This Sunday we will begin a series on Jesus’ parables. The Scripture reading for Sunday is Luke 8:1-15 – The Parable of the Sower.
There are a few different ways that we can look at this parable: we can focus on the sower, the seed, or the soil. On Sunday, my primary focus will be the sower but here I want to take some time to focus on the soils.
The actual “Parable of the Sower” is found in verses 5-8 where we hear Jesus tell the story of a ‘sower’ who sows seed in what seems like a careless manner. “Some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
However, in verses 11-15, we are given an interpretation of the parable and told what each of the soils mean. The soil of the path represents those people who hear and don’t accept the word of God. The rocky soil represents those who receive the word of God with joy but fall away in times of testing. The thorny soil represents those who “are choked by life’s worries, riches, and pleasures” and do not mature as Christians. The good soil represents those who hear the word, retain it, persevere, and produce a bounteous crop.
I remember one time, in Sunday school, my teacher asked us after reading this parable, “What kind of soil are you?” Without much hesitation, each of us in the room were fairly confident that we were good soil. We were Christians after all: we went to church, we attended Sunday school, attended youth, we prayed and read our bibles, and we participated in the greater life of the church. Of course we were the good soil … right?
In Luke’s account of this parable the good soil produces a crop of a hundred times what was sown. In the accounts of Matthew and Mark, the good soil produces a crop thirty, sixty, or one hundred times what as sown. Even at thirty times, that is a significant amount of growth.
I think we want to say we are good soil. It’s the “Sunday school” answer. And really, who wants to be rocky or thorny soil? But when we look back over our lives I think each of us can point to areas where we haven’t been good soil. Maybe our “soil” isn’t all that good after all. Maybe we are mostly thorny, with a few rocky sections here and there and a few spots of good soil as well. But the sower still sows. He doesn’t just look for the good soil and sow seed there. He sows freely. In thorny soil, rocky soil, even along the path, and in good soil, the sower sows. He sows because this isn’t some ordinary seed falling on both good and not-so-good soil. This seed – the word of God – has the power to transform even the most packed down, or rocky, or thorny soil, into good soil.
The seed that has fallen on the rocky and thorny soil of our lives has been sown by God in His grace. Only it has the power to transform our rocky and thorny soil into fertile soil that produces a crop one hundred times what was sown. The seed can transform our soil, it can push out the rocks and remove the thorns, but we have to receive it.
“Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”