Parables and Stories
Everyone loves a good story. I know I do. A good story can either make or break any tv show, movie or book. I know for a fact, if there isn’t a good story, no amount of special effects can save a movie. Story telling is as old as time itself. It predates the written word as ancient cultures kept memories alive by telling stories. Throughout the gospels we find Jesus telling stories, mostly through parables. The Greek word for parable is parabole. Unlike an allegory, which is a story that reveals a hidden message, a parable is a comparison story or a teaching aid cast alongside the truth being taught. In this passage, we find one of the most well known parables that Jesus taught. The parable of the sower.
Vs 4-8 As a large crowd was gathering, and people were flocking to Him from every town, He said in a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Other seed fell on the rock; when it sprang up, it withered, since it lacked moisture. Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. Still other seed fell on good ground; when it sprang up, it produced a crop: 100 times what was sown.” As He said this, He called out, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!”
We find a large crowd has once again gathered to hear Jesus teach. Word had gotten out and this particular crowd was from every town. Jesus was someone everyone wanted to listen to. These days, we flock to the movie theater to see the latest Marvel movie. Back then, they flocked to hear a good teacher. And Jesus does not disappoint. He tells them a story about a sower sowing seeds. First, some seeds fell along the path, then on the rocks, then on some thorns and finally on good ground. Each type of soil had it’s own outcome. There were birds who ate the seed, thorns that chocked the seed, seeds that died for lack of moisture, and finally, seeds that sprang up. Then Jesus says to the crowd, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!” You can probably imagine the reaction of the audience. “What are we suppose to listen for?” “What does He mean?” “Did you understand His story?” People were going to be discussing this parable for several days after Jesus left. They would talk about it, dissect it, wonder about it… Some might come to understand it, while others would finally give up and go on with their lives. Even the disciples had a hard time understanding the meaning:
Vs 9-10 Then His disciples asked Him, “What does this parable mean?” So He said, “The secrets of the kingdom of God have been given for you to know, but to the rest it is in parables, so that Looking they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
Jesus lays it out clearly for them. You will discover the secrets of the kingdom, but everyone else will look and not see, not hear and not understand. Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:9 which says; Go! Say to these people: Keep listening, but do not understand; keep looking, but do not perceive. Jesus’ call for “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen”, was not a call to hear something, but a call to be spiritually sensitive. A call to seek the answer from God. Remember, a parable is not an illustration, it is a comparison, something that sits along side the truth to better explain the truth. This was not an agricultural lesson – although you could take some good farming notes. No, this was a spiritual lesson in a understandable package. Everyone in the audience understood the farming references. Many had probably gone out to sow seed at one time or another. What they didn’t connect was what this meant for them on a spiritual level. They heard the story, but didn’t understand it’s deeper meaning.
Isn’t that the way we are sometimes? We hear, but we don’t have a full understanding. We see, but we don’t discern. When we just look at the surface, we find only seeds that fall on different soils. We only learn an agricultural lesson. We often hear the lesson through our own understanding. As a farmer, we might hear, “I better really watch where I cast my seeds or else I might not get a good crop.” As a salesman we might hear, “Here’s an opportunity to sell equipment that helps plant seeds more precisely.” As a doctor, we might hear, “I need to warn my patients about eating plants not grown in good soil.” As a media person, I might hear, “I need to let people know about the birds eating our food.” But God wants us to look deeper and learn the spiritual lessons. He wants us to grow and see with eyes that see like Him. He wants us to hear with ears that distinguish between the flesh and the spirit. He wants us to understand with the mind of Christ. In order to do that, we must “keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened,” Matthew 7:7-8. And that is what the disciples did. Instead of standing outside the door looking in, wondering what was inside, they knocked on the door to be let in by asking, “What does this parable mean?” And Jesus opened the door for them by answering:
Vs 11-15 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. The seed along the path are those who have heard and then the Devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. And the seed on the rock are those who, when they hear, welcome the word with joy. Having no root, these believe for a while and depart in a time of testing. As for the seed that fell among thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches, and pleasures of life, and produce no mature fruit. But the seed in the good ground—these are the ones who, having heard the word with an honest and good heart, hold on to it and by enduring, bear fruit.
Peter restates this in 1 Peter 1:23-25, “since you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God. For All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like a flower of the grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever.” The seed that God plants is imperishable, everlasting. His Word endures forever. But the seed must be planted in the right soil. Jesus has shown us four different places where the seed fell: the path, the rocks, the thorns and in good ground. Each of these have spiritual meaning for us – if we have ears to hear.
