Planting for a Harvest

The Parable of the Sower

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

I’m not much into gardening, but whenever I am working in the garden, especially pulling weeds, I always hear God’s voice. No, not an audible voice, but God speaks to me when I’m in the garden. For example, there’s this one vine that grows all over the place, in our garden, in the flower beds outside the church. It starts small, but before you know it, it’s everywhere, sending out little vines that wrap around everything. When I see it, it reminds me of sin, which starts small and, if unchecked, will wind its way through every aspect of your life.

Can anyone relate?

It’s no wonder that when Jesus began telling stories about the Kingdom of God that He used everyday situations to convey his message. When I was little, we learned that a parable was an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. But in seminary, my professors told us that parables were earthly stories with earthly meanings. A parable is a story that carries a lesson. Speaking to a largely agrarian society, Jesus often spoke about farming.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “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.  Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

“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 their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Many of us have heard the parable of the sower many times, and I purposely picked a familiar one to go with the unfamiliar. The reason is two-fold; first of all, it’s probably familiar for a reason, and secondly, it’s a good preaching exercise to plan to preach a familiar text. Try immersing yourself in a biblical text you know well; you’ll find that it is much more nuanced than you ever thought. A good example was when I undertook an exercise to daily meditate on the Lord’s Prayer one word a day.

One thing you’ll find when you study through Jesus’ parables is that many of them have some hard-to-explain parts. Sometimes something happens that just doesn’t happen. There are times when that is cultural and other times when Jesus is making a point. So when Jesus talks about a farmer sowing seeds, we have to figure out if the farmer is just dumb or if there is a reason he is throwing his seeds every which way.

We saw that his seeds ended up everywhere: along the path where the birds could eat it; in the rocky soil; among the thorns, and in the fertile soil. The obvious question is why a farmer would waste his seeds in all these places. One possible explanation is that ancient farming practices were a little different than ours – sometimes they didn’t have much fertile land and they would simply sow as much as they could, just hoping that they’d grow something somewhere. One commentary suggested that sometimes they sowed, then plowed the seeds under.

But another explanation is that a farmer wouldn’t just randomly sow seed. Just because they lived a long time ago doesn’t mean that they were dumb. Even if a farmer is sowing then planting, there’s no reason for him to sow seeds on the path. So if that’s the case, we are left to figure out why Jesus would have his farmer scatter seeds everywhere.

The simple explanation is that Jesus is, in this very speech, doing what he has the farmer do in his parable. Jesus is speaking to a crowd so large that he has to go out on the water in a boat to speak to all of them. Certainly when someone is speaking to such a large crowd, there are going to be mixed reactions. I can relate to that: last week there were some who thought the sermon was really great and others of you maybe needed a Mountain Dew.

But Jesus continues to “sow seeds” to everyone there. There is a reason he finishes up the parable by saying, “Whoever has ears, let them hear.” God sends out His Word, but He gives us the opportunity to listen… or not.

As Jesus explained, the parable of the farmer starts with the message of the Kingdom being proclaimed.

Romans 10:11 tells us that Anyone who trusts in Him will never be put to shame. No matter who you are, whether you were a Jew or a Gentile, whether you have been in church all your life or if it’s your first time, no matter your socio-economic background or family name, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. (Romans 10:13) This is the inclusive message Jesus spreads. This is the good news of the Kingdom, the seed spread by the farmer.

The issue, as Paul addresses, is How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? (Romans 10:14-15a)

I have seen in American Christians a surprising unwillingness to preach the good news these days. Nobody wants to seem “close-minded” or “intolerant” and we have taken the old quote attributed to St. Francis: “preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary, use words” to mean “live a Christian life, but don’t ever tell anyone what you believe.” The parable of the sower requires there to first be someone “sowing” the word. Without someone telling the Good News, the rest doesn’t matter, because we don’t give anyone anything to respond to!

Now when you consider that the farmer sows the seeds rather indiscriminately, it suddenly makes sense. Who are we to pre-determine who gets to hear the message? My senior year of college, I started a Bible study in my fraternity. I had three guys lined up to be part of it, and I put up a sign and invited anyone to come. It started out being just the four of us in my room, but every once in a while, someone would wander in, usually with a beer in hand. Did we say, “You’re going to have to get yourself together before you can hear this Bible passage”? Nope. We invited them in. I loved it when the Bible study eventually got too big for my room and ended up being held in the fraternity living room. Someone would come back from class or wherever they’d been and one of the guys would call them over to ask them the ice-breaker question. We had some guys join who I never would have expected to want to study the Bible, and they wouldn’t have showed up had we discriminated as to whom was allowed to attend and hear.

Consequently faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. If the message, the Word of Christ, isn’t being proclaimed, then we can’t expect any harvest whatsoever. A few weeks ago at a meeting, Chad was telling about the youth ministry looking to do something new: street evangelism. I am excited about that – they will undoubtedly grow in their relationship with Jesus as they proclaim his name, and they will be sowing seeds, like the farmer in Jesus’ parable. The funny thing is that this is a new technique. Because it’s not really new at all; when John Wesley said, “The world is my parish” he meant that he would go to where people were and preach to them there. He didn’t wait until people made it to a church building; he went to where they were. Sadly, we now expect people to come to us. We’ve become stingy with the seeds.

