Luke 8:4-15--The Parable of the Sower

Luke 8:4-15
English Standard Version
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The Parable of the Sower
4 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables​
9 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, 10 he said, “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.’ 11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12 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. 13 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. 14 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. 15 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.

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Whenever possible, I will try to include Jesus' interpretation of His parables along with the parable itself, as I believe it is very important to look at what the text says the parable means and not try to ask, "What does this parable mean to you?"  God may use the parable to speak to you in other ways (you should check those interpretations with the rest of Scripture to see if they are really from God), but the meaning of the text is often given within the text, or is at least connected to what comes before and after it in the text so that Jesus teaches something, tells a parable, and does some miracle or sign to all make a singular point.

We just learned that at the party of Simon the Pharisee that different people are responding to Jesus and His words and works differently.  Why is that?  Jesus sits down and teaches them in a parable format that is meant to both conceal and reveal the truth (depending on if the Lord allows them to see the truth).  Most of the people of that day would wither be agrarian themselves or would be familiar with those who were, yet this sower (presumable a farmer) is most strange in how he is scattering his seed.

Normally you would plow a field and dig nice rows and carefully plant a seed or a handful of seeds and then carefully add water and fertilizer and you'd know exactly where you planted every seed.  You'd be careful to only plant seed in your field and you would have already taken out the rocks and weeds before even plowing to make sure that the field was ready, but that's not what we see here.  The Word of God is being sown and spread to the whole world as it were, many who are not ready to hear it.  The problem is that we don't know who is prepared and who isn't.  Even though Jesus knew the hearts of the people, He still preached the word to all even though He knew that most would reject Him and His Word so that all will be "without excuse" in the day of judgment.  (See Romans 1).

There are four types of soil that the seed falls upon, and Jesus explains them in the second half of the passage today.  There is the hard path which some of the seed fell on which the seed would just lay on top of and not be able to sink into which represents and hard heart and there is no penetration.  We are told specifically that the devil is also at work here in this case to steal the Word of God away from these people with hard hearts before their heart has any chance to soften and the seed for take root, yet the person seems to be held responsible by God for the condition of their hearts.  We can't blame all this on the world, the flesh or the devil (we'll see all three at play in Jesus' parable here).

The second type of soil Jesus mentioned is seed that fell on the rock.  This ground is also hard, but it may have some cracks in it where water and maybe even some soil could get into it, but there is no place for the plant to sprout and take root and no nutrients in the rock which the plant could use to grow.  It appears to be a little better than the path that was so hard that there weren't even any cracks in it, but it leads to a shallow faith that isn't based on the person and work of Jesus and His sufficiency alone.  It has all the appearance of genuineness for a while, but this person will fall away under the trials and tribulations that are to come because they thought that they believed in some prosperity gospel that was supposed to benefit them and keep them from hard times.  This is not genuine faith and should not be confused with a true disciple.

The third soil that Jesus talks about is full of weeds and thorns (these are connected with the the curse of sin in the book of Genesis and would be understood by the people as such here).  We are in a world full of distractions and temptations, but we also have a wickedness within ourselves (our flesh) that is opposed to God and His Word and His work, just like how weeds are competing for the same ground and nutrients as the good plants, and they are "programmed" to be hostile and choke out anything else trying to grow around them.  These competing worldviews cannot "coexist" (a phrase that we see on so many bumper stickers today and is prevalent with those that believe in pluralism and relativism).  The gospel will not come alongside another worldview and let you have "a little of this and a little of that" buffet style approach where you pick and choose which attributes of God and His Word you will believe and apply to your life.  That is idolatry.  So then, we see that this man too, though it appears that that there was some initial growth, was not transformed by the gospel and the lack of fruitfulness shows us that this kind of faith could not save him because all true faith will endure to the end.  The gospel is "choked out" by the cares of the world and these competing worldviews (everything that is not the true gospel is competing with the true gospel and are the thorns and weeds in this parable).

The last soil here is the one that represents that true disciple of Jesus.  The Word of God sinks into their heart and has good soil which God has prepared and it takes root and bears much fruit (it bears fruit consistent with its identity and that fruit is part of it being reproductive).  We are not this kind of soil if we are not bearing the Fruit of the Spirit and/or not obeying The Great Commission as Jesus promises that this type of soil will bear fruit that is a hundredfold what was sown (one seed that was planted will make a good plant that will make at least 100 more seeds to be planted).  Notice that the plant here is not responsible for the effectiveness of the seeds from the fruit that it bears, nor does it do anything in particular to bear the fruit--that's just its nature and identity.  This is the spiritual version of the command that all creation was given at Creation and after the Flood, "Be fruitful and multiply."  Jesus is telling us that it is out of a good heart that the gospel has done its work in that truly good works that are done and that only a good plant will bear good fruit.  What decides if a heart is "good" or not is how they respond to the Word of God.  If there is no response or a response that is not rooted in the person and work of Jesus and we try to take something away or add something to the gospel, we are not going to make it.  We find salvation in Christ alone.

Jesus ends this parable as He does with many parables and teachings, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."  This is a reinforcement of what Jesus just said.  Not everyone has ears to hear.  There are some that are the first type of soil and it will be as if they never even heard the message.  Others will hear the words and not hear the message and will try to obey the Word of God in their own strength.  Still others will try to reinterpret the Word of God through some other system of belief and it will color their interpretation of what they hear and put into practice.  All of these are not the "good" listeners, but it is the one who hears the words of Jesus and puts them into practice, relying completely on Him to do this in them and through them, who is the true disciple of Jesus.

So, examine yourself and see if you know what kind of soil you are.  There is a natural question that arises then.  What if I know I'm not the good soil and I'm one of the other three?  Only God can change you, but it starts with God allowing you to see the true condition of your heart.  Ask God to change you from the inside out and continue to read the Word of God, even if it doesn't make sense to you, asking the Holy Spirit not only to explain it to you, but to make it alive and at work in your heart.  Confess your sins with your mouth (yes, do it in front of others) and believe that the work of Jesus to die in your place paid your sin debt and that His resurrection conquered both sin and death and allows for a change in your identity and nature from one who was dead in their trespasses and sins to one who is free from the curse of sin and alive in Christ.  You who were naked and ashamed before God because you had no righteousness of your own to be clothed can be clothed in the righteousness of Christ.  It is all done by Him and for Him.  We'll see this revealed more and more as we study the gospel of Luke and the epistles of the New Testament.