Last week we talked about Jesus building a new family of His followers and what it means to be a part of that and this week we get to really see how that is happening and what it means for us. Jesus wants us to be part of His family and He also wants us to help in growing it, so let’s read our passage.
Read Matthew 13:1-23
This passage is called the Parable of the Sower and it is the first of many parables that Jesus is going to share in this chapter. But before we get anything further, let’s answer the question: What is a parable? I think that we need to understand that first. Our modern dictionaries define a parable as:
“a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson”
And what’s interesting is that even in the google definition that popped up, it says “a simple story used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson, as told by Jesus in the Gospels.” There are other sources of parables in history, there are parables in Islam, there are numerous famous Chinese parables, there’s even modern-day parables, but the word parable is most commonly attached to Jesus when He chose to teach this way.
And we need to understand that parables generally teach a main point or a main principle. They generally aren’t super intricate or super long and they don’t have all types of hidden meanings. I think sometimes people get themselves into trouble by trying to come up with hidden meanings in parables when the main purpose and the main wisdom of it is already pretty apparent. And I say pretty apparent, because obviously the main point isn’t just directly written, but instead it is being shared in a relatable story and it uses the relatable aspects of the story to share a greater truth.
So, this is Jesus taking spiritual truth and sharing it in the form of a story that is very relatable to this agricultural or farming culture. But why? Why didn’t He just tell them about these things without the story?
To answer that, I want to start first of all down in verse 10. In verses 1 through 9, we see Jesus leave the house that He was in last week, where He was dealing with the Scribes and the Pharisees inside and where His family was waiting outside. That’s the house where Jesus looked at His followers and said that THIS IS MY FAMILY. He called His true followers His family. And so, He leaves that house and heads down to the sea and once again great multitudes, plural, follow Him. And He ends up getting on a boat while people stand on the shore, and He starts to teach the people. But as we started talking about, this time He is teaching in the form of a parable. He’s telling a story, but the story is being used to still teach His spiritual truth. But the disciples must have been kind of caught off guard by this, and so they go ask Him about it, right in the middle of His teaching, in verse 10. And what do they ask Him?
Read Matthew 13:10 (Why do You speak to them in parables?)
They’re like, Jesus, why are you talking in parables now? You were teaching normal before, but why the parables now? And Jesus answers them and it’s a really interesting answer. He says basically in verse 11 that what I have to say right now is for you, for the people that are actually hearing and believing what He had to say, but then He says, that it’s not for “them”. And remember this is still coming right in line with all of these people that are still hanging around looking for problems.
There are still people that are completely against Jesus that are mixed into the crowd. And if you remember a couple of weeks ago, Jesus has been doing all of these miraculous things in front of these guys, He had been teaching His message of the Kingdom right in front of them, but then they hit a point, where they basically called the Holy Spirit a demon, and Jesus was like, now you guys have gone too far and you guys don’t get to come back from this point. But I’m sure they were still mixed into the crowds. They hadn’t suddenly stopped their planning that started last chapter to see Jesus killed.
But because of how far they had gone, and because they were still around, Jesus changed His teaching style. We have talked several times about the fact that when there is greater light there is greater responsibility and also greater judgement. Jesus has been shining that light like crazy in front of all of these people, but they didn’t want anything to do with it, and Jesus knew that and of course knew their hearts.
And it’s kind of an odd thing, but what’s happening here is really a merciful act on Jesus’ part. He has clearly said several times before that people will be more accountable for the amount of light that is witnessed and heard and then DENIED. And so, Jesus with this teaching style has kind of turned off the beacon of light blazing in front of everyone and begun teaching in such a way that His people will get, but all of these other people are just going to hear a story.
For us these stories or these parables have clear Kingdom, Jesus, spiritual meanings. But for these guys in the crowds with hard hearts, they’re just going to hear different stories and that’s better for them, because it’s Jesus limiting for them the amount of light that they will face judgement for. It’s like Jesus turned off the beacon of light and switched to the spotlight so that it would build up His people, but not build up more judgement on the deniers.
It’s kind of an odd thing to grasp, but in reality, it’s incredibly merciful towards these guys that have been causing nothing but problems. Jesus said in verse 13, I speak to them in parables, so they don’t get it, He then references Isaiah once again from like 700+ years before this and is like, see, Isaiah had already prophesied that I was going to do this as well. We see that in verses 14 and 15. But then He looks back at His followers, His disciples, in verse 16, and says “but blessed are you, because you can see it, you can hear it.” They won’t get it, but you will. And verse 17 that people for generations, righteous people. prophets, these people wished to hear and see what you get to now. They didn’t get that chance, but you’re blessed, and you do. And so are we.
So now that we have talked about what a parable is and why Jesus began teaching in this way, let’s look at this first parable again that they were blessed to actually hear and understand. And hopefully we can hear it and understand it as well.
Read Matthew 13:3-9
This is a farming story. This is talking about a Sower, or a farmer, who is out sowing seed all over the place in hopes that some crops are going to grow. And so, what happens? The Sower is tossing out seeds and first some lands by the wayside in verse 4. By the wayside would refer to like a path that people would walk on. But when the seeds land on this path the birds come and eat them. And then some seeds fall on “stoney places” in verse 5 and Jesus tells us that this is rocky ground and there’s a little dirt or soil, but not much of it. The little bit of soil allows the seed to spring up, but then there’s nowhere for roots to go because of the stones and then the sun beats down and withers the plant because it doesn’t have good roots.
And then some seeds fall among thorns, there were already thorns or weeds or whatever else growing in this spot and they choked out any chance for a new little healthy plant being able to survive there. But then finally some seeds fall on good ground, not on the path, not in the rocks, not in the weed infested area, but on good ground and it grows and it actually yields a crop. And some of these plants produce more, some produce less, but they all produce a crop. They actually grow and fulfill their purpose.
