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July 13, 2008
The Parable of the Sower
Matthew 13: 1-9 & 18-23
delivered on July 13th, 2008
For the remainder of July, we are going to be studying some of the parables of Jesus that are recorded in the 13th chapter of Mathew. Before we do that, I guess some explanation or reminder about the nature of Jesus’ parables is in order.
Jesus was not the only rabbi in his time to use parables. In fact, rabbinic literature furnishes many examples of other Jewish teachers and preachers using parables to illustrate their teaching.
The word “parable” comes from a combination of two Greek words which combined mean to throw beside. A parable then is a story or a concept that a teacher would throw down beside a more difficult concept to help the students understand the more difficult concept. That of course is the more usual use for a parable, and Jesus often used parables in this way. The parable of the good Samaritan is an imaginary story that Jesus used to answer a question as to who should be identified as ones neighbor. It did not need an explanation. The man who asked the question clearly understood Jesus’ answer in the parable.
But Matthew tells us that Jesus also used parables to hide some aspects of his teaching from some of those who were listening to him. Matthew identifies at least the parables that we will be discussing this Sunday and next Sunday as parables that were not to be understood by all.
These parables come from a time when Jesus was facing some rejection. There was among certain groups of the Jews some resistance and animosity to his message. So Jesus began using parables as ways of saying things that his enemies would not understand. These are parables that were to inform and encourage those who would believe in Jesus and would attempt to follow him.
Matthew tells us that this parable of the Sower as it has been called was preached from a boat. Jesus had been teaching and healing in a house. Now he has moved his ministry outdoors where there was more room. He had walked through or beside some fields and had arrived at the shore of the Sea or lake of Galilee. A large group of people followed him and assembled around him on the shore, so he got into a boat and had it pulled out just a few feet or yards so he could set a little distance between himself and the crowd.
I do not envy Jesus his pulpit on this occasion. I have preached from a boat and I have decided that while I generally like boats, I do not care for them as a pulpit. The darn things shift and move at the slightest provocation. An enthusiastic gesture can set small ripples in motion. Matthew tells us that Jesus sat in the boat. Sitting is safe, but human beings can get better volume for speaking in a standing position. But standing in a small boat is not a good idea.
According to Matthew, as Jesus sat in that boat, he began to tell a story about a farmer without any introduction. Jesus often began parables of this type with a preface “the kingdom of God is like”. In this case he just said “Listen” and he then told a story about a farmer who planted seeds in a field. There were probably fields within sight of Jesus and his hearers.
The story is about an unnamed farmer who scattered seeds all over a field, including the part that had been used as a path and become packed down and hard. In those days in Palestine, farmers scattered seeds on unplowed fields and then plowed the fields, plowing under the seeds in the process.
The seeds fell on four different types of soil. Some fell on the hard path, and before the plow could cut into that hardened soil, the birds came and plucked the seeds of the hard soil.
Some seeds fell on shallow ground that covered buried rock ledges. The seed sprouted and grew for a while, but in the dry season, it could not get moisture from the deeper soil because of the rock ledge, so it died.
Some seeds landed on soil that was infested with the seeds and roots of weeds which used up most of the nourishing elements of the soil leaving the good seeds to die, strangled by the weeds.
Some seeds landed on Good soil and grew to maturity producing a great crop for the farmer.
Then he said “if you have ears, Listen”, then he either left the boat or told some more stories.
Later, the Disciples came to him and asked what was up with the parables. Why was he telling stories without explanations?
Jesus told them that the stories contained secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Only believers were to understand them. Then he explained the parable of the sower to them.
Most of you have read and studied the explanation to the parable. You know what kind of person each of the types of soil stands for.
The soil that is packed down as a path represents people who are hard of heart, who have no interest in spiritual things. Don’t judge these people. Some of them have good reason for not being interested in religion, even the Christian Religion. Jesus said that the evil one keeps the seed of faith from having a second chance at these people. He takes away the seed, perhaps distracting them with other things until they are no longer interested in taking in the Gospel of Jesus.
I will be saying more about the evil one next week when I will have more time.
The shallow soil over rock represents those who receive the good news about Jesus and seem to have faith in Him for a while. Then the hard times of life come and they abandon him.
The soil among the thorns represent those who also begin in the faith but the good stuff of this life, including wealth, and offspring and all of their accompanying worries, distract them and they never grow into a mature faith in Jesus.
The soil that allows the seeds to grow in it represent those who come to a full faith in Christ. But notice that it is stressed that they bear fruit and produce a crop that is up to hundred times what was planted. Christians bear fruit, not only a mature faith but they grow in the Graces of God, they also plant more seed and help others to come to faith and grow in faith.
After almost 2000 years of Christianity, we know that this parable explains the growth and the lack of growth of the Kingdom of God on earth, the Christian Community. Some receive the seed and grow into mature fruit bearing believers. Some don’t.
But what I want you to see this morning is that when Jesus spoke these words, none of this had happened yet. The words of Jesus were just beginning to be preached and people were only starting to respond. When Jesus spoke these words about the growth of his Kingdom on earth, they were prophetic. They described responses that we have all come to know.
But I want to take just a few more minutes this morning and see if we can figure out some strategies to deal with the truths that are presented in this parable.
The parable proclaims that only a percentage of the people who hear the gospel will actually come into the kingdom of God. That means that as we seek to bring more people into God’s kingdom we need to reach more to get more. If we cannot greatly improve the percentages, we need to increase the larger number of people we get the message to. We need to think of and develop more ways to tell more people about Jesus.
We know a lot about soil that the people of Jesus day did not. We know that with treatments and fertilizers, you can change soil.
I have come to the conclusion through observation that the soil my house is built on does not naturally offer good support to grass. It does support clover really well, and that would be fine with me if it weren’t for those white flowers that proclaim to the world that this is not grass that is growing in the Horners’ yard.
But I know that there are processes and treatments that will enable my soil to grow grass. The problem is that I don’t want my lawn to be too healthy and grow too quickly because I really don’t like mowing grass.
The point I am trying to make is not that I don’t like lawns, but that we can change soil and make it more receptive to accepting and nurturing seeds.
So it is with the soil of Human beings. We can by acts of kindness and demonstrations of our faith soften hearts and human soil so they will be more responsive to the seeds we hope to plant.
To grow more Christians into God’s kingdom and into Faith Presbyterian Church we need to plant the gospel of Jesus in a larger field. We need to expand our horizons.
And we need to improve the soil in the field we already have.
Ideas about how to do these are invited and needed.
Posted by faithpres at July 13, 2008 02:26 PM