The Parable of the Sower

A parable (Greek for “turn around or turn aside”) is a story that leads you to an unexpected conclusion and a different way of thinking about something.  It usually has a shock value.  If the parable that you hear in the Bible doesn’t shock you, then I think you don’t fully understand it.

In this parable, there is a story, but originally (at least for me), there is no shock.  I hear it and go, ok, I get it.  We all do different things with the grace we have been given.  So where is the shock?  As a farmer in Jesus day, they grow a crop and careful divide a portion of the harvest to save for seed next planting season.  You don’t want to place too much seed aside and have some left over, because you could have sold it and made money.  You don’t want to place aside too little and jeopardize the size of next year’s crop.  So, you want to make a thrifty decision with what seed is going to be saved for next year’s planting.  When next year comes, the sower is very deliberate and stingy with the precious seed.  He certainly does not want to waste any.  Yet this sower is careless with the seed and throws it on a path and rocky ground.  This carelessness would have gotten the ire of the farmer’s listening.  Why wouldn’t the sower just sow only on the fertile soil?  The carelessness of the sower would have driven the sowers that heard this “crazy.”

Jesus is saying that he gives everyone a chance to get the seed and to grow.  He is generous with his seed. The seed is his responsibility and the growing is our responsibility.  He may even know that the seed might be wasted, but Jesus will give us a chance with the hope that some crop will grow.

That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables, saying: “Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”

“Hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing. But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”