And so right there. That’s the parable. It’s a farming story about a guy tossing seeds and some are able to grow, and many don’t. And that’s the point at which the disciples interject and are like, what’s with the parables Jesus? So, Jesus goes into the explanation that we started with and then after that He actually explains what the parable of the Sower is all about. So, let’s read His explanation in verses 18-23.
Read Matthew 13:18-23
Jesus talks about the “word of the kingdom”. This is the truth, its God’s word, it’s Jesus, and His Kingdom, it’s the gospel. These are all words of the Kingdom. The final events of the Gospel had not happened yet. Jesus had not yet died for our sins and risen again, but He has been teaching about the Kingdom, about Who He is, and also what’s coming. He has been teaching the words of the Kingdom.
So, in this parable, there is the Sower, there are the seeds, or the words of the kingdom, and then there are the various places where the seeds fall, which represent the hearts of people that hear the words of the Kingdom.
So, these seeds that the Sower is sowing are the very words of the Kingdom. They are the truth of Christ. And verse 19 says that some people won’t understand it, and then Satan swoops in and snatches away the seed that was sown in this heart. And Jesus says that this person is the seed that fell on the wayside or on the path. And remember parables were relatable stories, and people knew that these paths were well worn, they were stomped down, the ground was compacted, it was hard ground. This hard ground is like a hard heart, the seed is just sitting on the very surface, it never gets down into any soil and Satan like those birds just snatches it away. That’s the first heart.
The second heart is the stony place in verse 20. And this heart is full of stones, but it has a little bit of soil. And with this little bit of soil there is a short joyful reception. Maybe something like, man!, this sounds really good, I like this Jesus guy, I like all the good things that are talked about in this Bible. It sounds good to this heart, but still, there’s no actual roots able to form and then life gets hard as it always does at some point. Maybe someone challenges they’re faith and they’re shaken, and they stumble. The original parable says that they wither away at this point. It all sounded good, but no root went down from the head to actually make it into the heart. So maybe now, after going through some things, it just doesn’t sound good like it once did, because obviously I still ran into trouble, so I’m just going to move onto the next thing. There are no real roots in this heart.
We see the third heart in verse 22. And for this heart, the words of the kingdom fall in the middle of a bunch of care and concern for worldly things and the desire for worldly things, for riches, and everything else. And all of these other things just choke out this seed. There’s obviously soil there. Other things are growing just fine, but there are so many other things growing, that aren’t all good, that the good plant can’t grow now. The plant gets choked out and there’s no fruit.
Then finally we see the good heart, the good ground, in verse 23. It’s not hardened, it’s not still full of a bunch of rocks, it’s not overgrown with a bunch of other harmful or worthless stuff, but it’s good ground. And the seed lands, the words of the kingdom are heard, and those words make it into the heart, the seed makes it into the soil, it grows roots, it survives, the plant forms, and it’s real, and then for the very purpose for which that plant exists, it bears fruit.
And as we hear this story and this explanation from Jesus. We need to understand that we all start off as the ground with someone else sowing the words of the Kingdom onto our hearts.
But what’s the status of our heart today?
Is our heart hardened like that well-worn path? Are the seeds just not even getting a chance before Satan comes and snatches them away?
Is our heart like the stony ground with a little bit of soil. Like this all sounds great for the moment, I’m even excited about it, but it’s not actually rooted down completely into my heart. And when trouble comes, it shakes me, it sways me, and it’s easy to just walk away from all of this and onto the next thing, because there’s no real roots.
Is our heart like the ground full of thorns? Are we so caught up in so many different things that even though the plant wants to grow, the ground seems ready for it, but is there just too much other stuff growing to let it grow healthy? All the other stuff just chokes it out. And for us, some of that may be bad stuff that needs to go, or maybe we just fill up our schedule and our lives with so much stuff that ultimately won’t really matter, that it doesn’t give us the real opportunity to fully grow and mature in the Lord. This is a big one, please don’t miss it.
I mean they’re all a big deal, but I think that one gets overlooked. Because I think it’s like, oh yeah, I want to grow, and I like Jesus, but all these other things are going to keep their place on the ground of my heart. And our walk with Jesus is going to get choked out by that and we’re not going to be bearing fruit. It may not all be bad stuff, but if it’s choking out our growth and effectiveness, because there’s too much of it, then it’s still a problem.
Or is our heart, right now, like that good ground? We’re hearing God’s word, we understand His truth, the seed has taken root in this heart, and we’re growing, and we’re doing, and we’re fruit producers.
This is serious. If we’re anything else other than that good ground at this moment, if we’re hardened, if we’re just surface level with no roots, if we’ve got too many weeds growing and no real Kingdom growth. Then in every single one of these scenarios, let’s take it to the Lord together. He can till the ground, He can soften the soil, He can remove the rocks, He can pull the weeds, and as people we can keep throwing more seeds and get us all growing healthy and fruitful.
Because the ultimate view of this parable would take us from simply being the ground that seeds are being sown on to actually being the Sower, broadcasting Jesus, spreading the words of the Kingdom onto more hearts, for more growth, for more God glorifying fruit.
That’s the heart behind the talk last week about growth. It’s not at all about numbers here, but when our ground is healthy, we’re growing, and we grow into the Sower who is now sowing more seeds, then through that God is going to grow His church. Numbers aren’t the focus; numbers are the result of Jesus’ plan for us. Because that good healthy ground bears fruit and some of those sown seeds will grow. And each one of those seeds that really grows in good ground, is a new life of someone in the Kingdom of God, is a new disciple of Jesus Christ.
That’s why we’re here to broadcast seed, to broadcast Jesus, and to make disciples. Because this is exactly what Jesus’ plan is for us.