because of some fracas in the congregation or
their family, that’s the evil one snatching away the Word before it can even be
planted, like the birds eating up the seed on the path. Or like the seed that withers and dies on the rocky places, maybe the
Devil can turn you away from your faith and God’s Word with trouble, sorrow,
disappointment, hardship. It is a great, harmful fallacy, common among
Christians, that when a person becomes a Christian he should expect never again
experience the misfortunes of life. But Jesus says, “In this world you
will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” The promise
is not that your life as a Christian will be free from trouble; the promise is
that, despite the troubles of this world, you will overcome. As Paul says
in today’s Epistle Reading, “I consider that our present sufferings are not
worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed to us.” Or, if the Devil cannot cause you to stumble with misfortune, then
he’ll go to the other extreme, and try to ensnare you with the bait of a
fortune. Like the seed that fell among the thorns, preoccupation with the
things of this world chokes out concern for the next world. As Paul tells
Timothy, “People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into
many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For
the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money,
have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. . .
Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put
their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who
richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” The Parable of the Sower isn’t about someone else: it’s about you.
Through the seed of his Word, God the Holy Spirit grows faith in your heart and
the fruits of faith in your life. Hear the Word by attending worship,
Sunday School and Bible class; hear the Word by personal Bible reading and
study; hear the Word which also comes to us embodied in the Sacraments of Holy
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