The Path: “As he was sowing, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the sky ate it up.” The path represents those who hear the Word, but it never goes anywhere. The Devil immediately tramples it and, like the birds, eat it up. For those who believe Satan is powerless, think again. He does have power. He also has a mission – to keep everyone from hearing and receiving the Word of God. When they do hear it, he tries to make sure it doesn’t go anywhere. The fact is, Satan fully understands the power of the Word of God. He knows it can change lives. He understands it can bring eternal life to those who receive it, so he will do everything in his power to stop this from happening. One of his best defenses is distraction. He will distract people from understanding the message, keep their eyes from seeing the truth, or shout loud enough so they can’t hear the Word in the first place. And he will use any means possible, even the church. That’s right, Satan will use the church to distract people from hearing the message of God. Every time the church sends out callous messages of “righteousness”, Satan is there stirring the pot. Every time the church shows a lack of care for those around them, Satan makes sure everyone notices. Each time the church makes politics their mission instead of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Satan can sit around and marvel at how easy his job just got. Then there are other distractions in our every day life. There is the media’s assault on our senses which takes our minds off the truth. This can come in the form of movies, television, entertainment, gaming, news stories… These all serve to trample the gospel so those who need to hear won’t have a chance. This also serves to distract believers from growing in their faith. Here is an excerpt from The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. The senior demon is writing to Wormwood on how to keep this new Christian from growing. “But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy (God). It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.”
The Rocks: Other seed fell on the rock; when it sprang up, it withered, since it lacked moisture. The rocks represent people who have received the message with joy, but, during times of testing, they withered away from lack of moisture. Revelation 22:1 says, “Then he showed me the river of living water, sparkling like crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb.” If we are not connected to God’s “living water”, the Holy Spirit, then during times of temptation and testing we will wither up and die. Have you ever felt your faith drying up? I know I’ve experienced times in a spiritual desert. The great preacher Spurgeon gave us a few examples of what living in a spiritual desert is like. It is practice without heart-love, faith without repentance, action without spirituality and zeal without communion. It is going through the motions. The other day, I was listening to a radio program about repentance. The gist of the discussion was, we often say we’re sorry, but there’s no true repentance. We’re sorry we got caught. We’re sorry our reputation has been ruined. We’re sorry the thing we did might have adverse consequences. Does this sound familiar? It should as we see it all around us today. People who say they are sorry for saying and doing things without real repentance. They are just going through the motions. We often think saying “I’m sorry” will undo everything. This is neither true nor biblical. Real repentance is what we see in the life of Zacchaeus. “Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, I’ll give half of my possessions to the poor, Lord! And if I have extorted anything from anyone, I’ll pay back four times as much!” Today salvation has come to this house,” Jesus told him, “because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost,” Luke 19:8-9. This is what repentance looks like. It is a real turning away from the life governed by the flesh and turning to a life governed by the Spirit of God. It is then the water of life will flow through our life.
The Thorns: Other seed fell among thorns; the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. The thorns represent people who hear with joy and actually begin to grow, but, the worries of life and cares of this world rear their ugly little heads and choke them out. Sound familiar? Yep, me too. I’ve allowed the stresses and worries of life choke out my faith many times over the years. It’s like Peter, when he was walking on the water: “But when he saw the strength of the wind, he was afraid. And beginning to sink…” It is so easy to let the winds and waves of life take our eyes off the One who is our lifeline. It can be anything: Covid 19, money problems, relationship problems, adverse weather events like hurricanes, tornadoes, or fire, the death of a loved one… These are all things that can be used to take our eyes off Christ. It can be so easy to think “woe is me” or “how could God”. That’s when our faith begins to choke. There is a song by Stephen Curtis Chapman entitled Hallelujah You Are Good. It is a song that comes from a place of great pain as several years ago the Chapmans lost their young daughter in a tragic way. There were times of darkness and he had to ask the question – can I believe that God is good even when life is not? Out of this came these words: We are standing in between Hope and despair. Believing in Your grace and the faith to declare; You are with us, Hallelujah. Hallelujah, You are good. Later in the song he says; And when faith gives way to fear, I will trust Your heart. When I cannot feel You near, I will trust Your heart. When tragedies come our way or when life is just not good, can we still believe God is good? When we are sinking in the deep, we can either allow the waters to cover us over and choke the life out of us or, like Peter, we can look once again at the One who is, who was and who will be and cry out, “Lord, save me!”
The Good Ground: Still other seed fell on good ground; when it sprang up, it produced a crop: 100 times what was sown.” The good ground represents those who are ready to receive the goodness of God. It is a life that practices with heart-love, a faith born out of true repentance, action produced by the Holy Spirit and zeal brought about because of our communion with God. This kind of soil will produce fruit 100 times what is sown. How is that possible? When we get out of the way, and allow God to do His work through us, the fruit production will be off the charts.
Throughout life, we will find ourselves in one or more of these types of soil. We may have doubts, like Thomas. We might deny our faith, like Peter. We will most certainly have times when we feel we are in the desert like Elijah sitting in fear in a cave. There are going to be times when we allow sin to rule the day like David. There will be times when we pay more attention to the things around us than to God who is in control like Abraham did when he lied about Sarah being his sister instead of his wife. There is one thing all these men had in common. Yes, they found themselves in the wrong kind of soil, but, they also discovered God wasn’t done with them yet. Just because we are sitting in the wrong soil for a time, doesn’t mean God is done with us either. In each of these examples, we see God’s grace and love. We see His mercy and care. The Devil may have had his moment, but he did not win the day. That is the wonderful hope we have. What this parable shows us is where we might be at the moment, but it also shows us where we need to be and how to get there. Jesus says, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!” God has shown us what we are to be aware of. When we find ourself in the wrong soil, we know all we need to do is fix our eyes on the One who will lead us home.
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