Jesus: Seed, Sower, the Tree of Life. Part 2 – The Parable of the Sower
During His ministry Jesus told 55 parables in the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke – the synoptic Gospels. There are no parables in John). The Parable of the Sower is the first parable Jesus tells in the synoptic Gospels. In response to the disciples’ question about the meaning of this parable, Jesus says, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?” (Mark 4: 13 NIV). This first parable is of paramount importance. If you get this one, you will understand the others. If you don’t understand this one, you will miss the Message of Jesus.
In this post I look at the Parable of the Sower, primarily using the parable in Mark (Mark 4: 1 – 20 in the NIV).
Dale Bruner summarizes the 4 ways the Parable of the Sower has been interpreted over the centuries: 1) as a parable of victory; 2) as a parable of patience; 3) as a parable of responsibility; 4) “as a parable of power, teaching the church the intrinsic power of the Word of God and of the Word’s own ability to bring the Kingdom of God into the world” (Bruner, ‘Matthew - A Commentary’, v, 2, pg. 3). Bruner goes on to write:
“The power interpretation of the parable is the most congenial of all to me because in it the seed power that is the Word of Jesus receives its due . . . Jesus’ Word brings into this world the otherworldly power of the coming Kingdom of God. So, as a consequence of that Word’s powerful coming, everything else that the parable wants to teach naturally follows: namely, that it is our responsibility to understand this Word, that it is our mission to bring this Word with a patient urgency into the church and the world, and that it is our privilege to wait expectantly, confidently, and joyfully for the final victory of the Word’s promises” (pg. 4 Volume 2).
With the Parable of the Sower Jesus begins exposing the crowd following Him to the radical, revolutionary, world-changing idea He calls the Kingdom of God and their role in that Kingdom. In Mark, this parable is the opening salvo of Jesus’ battle against the kingdom of the world (aka the kingdom of satan). As Bruner says, it is a parable of power – the power of the Word of God. But as I will explain in a later post, the ‘seed power’ is not just the word of God, as in ‘the written word of God’, but the ‘seed power’ is more importantly in what the entire Bible from Genesis through 1 John calls the seed – Jesus, the incarnate Word of God.”
The ‘Word of God’, the ‘word’, and Jesus are interrelated, and not just because Jesus is called the ‘Word’ and the ‘Word of God’, but because the spoken and written word of God have creative power – power to give new birth – literally new life – by calling forth and planting the life of Jesus in a human heart.
But I am getting ahead of myself. Let’s take a closer look at the Parable of the Sower, mostly from Mark (I have also carefully read this parable in Matthew and Luke. Some of what I write here is drawn from these versions of the parable as well).
Jesus was teaching along the shore of the Sea of Galilee, probably at or near Capernaum, His base of operations in Galilee. He had been traveling from one town to another “proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God” (Luke 8: 1), healing many and casting out demons. On that day, Jews and Gentiles traveled miles to see and hear this amazing teacher, although on this day He calls himself a sower. The crowd gathered around Him was large, pushing and jockeying to get close to Jesus and touch Him.
“For He had healed many, so that those with diseases were pushing forward to touch Him. Whenever the evil spirits saw Him, they fell down before Him and cried out, “You are the Son of God” (Mark 3: 10, 11 NIV).
The crowd got so large Jesus stepped into a boat, and pushed out on the lake a little way from the shore. He began to speak. At some point He paused and commanded them, “Listen”!
Jesus had their attention. For those who had ears to hear, He explained to them who He was, His purpose, and who they would be if they believed and followed Him. He told them these things with the Parable of the Sower.
Here is what Jesus told the crowd:
A farmer (the Sower) sowed or scattered seed onto the ground. Some seed fell on hard, packed ground. It was immediately eaten by the birds. Some seed fell on rocky soil. It sprouted, but when the sun came up the plants withered because the ground did not have enough soil to sustain life. Some seed fell among the thorns and weeds, which choked out the plants that sprouted, so they could not yield grain or fruit. But some seed fell on good soil, where it sprouted, produced plants that grew up strong and tall, yielding a crop thirty, sixty, or even 100 times greater than the initial seed.
Only about one-quarter of the seed produced a significant crop!
After He told the parable to the crowd, Jesus took the disciples and others around Him aside, and told them why this parable was important, “The secret of the Kingdom of God has been given you” (Mark 4” 11) in this parable, and if they didn’t understand this parable, “How then will you understand any parable” (Mark 4: 13 NIV). Jesus is telling them (and us) that this parable is foundational to understanding everything He teaches – it is about the Kingdom of God. Then He helps them, and us, understand what the parable means:
It is clear from Jesus’ description of the parable that the soil is the human heart. For example, “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart” (Luke 8: 15 NIV). The 4 different types of soil represent the 4 different conditions of the human heart. Paul writes that our hearts are God’s garden for planting. “We are coworkers with God and you and God’s cultivated garden (God’s field, NKJV), the house He is building” (1 Corinthians 3: 9 TPT). Paul calls our hearts ‘a garden’, pointing back, I think, to the Garden of Eden, and God’s plan of restoration. It was the hearts of the Jews then and our hearts today that John the Baptist was preparing to hear this message from Jesus, the same way that a farmer would prepare his field to receive seed when planting season comes around.
