The gospels give the parable of the Sower a prominent place in the record of Christ’s ministry. Three of the gospels record it and the interpretation that Christ gave of it (Matt. 13:1-8; Mark 4:1-8; Luke 8:5-8). Basically, Christ uses the process of agricultural production from sowing to harvesting to signify the spiritual restoration that God was working in grace, otherwise known as the kingdom of heaven (see Matt. 13:19: “the word of the kingdom”).

Christ did not derive the picture of seed and harvest for the kingdom of God simply from nature. The Old Testa­ment contains many promises of restoration and a number of them use the imagery of seed being sown (see e.g., Jer. 31:27-28; Hos. 2:23; Ps. 126:5-6). After all, the prophets also used the pictures of agricultural devastation to symbol­ize judgment (see e.g., Isa. 34:9-15).

It is not surprising then that Christ uses the pictures of a sower and his seed; but what is surprising is that this particular sower sows on four soils, and only one of them produces fruit. Christ clearly was intending to highlight the fact that the Word of God does not have the same effect everywhere it comes.

The Scenery⤒🔗

The parable introduces us to a sower, seed, and various kinds of soils. Everyone can picture the scene. You don’t need to be a farmer to know about seed not sprouting and the disap­pointment that causes. There is nothing that suggests the sower is ill-equipped or unskillful at his work. Neither is the seed a problem. It is not inferior seed. The problem is with the various kinds of grounds.

The first ground Christ pictures is the well-packed earth alongside the field, where perhaps generations of people have walked, hardening the soil until it is impervious to the seed (Mark 4:4). Christ pictures hungry fowl who “devour” the seed. Just a minute or two ago, the sower had the seed in his bag and ran it through his hand, and the next moment it disappears into the birds’ beaks. The wayside is no better off and the seed itself is gone forever.

Next, there is the stony ground (v. 5). The picture here is of a thin layer of soil under which there is dense rock. Seeds germinate, spring up, and take root; but the roots cannot find depth of earth, and when the hot sun beats down on the little seedlings, they shrivel up and lie withered on top of the soil. This is evidence of the rocks just below the surface.

Thirdly, there is the ground with thorns and thistles (v. 6). Though there is soil and presumably depth, there are thorns and thistles. Christ does not state whether these are in seed form or already beginning to sprout, but eventually these weeds choke the sprouting seed.

So Christ details a farmer’s familiar nightmare. We can all imagine the farmer’s pain at having expended sweat and toil and in the end losing his precious seed to such unpro­ductive ends. When we look at these three soils, we cannot help but think back to how this symbolizes the misery of the fall of our first parents. There was no fruitless labor before the fall. But now, thorns and thistles and wilted plants all attest to the fact that the heart of man itself has become an unproductive field for the Lord, the great Husbandman (literally, “farmer”; John 15:1).

Yet, despite the fact that the majority of the soils are ultimately unproductive, Christ finally mentions that there is also the good ground that bears forth fruit at different levels of productivity: “some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred” (v. 8).

The Substance←⤒🔗

In this parable, Christ is speaking about His own ministry. The following two points are central to the message of the parable.

First, Christ is showing how the restoration He brings does not have saving effect everywhere it comes; yet, in the end, it will most certainly produce fruit. Christ’s parable builds upon and fits with the prophecy in Isaiah 55:10-11:

For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

Admittedly, Christ is not comparing His Word to the first comparison of this text (“rain”), but to the latter (“seed”). Nevertheless, in both cases the Word is compared to the agent effecting transformation.

Essentially, what Christ is saying is this: “As I have been preaching to you, I have been scattering the seed of the Word upon the fields of Israel. Because of your sin, you had become a desolate land, spiritually, as your prophets abundantly made clear (Isa. 35:1). But now, in My ministry, the seed of the Word is coming down on you, and this will continue in the ministry of the apostles. Even then I will be the Sower from heaven through My servants and people. That is how the spiritual restoration will unfold, by the power of My Word.”

It is a valid inference from this point that the Word of God should be cast far and wide even if it falls beyond a perfectly prepared and evidently fertile field. As the Canons of Dort put it, the Word should be “declared and published to all nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without distinction” (Head II, Art. 5). That is how Christ Him­self did it, and He commanded His apostles no differently (Matt. 28:19-20). How often it will seem that much of the seed is wasted. Isaiah lamented, “Who hath believed our report?” (Isa. 53:1; cf. John 12:38; Rom. 10:16). Neverthe­less, just as it is better for a farmer to labor, sweat, and sow the seed where it may not produce than to imagine he knows infallibly where it will produce (see Eccl. 11:6), so Christ sends His Word in many places and to many people where no true, saving restoration will come.

Secondly, Christ is asserting that this ministry of the Word will prove which hearts are receptive to the Word and which are not. Undoubtedly, the multitudes would have rejoiced at the news of restoration. If they could have written the parable, they might have had it run like this: “A Sower went out to sow, and everywhere he sowed, life and fruitfulness ensued, bringing prosperity and beauty and all manner of success.” That is what many people today want to hear: “Christ brings good things into your life speedily, tangibly, and invariably. Believe this morning and reap success this evening already.” Christ’s parable, however, discriminates. Three out of the four soils prove ultimately unreceptive to the Word.

