The Seed And The Sower

[Janne Evers]

11He replied, Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven(H) has been given to you,(I) but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them.(J) 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:

24 Jesus told them another parable: The kingdom of heaven is like(U) a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.

37 He answered, The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man.(AI) 38 The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one,(AJ) 39 and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest(AK) is the end of the age,(AL) and the harvesters are angels.(AM)

40 As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man(AN) will send out his angels,(AO) and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 42 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.(AP) 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun(AQ) in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.(AR)

47 Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like(AV) a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds(AW) of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous(AX) 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.(AY)

Once during ministry in Decatur, Texas, at River of Life Church where my good friends, Greg and Janice Mohr, pastor, something happened that I need to share. We had great meetings with many healings, salvations, and baptisms in the Holy Spirit. On the final night of the three-service meeting, Pastor Greg really encouraged the people to give sacrificially toward our new building.

He was urging this crowd of 300+ people to give $100,000 toward our new building. He turned to 2 Corinthians 9:10 and emphasized that God provides seed to sowers. He knew people might not have that kind of money right then but said if they would make a commitment to become sowers, God would give them the finances to sow.

This verse says that God gives seed to sowers and bread to eaters. These terms are being used metaphorically to talk about how God gives extra to people who are givers and supplies the basic needs of eaters.

When we put sowing ahead of eating, God gets involved in our finances and meets our every need. In fact, God will take better care of you than you would take of yourself. Just look at what the Lord is preparing for you in heaven. You will live in a mansion. The streets are paved with pure gold. The gates are pearls, and the foundations of the city are precious stones. No one on earth lives in such luxury. God is El Shaddai, not El Cheapo.

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That is my usual response to this parable. I hear it as a challenge to be different, as a call to improve my life, so that if the same parable were ever told about me it would have a happier ending, with all of the seed falling on rich, fertile soil. But there is something wrong with that reading of the parable, because if that is what it is about, then it should be called the parable of the different kinds of ground.

Instead, it has been known for centuries as the parable of the Sower, which means there is a chance, just a chance, that we have got it all backwards. We hear the story and think it is a story about us, but what if we are wrong? What if it is not about us at all but about the sower? What if it is not about our own successes and failures and birds and rocks and thorns but about the extravagance of a sower who does not seem to be fazed by such concerns, who flings seed everywhere, wastes it with holy abandon, who feeds the birds, whistles at the rocks, picks his way through the thorns, shouts hallelujah at the good soil and just keeps on sowing, confident that there is enough seed to go around, that there is plenty, and that when the harvest comes at last it will fill every barn in the neighborhood to the rafters?

If this is really the parable of the Sower and not the parable of the different kinds of ground, then it begins to sound quite new. The focus is not on us and our shortfalls but on the generosity of our maker, the prolific sower who does not obsess about the condition of the fields, who is not stingy with the seed but who casts it everywhere, on good soil and bad, who is not cautious or judgmental or even very practical, but who seems willing to keep reaching into his seed bag for all eternity, covering the whole creation with the fertile seed of his truth.

God, Lord of all creation, lover of life and of everything, please help us to love in our very small way what You love infinitely and everywhere. We thank You that we can offer just this one prayer and that will be more than enough, because in reality every thing and every one is connected, and nothing stands alone. To pray for one part is really to pray for the whole, and so we do. Help us each day to stand for love, for healing, for the good, for the diverse unity of the Body of Christ and all creation, because we know this is what You desire: as Jesus prayed, that all may be one. We offer our prayer together with all the holy names of God, we offer our prayer together with Christ, our Lord, Amen.

We live in a world on fire. This year the Daily Meditations will explore contemplation as a way to build Radical Resilience so we can stand in solidarity with the world without burning up or burning out. The path ahead may be challenging, but we can walk it together.

Jesus tells of a farmer who sows seed indiscriminately. Some seed falls on the path (wayside) with no soil, some on rocky ground with little soil, some on soil which contains thorns, and some on good soil. In the first case, the seed is taken away; in the second and third soils, the seed fails to produce a crop; but when it falls on good soil, it grows and yields thirty-, sixty-, or a hundred-fold.

"Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold." And he said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parable, so that

'they may indeed see but not perceive,

and may indeed hear but not understand,

lest they should turn and be forgiven.'"

And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold."

In Mark's Gospel and Matthew's Gospel, this parable, the explanation of the purpose of parables, and the explanation of the parable itself form part of Jesus' third or "Parabolic" discourse, delivered from a boat on the Sea of Galilee. In each narrative, Jesus used the boat as a means of being able to address the huge crowd gathered on the lake shore. Luke's Gospel does not use a boat for the delivery of the sermon, but still has Jesus presenting the parable to a large crowd gathered from 'every city' and follows the parable with a question on the purpose of parables and an explanation of the parable of the sower itself.

The parable recorded in Mark comes just after a description in the previous chapter of a developing hostility toward Jesus and his ministry. The Pharisees accused him of not holding to a strict observance of the Sabbath by performing various healings. Some schools of thought found such actions permissible only if the person treated was in danger of death.[4] Some of the Jerusalem scribes contended that Jesus derived his power from demonic sources.

Roger Baxter, in his Meditations, comments on the type of soil, writing, "although this divine seed be in itself most fruitful, it requires, nevertheless, the concurrence of a good soil to produce a harvest. Hence, if it fall on the highway, it will be immediately trampled down; if among thorns, it will be choked up. Examine, then, whether your soul be a proper soil for this seed; whether it be trampled upon continually by distractions and idle thoughts; and whether it be stony and full of the cares and occupations of this life, and consequently not susceptible of the divine influence of heavenly grace."[9]

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