One day Jesus started speaking in parables. He told them one right after another. These parables came in a variety of forms. He told about “the Good Samaritan (true parable) on the one hand and the Yeast in the Dough (similitude) on the other, and both of these differ from the saying, ‘You are the salt of the earth’ (metaphor), or ‘Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?’ (epigram).”[1]
Parable served as medium for delivering a message shrouded in figurative language. Both pithy and earthy, the parables were “told to address and capture the hearers, to bring them up short about their own actions, or to cause them to respond in some way to Jesus and his ministry.”[2] Parables communicate in ways that straight talk cannot. They grab at the imagination, open secret pathways into the human heart, and invoke a call to response from the audience. They are truth concealed within the mystery of the story.
When the door way to the heart is blocked, the backdoor of the imagination remains open, and those pondering the storyteller’s parable just might come around.
The Parable of the Sower (Lk. 8:4-8) is an earthy story. Just a collection of simple observations agrarians witnessed all the time during the planting season. Nothing difficult to grasp about a farmer going out and scattering seeds in a field. Neither is it out of the ordinary to find seeds falling on the road stepped on or eaten by birds. Any agrarian would know that seeds in shallow soil would spout then dry up since the roots were not deep enough. They also knew weeds could kill off the plants intended to be grown in their field. They even expected that the seeds that sprouted and bore fruits would more than make up for all the losses. No surprises. All this was everyday life stuff for folks who farmed for a living.
But there was more to the Parable of the Sower than the obvious. When His disciples inquired on its meaning, the Lord answered, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that ‘seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand’” (Lk. 8:10).[3]
Underneath the obvious, encrypted deep within the storyline, came valuable information about God’s kingdom in the form of a parable. Those interested in the kingdom of God got it, but the uninterested heard nothing but a story. The Lord says, “Seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand” (Lk. 8:10). These words echo the ancient prophet Isaiah, who said, “’Keep on hearing, but do not understand; | keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ | Make the heart of this people dull, | and their ears heavy, | and blind their eyes; | lest they see with their eyes, | and hear with their ears, | and understand with their hearts, | and turn and be healed” (Isa. 6:9-10). Unclean lips purified with burning coal from the altar in heaven, the prophet accepts Yahweh’s calling. But there is a twist —the prophet would be peaching to a spiritually blind and deaf audience. The Word of the Lord being spoken through Isaiah the prophet would be rejected.
The allusion to Isaiah serves as “a warning about the ultimate perils of rejection: God may sovereignly involve himself in cementing the process.”[4] It is one thing to tune out or reject the voice of God spoken through a prophet, it is frightening when the Lord starts speaking in a way specifically encrypted to keep the uninterested in the dark but only to be decrypted and benefitted by those with faith![5] Yes, you heard the parable, but did you get it?
Jesus’ parables taught about the “kingdom of God,” and they simultaneously illuminated and concealed “secrets” about it.
The Parable of the Sower is then explained:
The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience (Lk. 8:11-15).
The good news about the kingdom of God was dismissed by the spiritually blind and deaf for one reason or another. But those of the good soil, received the Word of God and bear fruit.
We are all participants in the Parable of the Sower. God has heralds announcing the good news about the kingdom of heaven. Each of us receives the seed of the good news. The Devil might deceive some into thinking it to be a worthless pit that can be tossed. Others might appreciate the gift of that seed, but discard it when enemies of Christ pressure them to do so. They conform to the world. Still others give up their seed in their pining after finite riches and momentary pleasures. They lose sight of what is most precious.
There are in fact many ways and opportunities for us to just despise the seed of the gospel. The Devil entices us to discard the good news. This fallen world pressures us to do the same. Our own sinful flesh can even be our own worst enemy, and we exchange the truth of the gospel for lies.
But those of us who receive the good news, share it with others, the others turn around and share that same good news to still others, the next generation of recipients do the same and so forth. This way the kingdom of God thus begins with a few who positively respond to the good news but over time expands a hundredfold.
Got it?
— WGN
[1] Gordon D. Fee and Douglas Stuart, How the Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2003), 151.
[2] Ibid., 152
[3] All Scripture cited from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), unless noted.
[4] Darrell L. Bock, The IVP New Testament Commentary Series: Luke, ed. Grant Osborne (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsityPres, 1994), 149
[5] Paul met with Jews in Rome to convince them about Jesus from the Law and the Prophets. Some believed but others disbelieved. The apostle tells the disbelievers, “The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet” (Acts 28:25). He then recites to them Isaiah 6:9-10 and concludes, “Let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen” (Acts 28:28). Paul found Gentiles more receptive to the gospel than his own Jewish countrymen.
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