Let’s trace more closely what Christ is doing by treating the successive soils. As He describes the first three consecu­tively, we should register how His all-seeing eye scrutinizes more deeply into human hearts than anyone else ever could.

First, He exposes the wayside hearers. The seed stays on the surface of these hard hearts and the devil simply takes the Word away “out of their hearts” (Luke 8:12). Most people hearing this will feel a twinge of guilt after hearing sermons or reading the Bible, but evaporation immediately follows exposure.

Still, many will comfort themselves that there have been times that the Word has had some effect in their lives, and we may be able to point to little shoots of new life that took place because of the Word. However, Christ addresses that next in the rocky soil. Their hardness of heart might not be on the surface, but it is an inch or two down. When the Word falls on our hearts, there are some evidences of new life, but lest we console ourselves with that, Christ fast forwards to show us the withered shoots under the sun of “affliction or persecution” (Mark 4:17). The cause is this: there was “no root in themselves” (Mark 4:17). The Canons of Dort echo this when they explain it so as to put all the blame on sinful man:

others, though they receive it, suffer it not to make a lasting impression on their heart. Head III-IV, Art. 9

Despite this second revelation from the all-seeing Sav­ior, most professing Christians will again heave a sigh of relief, reminding themselves quickly that they have not “fallen away.” They can think of people who have, but comfort them­selves that they are still under the preaching of the gospel and they don’t consider themselves “withered” and “rootless.” So Christ’s skilful eye probes deeper still as He treats the third soil. This time He stoops down and lifts up a few shoots in the third soil, and fast forwards again to where we can see toxic thorns and briers sprouting up with such velocity and vengeance that the poor seedlings are defenseless against mighty specimens of noxious plants. Christ points to the thorns and identifies them for us:

Cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things.Mark 4:19

Again the Canons of Dort explain it well: “Oth­ers choke the seed of the word by perplexing cares, and the pleasures of this world, and produce no fruit” (Head III-IV, Art. 9). No one can rest comfortably under this diagnosis. Who never feels the sting of cares, the lure of riches, and the quills of harmful desires? When you sense that, Christ’s par­able has had an experimental effect. You might ask with the disciples: “Who then can be saved?” (Mark 10:26).

Thankfully, Christ goes on and explains what the good ground is: “That on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience” (Luke 8:15). This is the ground on which God has so worked that there is honesty inwardly (“the heart”) – as Psalm 51 says, there is “truth in the inward parts” (Ps. 51:6). The Word is received to the point that, through the blessing of the Lord, fruit grows (Mark 4:20), which never happened in the other soils. Those who have been regenerated by the Spirit of God hear the Word of God, embrace it, and bring forth fruit. It’s no wonder that the Lord ended this parable with a cry:

And when he had said all these things, Jesus cried: He who hath ears to hear, let him hear.Luke 8:8

The Savior←⤒🔗

Christ spoke this parable in at least three capacities:

First of all, He is the Sovereign, or King of the king­dom of heaven, whose secrets He is revealing in parables (Mark 4:11). He is bringing in the kingdom of grace that the prophets had prophesied through parables like this.

Second, He is the Sower Himself, who brings this res­toration by His Word and Spirit. Christ loved the emblem of seed and used it frequently, not least because it pictured naturally what happens spiritually, namely, fruitfulness in the way of humiliation and death. He, the Sower, would become a Seed, as He Himself explains later (John 12:24). Moreover, He would ultimately be the “good and honest” heart: “I do always those things that please him” (John 8:29). We can only have a good and honest heart because of His perfectly receptive heart to His Father. Moreover, we need His payment on the cross for all our hardness of heart with respect to the Lord and His Word.

Third, He is the spiritual Surgeon, who diagnoses our spiritual heart condition through this parable. Not only does He diagnose it, but He also delivers our heart by His work on the cross. There He obtained the quickening Spirit whereby He renders our hearts pliable and receptive and so effectually works upon the soil of our hearts that we hear, receive, and bring forth fruit to His praise and glory.

The Searchlight←⤒🔗

It is especially this last point that should scrutinize our hearts. Even after grace, believers struggle with sin and unbelief as it is pictured for us in the first three soils. The ultimate question is what we do after Christ has exposed our evil, unreceptive heart. While others presumably left, thereby revealing that they were not “receiving” the seed that Christ had just sown, the disciples went to the Lord, heeding His cry: “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Luke 8:8-9). They were not offended by His words, but wanted more of them.

It’s true that Judas was among them, who would prove to be a thorny-ground hearer. The powerful thorn of the deceitfulness of riches choked the Word in his life when he betrayed Christ for thirty pieces of silver. The others, however, despite all remaining sin in their lives, evidenced ultimately in “honesty before God,” and a continued work of the Sower, the Savior on the heart.

Questions←⤒🔗

1. Christ tells us that the seed is the Word (Mark 4:14). We can safely say that He is speaking of the pure, undiluted, and uncontaminated Word of God. If this is true, where are these different grounds Christ is speaking of to be found?
    
2. What kind of hearer was Judas, and what powerful thorn choked the Word of God in his life?
    
3. Why did the sower not just sow on the good ground? What can we learn from this?
    
4. Think about how hardships can choke the Word of God. Describe how you might find that happening in your life.
    
5. Why should we not be content with a shallow Christianity, and how do roots go down deep?