Jesus calls the seed “the word of God”, “the message of the Kingdom” or simply, “the word”.
The hard, packed ground is a heart hardened toward God, although some think this soil referred to the hearts of the religious leaders of Israel in the time of Jesus – hearts hardened toward Him and His message. When the seed is sown, it cannot penetrate the heart, it has no place to germinate; satan comes and snatches the seed up.
The rocky soil is a heart filled with rocks. I think the rocks or stones refer to negative emotions like anger, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, fears; even demonic oppression. Perhaps this is what Paul means when he tells us, “Don’t let the sun go down on your anger, you give the devil a foothold”. When the seed lands in this heart, it immediately takes root. But when trouble or persecution come the plant withers and dies because its roots do not go very deep into the soil of the heart – too many rocks.
The seed sown among thorns and weeds is sown into a heart choked with cares and worries of this life; unrepentant sins, occult activity, and a heart that finds value in the things of the world like money, possessions, accomplishments, recognition, popularity, and tradition – all idols. Finding our value in these things instead of Jesus is pride. These things choke out the plant. It grows, but produces little fruit.
Finally, the good soil is a heart of humility and repentance (metanoia) – a stripped-down heart, open and available, with space to spare to receive whatever Jesus wants to plant in it – a heart prepared to receive the Word. When the seed lands in this heart (“A noble and good heart” Luke 8: 15), it finds a home and grows into a plant, even a tree of righteousness, producing a fruitful crop, “some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown” (Mark 4: 20 NIV). The harvest or crop represents life – abundant life. A Tree of Life – Jesus.
Jesus is the sower – He is sowing or broadcasting seed. He sows with the words He speaks to the crowd. “The farmer sows the word” (Mark 4: 14 NIV). They hear the word of Jesus, “The others like seed on rocky places, hear the word . . . “ (Mark 4: 16 NIV). “Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop . . .” (Mark 4: 20 NIV).
The person who hears His words, whose heart is open and receptive, or humble and repentant, is like the good soil where the seed germinates. The act of sowing is the speaking of the words God gave Jesus to preach – the ‘Words of God’.
We sow when we pray over people to receive Jesus with words God gives us, when nonbelievers read the word of God, or when we preach or teach God’s word.
The soil is the human heart, Jesus is the sower, and what He sows is His word. But he also sows seed. What is the relationship between the seed and the word? Are they the same or related but different?
In His explanation of the parable, Luke writes, “The seed is the word of God” (Luke 8: 11 NIV); Mark writes, “The farmer sows the word” (Mark 4: 14 NIV), and the same passage in The Passion Translation is translated as, “The farmer sows the Word as seed”. The parable seems clear – the seed is the Word of God. Most of the commentaries I have read infer the Word of God to be the written word of God, or what Christians call the Bible or Scripture – both Old and New Testaments. As Bruner wrote and I quoted at the top of the post, the Word of God has power. This is a parable about power. The commentaries leave the interpretation here – clearly, Jesus is talking about the written word of God. Fill your minds and hearts with the written word of God and you will be fruitful; you will have power.
I think this interpretation is correct, but incomplete for two reasons. First, when Jesus told the parable He spoke the Word of God. The written word at that time consisted only of the Old Testament. The New Testament did not exist. That doesn’t mean the written word of God, specifically the New Testament, does not have power – it does. I only mean when Jesus taught and told the disciples “the seed is the Word of God”, He did not mean the New Testament. Second, applying the principle that we should interpret Scripture with Scripture, the entire Bible tells us who the seed is – from Genesis to 1 John, the seed is Jesus. Jesus did not come to contradict Scripture – in this case, the Old Testament – He came to fulfill it. For example, Isaiah ties the picture of the stump of Jesse, referring to the Messiah, out of which God’s covenant people will grow, with the seed, “But as the tenebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed (Jesus) will be the stump in the land” (Isaiah 6: 13 NIV).
What I am suggesting is that our understanding of the meaning of the parable, and how it applies to our lives today as Christians in a post-Christian world, depends on a deeper understanding of the parable than just ‘’the seed is the word of God”. That statement is true. But if Jesus means His spoken words and their power to create a new type of human being – one in which the DNA of Jesus is planted into their hearts so that the Kingdom life means Christ living in them – well, that is a much deeper, richer, more powerful meaning of the parable than I have encountered in the commentaries I have read. The parable is about power – but power unlike anything the crowd listening to Jesus (or us) had ever heard before.
In the next post I look more deeply into what ‘the word’ and the “Word of God” meant to Jesus when He taught the Parable of the Sower on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and what these words mean to Christians today.
John