Luke 8:4-15 (NIV) 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 of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, 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, “He who has ears to hear, let him 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 rock 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.
This is probably Jesus’ best-known parable, variously called the parable of the sower, or the parable of the soils. The picture of a farmer sowing seeds in his field by broadcasting them would have instantly resonated in the hearts of His listeners. Even those who lived in towns were closely tied to the land, and saw this kind of scene every year.
The key to the picture in the parable is that every farmer aimed his seed at the soil that had been painstakingly prepared for it, the “good soil” in the story. No farmer intentionally threw precious seed onto hard-packed soil, or unplowed rocky soil, or uncleared weedy soil. That would simply waste the seed. Instead, the farmer painstakingly prepared the plot of land, plowing it, breaking it up, pulling out the rocks, and making sure that any unwanted growth is cleared away. Then, and only then, doe he take his bag of seed and broadcast it onto the prepared ground.
In the process, because the method of broadcasting was imprecise, some of the seed would fall outside of the prepared area onto the hard-packed road that ran along the edge of the field. Some would fall onto the unplowed shallow soil that had not yet been worked. And some would fall into the weeds outside of the field. Again, those stray seeds weren’t thrown there intentionally in the hope of receiving a harvest from them; their falling onto unprepared, unproductive soil was simply a result of the method used to sow.
As Jesus preached the word to the crowds, the people in those crowds were a diverse mix. But, as He preached and presented the good news of the kingdom, He was intentionally aiming the precious seeds at those in the crowd who were open and prepared to receive them. Those were the hearts in which He knew that the seed would take root and grow, producing an abundant crop for the kingdom.
There were others in the crowd who would hear the words of the kingdom, but whose hearts were unprepared. Some hearts were hard-packed by sin, and the words would not penetrate before Satan snatched them away. Some hearts were shallow, and would produce great enthusiasm initially, enthusiasm that would die quickly at the first sign of trouble or persecution. And some had lives that were so full of other stuff that the good news was quickly choked out and overwhelmed, fruitless.
The same kinds of people are still here today. The important point is not to try to screen out in advance the hearers who are unprepared before sharing the good news with anyone, but to always intentionally aim the seeds of the gospel at those whose hearts seem most receptive, realizing that, in the process, we will end up sharing the good news with a few people who won’t or can’t respond, in whose lives it won’t take root or produce fruit. But it will take root, grow, and produce an abundant harvest in those whose hearts are prepared.
Father, this points out a serious flaw in the way most of us tend to approach evangelism. We don’t broadcast our gospel seeds, sometimes out of fear that too much will land on unresponsive hearts. So we look and look, trying to find a small patch of cleared, plowed, prepared ground, and then we try to plant a single seed there to see if we can get it to grow. Imagine a farmer who operated that way! Instead, we should not only spread our seed widely, aiming intentionally at the prepared ground around us, we should also, like a good farmer, spend much of our time in what seems like the “off season” working with You to prepare the hearts of those around us, plowing, weeding, mulching, and getting rid of rocks, so that they will soon be able to receive the gospel seed. Thank You for these insights. Amen.