Matthew 13:1-23--The Parable of the Sower

​Matthew 13:1-23 English Standard Version (ESV)
Listen:  https://www.biblegateway.com/audio/mclean/esv/Matt.13.1-Matt.13.23
The Parable of the Sower
13:1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

The Purpose of the Parables
10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says:
“‘“You will indeed hear but never understand,
    and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
15 For this people's heart has grown dull,
    and with their ears they can barely hear,
    and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
    and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
    and turn, and I would heal them.’
16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear. 17 For truly, I say to you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

The Parable of the Sower Explained
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

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This is a slightly longer passage than normal because this is one of the parables that Jesus explains to His disciples, and I wanted to make sure to give both the parable and the explanation because it is one of the parables that I see most often twisted to try to say things that it doesn't say--and the true meaning is right there in the text.  Because the explanation of the parable is given by Jesus, most of my commentary will focus on the middle portion of today's text on why Jesus spoke in parables.

There is some debate about how many people in this story are truly saved.  The only one we know for sure that's saved is the seed that fell on good soil it took root and brought forth fruit and was reproductive--yielding a crop greater than that which was sown.  We're also fairly confident that the person with the heat described as "hard soil" or "the path" is not saved because the seed was taken away and never took root.  The question usually arises concerning the seed that fell on rocky soil and the seed that fell among the weeds.  The rocky soil seems to represent the apostate or the one who "turns away" which we've already seen the answer to this one in 1 John 2:19, "19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us."

The seed that fell on the "thorny" soil seems to be the idolatrous man who buts money, family, and other things before God, and we know that these men also have no part in the kingdom of heaven.  However, I think it's more than that.  Jesus is putting down a litmus test of sorts that those who are genuine disciples of his will "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it" in obedience to the command given and repeated by God in the book of Genesis to Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  This commandment should be fulfilled in a spiritual sense by the Church and all true followers of Christ.  If we aren't alive, fruitful and reproductive, then we must search our hearts to see if we truly belong to Him.


Now, back to the main part that I wanted to give commentary on.  Jesus' disciples came to Him to ask why He was beginning to teach in parables.  Jesus' answer seems to indicate that the parables were not only to reveal the truth to some, but to conceal the truth from others.  Jesus had given the same truth to many people and like the seed that landed on different soils, the responses varied greatly.  Some had hearts that had been prepared by God to be ready to receive the truth and understand it--this itself was a gift from God as we'll see later.  It was not simply enough for Jesus to plainly speak the truth because not everyone was ready and willing to accept the truth of the gospel.  For those who believed the truth that they heard by faith, they were given understanding and were given more truth and more understanding.  But those who did not believe the truth that was plainly spoken to them should not expect God to make them believe or understand it or to receive new or additional truth when they won't accept the truth that is plainly seen and they have clearly rejected.  This is the message of Romans 1 which I also hope to get to one day soon.  It is a hard truth for us to swallow that many who are lost are in that condition by choice because they have clearly seen God through His creation but have willingly chosen to worship the creature and creation rather than the Creator because they do want to admit that their is a God to whom they are accountable and desire to live their lives in opposition to the law of God, and God gives them over to the consequences of their sin and causes them to believe delusions so that they will not believe in Him--at some point they have hardened their hearts and God will not force them to make a decision to love Him when they don't want to, but He will permit their minds to be deceived so that they will believe whatever other lies they come up with to permit them to live in all kinds of wickedness--even to the point of denying the natural order of things because this also is a way to thumb their nose at God and His authority.  They are known not for their obedience and fruitfulness, but for their rebellion and perverse lifestyles.


Jesus explains this to be a fulfillment of the prophecy given by the prophet Isaiah regarding the generation of people when the Messiah would come.  


"You will indeed hear but never understand,
    and you will indeed see but never perceive.”
15 For this people's heart has grown dull,
    and with their ears they can barely hear,
    and their eyes they have closed,
lest they should see with their eyes
    and hear with their ears
and understand with their heart
    and turn, and I would heal them.’

These people saw and heard the same things that the disciples did in many cases (in some cases only the disciples were around for certain teachings or miracles), but their hearts were not ready and therefore they did not receive the gospel and it did not take root, and therefore they did not produce fruit.  We'll come back to this when Jesus walks past the fig tree later in His ministry and curses it because it should have been ready for Him and it looked like it was alive on the outside, but what good is a tree that produces no fruit?  Notice that the prophecy even states that the people choose to close their eyes unless they possibly see the truth and they intentionally close off their ears to the truth so that they don't want to hear.  "seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear"  God promises that if they would repent and turn to Him that He would be ready to turn to them and receive the like the parable of the Prodigal Son where the father was waiting for the son to come home and ran to meet Him while he was a far way off.

Ask yourself what condition your heart is in.  What type of soil has the truth of God's Word fallen on?  Have you responded to the gospel in faith, and is the power of the gospel visible in your life?  Have you turned away because you never really believed or have you let the truth of the gospel be choked out by idolatry?  If you were a fruit tree and someone came up to you to inspect your fruit to figure out what kind of tree you were, what would they find?  Would they find you to be fruitful or not?  Would you be bearing the fruit of the spirit or would your fruit represent the desires of your flesh?  Are you expecting God to make you believe something that you don't want to believe?  Are you telling God that if only He would give you a little more truth and one more sigh, then maybe you would be convinced when He has already spoken clearly to you and you have rejected both His salvation and lordship? Are you acting on the truth that has been revealed to you in faith?  Are you fulfilling the spiritual commandment to be fruitful and multiply by fulfilling the Great Commission?