The Parable of the Sower

The Message

This week’s message was difficult for me to figure out how to preach.

This is interesting because it seems like this passage should be fairly straightforward.

My guess is that many of you could stand up here and preach a decent sermon on this passage without too much trouble.

So why is it a struggle for me?

I think the hangup for me is that I am not a gardener or a farmer.
 
Planting and growing doesn’t come naturally to me. So relating to a passage that is about sowing and planting isn’t easy for me.

So, I’m tasked with explaining gardening and planting to a room full of… experienced gardeners and planters.

On the other hand, this parable should be fairly understandable to the average person, which is why Jesus uses it.

So, what is he saying? I know that Matthew gives us his interpretation of the parable in our reading.
 
But let’s review what Jesus is telling us.

He gives us a parable about a farmer who is attempting to plant a field. And as he sees it, there are four different places that seeds could be placed as the farmer is planting.

Option 1: Some of the seeds fall along the road and get eaten by birds.

Outcome 1: The seeds don’t grow at all because the birds eat them. The birds are nourished, but the seeds cannot produce anything because they are not in soil at all.
 
Option 2: Some seeds fall on thin, rocky ground and begin to grow quickly.

Outcome 2: These seeds dry up and are scorched because they were planted too close to the surface. They couldn’t establish deeps roots.

Option 3: Some seeds fall in places where thornbushes were already growing.

Outcome 3: The plants that were already there choked the new seeds out and prevented them from growing.
 
Option 4: Some seeds fall on good soil.

Outcome 4: The plants produced 100 or 60 or 30 times as much as was scattered, making up for all of the seeds that could not grow.

Now, Matthew gives us his interpretation of what this parable means, so let’s summarize that as well.

Matthew believes this parable is talking about different types of people.

Person 1 (seeds eaten by birds): People who hear the message about the kingdom, but don’t understand it.
 
These types of people are, according to Matthew, susceptible to manipulation or “evil” ones, and the message is snatched from their hearts.

In other words, the message doesn’t “grow” because these people cannot understand it for themselves, let alone share the message with others.

Person 2 (seeds that fell on rocky ground and dried up): These types of people gladly accept the message and accept it immediately. But, they don’t have deep roots, so as soon as life (or spreading the message) gets hard, they give up.
 
These people might initially be excited to hear the message and might be enthusiastic about sharing or spreading the message in the moment, but they allow life to distract them.

Perhaps they get side-tracked, or they experience a consequence to sharing the message and they quickly give up.

Thus, the message doesn’t move very far with this type of person either.

Person 3 (seeds that fall among the thornbushes): These types of people hear the message as well.
 
But, according to Matthew, they start to worry about the wrong things – needs and desires in this life. They are also fooled by the desire to get rich (financially or otherwise).

The message gets choked out for these people and cannot spread, either.

Person 4 (seeds that fall on good soil): Lastly, these types of people hear the message and understand, and willingly and gladly spread it.

These are the people who will spread the message widely and produce more than what was planted.
 
So, this is Matthew’s interpretation of the parable that Jesus shared.

And there is a lot to appreciate about his interpretation.

The main thing that I appreciate about it is that the four options/responses normalize not just differences among people but the ways that different teachings may be received (or not) by one individual.

And, it is possible for a person to be all four different soils at various times in life.
 
It also leaves room for life circumstances.

Sometimes we are “good” soil – fully open and available to receiving what God is trying to plant within us.

But sometimes, we are not open to receiving so the seed doesn’t even reach us, or it does but it dries up quickly when things get hard, or it gets choked out by other priorities.

It’s important for us to remember this as we think about things that might come up for us in life. Sometimes, we are open to receiving – ready and willing to take the next steps.
 
And other times, we are not as open to receiving.

And we ebb and flow between these different states of receptivity throughout our lives.

On the other hand, I think it’s also important to remember that this parable could apply to everyone and everything else around us all the time as well.

There may be times in life when we try to plant seeds and we desperately want them to grow, but they don’t.
 
Maybe we’ve been trying to get a new job, or have a baby, or retire, or improve our relationships, or any number of other things, but things just don’t seem to be working.

In these cases, we can remember this parable and it might be worth asking ourselves if we have done everything we can to cultivate the soil we are attempting to plant in.

Let’s use finding a new job as an example.

Have we updated our resume?
 
Have we gotten enough experience in our field, or enough education?

Have we put in enough time at our current job to be qualified for a promotion (if that is what we are seeking)?

Have we shaken hands with the right people?

Have we demonstrated success in our current job?

Have we been present, on time, etc? In other words, have we cultivated relationships that might provide us with a good reference?
 
The list could go on, but you get the idea.

Have we cultivated the soil in which we are trying to plant our seeds?

And of course, there are times in life when we have done everything we feel we can do, and still, our seeds don’t grow.

The same can be true when we plant a real garden, too.

And sometimes, we plant specific seeds to try to grow something in particular, and that thing doesn’t grow, but plenty of other things do.
 
In a real garden, nature has a way of spreading seeds and plants we never actually planted.

So, we might do everything we can to create the best soil for planting, but nature has other plans.

God, in fact, may have other plans.

This parable reminds us that yes, we can do everything we can to cultivate good soil – in ourselves and in the world around us such that we can grow what we plant.

And sometimes, God may have other plans for us despite our best efforts.
 
So, as we go about our daily lives and ruminate on this parable, it is worth wondering about the things we are trying to grow and the seeds we have been planting.

The lesson here is two-fold (or perhaps even more, but today we’ll stick with two-fold).

Part 1: Have you done everything you can to cultivate yourself and create “good soil” in yourself? In other words, have you done the work to open yourself to Jesus’s message and to the work that God does in your life every day?
 
Can you see the work of God in your life and appreciate it, and can you create that space in yourself to be receptive and fully open to it?

And,

Part 2: When you have something in your life that you are trying to plant/grow, have you done all you can to create good soil for that thing to grow into?

And, most importantly for either of these two lessons, we must always remember that no matter how well we cultivate our inner soil or the soil we can control in the world around us, God is cultivating and growing “God-seed” too.
 
And we must allow ourselves to be open to the movement of God and the Holy Spirit in all of this.

So, as you leave here today, may you take this parable with you to consider.

May you wonder about your inner soil, the outer soil of the world around you, and the “God-seed” that may indeed spread whether you intend it to or not.
​
Amen.
 
Let us pray:
Gracious God, open our hearts to you and help us to prepare ourselves to be open to your “God-seed.” Help us to better our own soil and the soil of the world around us such that the seeds we plant can grow, and such that the seeds you plant within us can grow. Allow us to be open to the leanings of your Holy Spirit. In your holy name, we pray. Amen.