When the seeds are actually sown, Jesus mentions four responses. First: when anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, and the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. (Mt. 13:19) We have all kinds of barriers to understanding the Word. Some are cultural – our culture has preached that all religions are equal when they clearly are not. One religion claims there is no deity, and another claims that not only is there a deity, but one who can be known personally. One religion claims that the deity is an impersonal force that pervades everything; another one claims that the deity is a Personal Being. One religion says there are many gods, another says there is one God, and still another says there is One God in Three Persons. They can’t all be right.

Our culture says, “on a mountain, all paths lead to the top” – obviously the ones saying this haven’t climbed a mountain. But the truth is, even if all paths lead to the top of the mountain, only Jesus Christ is the path to heaven. All other paths remain on earth.

It can be difficult to understand the Gospel when looking through the lens of our culture. It can also be hard to understand it when we have never experienced Christians behaving like Christians. When our experience tells us that to be a Christian is to dress up nicely on Sunday for church and stiff our waiter at the restaurant after church – who would want to be a part of that? In his book An Unstoppable Force, Erwin McManus says, “It is rare to find someone who is a passionate enemy of the church who has never had contact with her.” So someone hears the word, but Satan snatches away what was sown before it can take root.

What can we do about that? Know that there are things that are hard to understand, and study them so we can Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. (1 Peter 3:15) When my friend Tony first came to church, he had several friends stick around with him after service to explain to him everything that had happened that morning so hopefully he would understand it and the seed would not be stolen. We as Christians have a responsibility to share Jesus with the world, and part of that is the gentleness and respect with which we deal with others. Our culture is littered with former Christians who were hurt by the church. We could eliminate much of that if we were gentle and respectful when we deal with each other. In other words, behave like Christians!

Jesus goes on to the second scenario: 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. (Matthew 13:5-6) I call this the church camp soil. There are times in our lives when we are ready and eager to receive the Word; for me it was at church camp. Every year I heard convicting messages and worshiped God passionately with a hundred other teenagers. By the end of camp, every year I came forward to rededicate my life to Christ. This was going to be the year that I lived a Christlike life. This was going to be the year that I impacted my school for Jesus. Unfortunately, only a few weeks later, my newfound commitment had already faded. I was rooted to my church camp experience, not to Jesus Christ, the Rock.

I don’t say this to disparage church camp or retreats or conferences. They are good things. I do say it to remind us that our root must be in Jesus, not in the camp. Did you notice that Jesus doesn’t say “if trouble or persecution come” – but “when” it comes… Trouble will come, and if your root is not deep in Jesus Christ, you will fall away. So if you’ve made a commitment at camp or at a retreat, have you set up some means by which you can grow your root deep? Have you shared your commitment with anyone? Do you have anyone to help keep you accountable, to ask you how things are going and to really want an answer? Remember that the altar is the first step on your journey; do you have people praying for you and walking with you on your journey?

One thing I have often seen is someone coming to church for the first time, getting excited about the ministry and what’s going on, making a public declaration of faith in Jesus Christ… and then disappearing. Often the issue is one of not getting plugged in. Just showing up on a Sunday morning is not enough; we need to have meaningful interactions with other Christians and we need to be serving Christ in ministry together. So one way to apply this is to specifically take the time to join with other Christians to study the Bible together and to pray for one another. It is also time to join with other Christians in serving… but to also invite others to join you. Don’t get tunnel vision or cliquish. Try inviting someone new to share with you. Especially if you are serving in some area, and you’re probably short on people to serve – invite someone to serve with you!

In the third scenario, the seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. (Matthew 13:7). Jesus explains that this means someone hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. (Matt 13:22) I grew up hearing the plan of salvation, which led from confession of sin, repentance of sin, being baptized, and livethechristianlife. There was little provision as to how to live that life, and I assumed that Christian adults didn’t struggle with sins the way I did. After all, living the Christian life happened naturally once you were baptized, didn’t it? I wasn’t hearing the words “persecution” and “suffering.” There are many times when the worries of this life simply choke out the Word of God. There is so much to do; I just don’t have time to stop and listen for a still, small voice. I don’t have time to sit and read scripture or pray.

But time isn’t really the problem; I’ve found that when I’m least busy is often when I have the most trouble finding time for God. Everything else manages to just take up more time. And then there’s Sunday worship: how many people miss one Sunday worship service and then another and then another and soon they’ve gotten totally out of the habit of worshiping with other Christians and it’s not long until their lives aren’t any different from the nonbelieving world.

Sometime else I didn’t realize was that wealth would be such a barrier to many people, that money would compete with God in the hearts of many. I was shocked when I mentioned tithing in a leadership meeting – I said that I expected our church leaders to be tithing or working toward a tithe and that if we’re not willing to do so, then we probably shouldn’t lead in the church, and by some of the reactions I got, you’d have thought I suggested human sacrifice. The deceitfulness of wealth chokes the Word, making it unfruitful.

That was all the bad news. But the good news is that there is also good soil, where we hear the word and understand it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”(Matt 13:23) I love seeing someone really catch fire for the Lord. The question is: what can we do to prepare the soil for a good harvest? Remember that it is the Holy Spirit’s job to bring forth the harvest. But we need to fill ourselves with Him for Him to work through us. We have a duty to share the Word; it is our responsibility to be Jesus’ hands and feet, spreading His Word everywhere we go.