Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13)

      “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.” Matthew 13:23

       In the Name etc..

     The 13th chapter of Matthew’s Gospel contains several parables, explanations of a few of them, and a discussion of their purpose. The compilers of our lectionary, in putting together today’s reading, chose the Parable of the Sower and Our Lord’s own explanation of its meaning, verses 1 through 9, and verses 18 through 23. To do this, they skipped over the section explaining the Purpose of the Parables. This puts a preacher in the awkward position of having to say something about the meaning of the parable, simultaneously commenting on Jesus’s interpretation and ignoring Jesus’s statement of his purpose. The ancient editors of the Gospel arranged texts the way they did for good reasons, which makes the arrangement part of their message, and that makes it necessary for us to discern what that message may be. So I’ll talk about the parable, and Jesus’s explanation. And I’ll talk a little about the skipped bit, Jesus’s statement of his purpose in verses 10 through 17.

    “A sower went out to sow...some seeds fell on the path...other seeds fell on rocky ground...other seeds fell among thorns...other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain...Let anyone with ears, listen!” That is my abbreviated version of the parable. The natural meaning is easy to understand: seeds sown on rough ground won’t grow much, and seeds sown on good soil will bring forth grain, lots of it. And Jesus’s explanation of the meaning is easy to follow too. “Hear then,” he says, “hear.” Note that word. The path: the place where the evil one tempts  those who don’t understand the word of the kingdom (that is what the seed is: the word of the kingdom). Rocky ground: the shallow enthusiasm of those fall away at the first sign of trouble. Thorns: the cares of the world and the lure of wealth, which distract from the word of the kingdom, and lastly, the Good Soil, which is the one who hears the word and understands it. Notice how the story is framed: it begins with one who hears and does not understand, and ends with one who does hear and understand.

    Who is the sower in this story? We normally take the sower to be Jesus, or perhaps John the Baptist or the prophets. John and Jesus both proclaimed the coming of the kingdom. The analogies between the types of ground and the types of people who hear the word of the kingdom are easy to understand, and certainly come out of the experience of Jesus and John and the kinds of people they encountered. And the analogies match our own experience too. We recognize the people and situations that Jesus is talking about.     

     Are we one or more of the people in the story? We may naturally think of ourselves as not understanding the word, or of ditching it at the first sign of trouble, or even of letting worldly interests and the lure of money take the place of the word. Or are we the ones who hear the word of the kingdom, understand  it, and accept it? At this point, we are no longer the people who don’t understand, or who turn and run, or who give up the kingdom for the goods of this world. We become, we are, sowers of the seed, proclaimers of the word of the kingdom ourselves. We are no longer only recipients of the word, but are one with Jesus and John in proclaiming it. That is what Jesus is getting at when he says, “Let anyone with ears, listen!” The main point of the parable is this: become sowers of the seed, of the word of the kingdom. That is what Jesus wants us to hear.

    There is a progression in this story, steps in a spiritual journey. Hearers of the word may pass from misunderstanding, to another stage, enthusiastic but shallow understanding, where they need to learn to overcome threats, to a third level, where they need to overcome the powerful attraction of worldly goods, to reach a fourth level, where they become disciples of mature understanding, who have passed through threats and temptations, to become  those “who indeed bear fruit.” At this stage, we are not merely recipients of the word, the seed. We are spreading the word of the kingdom; we are, in fact, signs of the kingdom, part of the kingdom.

    I said that I would say something about the skipped bit, verses 10 through 17, where Jesus talks about the purpose of the parables. The disciples ask him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”  He answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.” He goes on for several lines, even quoting Isaiah, to make it clear just how completely ignorant the crowd is, when it comes to knowledge of the kingdom. It sounds as if, on the surface, Jesus wants to keep the crowds from knowing about the kingdom, but this is not true. Jesus is speaking to the crowds using images and stories that they can follow, to teach them about the kingdom. The disciples already know about the kingdom; as Jesus said to them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom.” Jesus likely taught them privately, from his own experience. We may think of the disciples as having attained a fifth step in their spiritual journey, perhaps after passing through the four steps of the sowing of the word, as we heard in the parable. Jesus confirms this when he says, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” They have been empowered to sow the seed of the word of the kingdom, and to help others to see and to hear, and to sow the seed as well. May we attain this level of discipleship. May we also bear fruit and yield, some thirtyfold, some sixty, some a hundredfold.  Amen. (16.VII.17.Adv.)

(Note: No real farmer would scatter seed anywhere but on fertile ground. And in modern scientific agriculture, a hundredfold increase would be impossible; fortyfold would be a maximum possible increase.)