The Parable of the Sower
Listening sketch before starting
Let’s have a look at the parable now. See if you think that there are any parallels between the sketch and what happens in the story that Jesus told.
The parable of the sower is one of the better known parables. Like other parables, it has been interpreted in a variety of ways.
1. Allegorical – in this approach, the interpreter needs to dig beyond the obvious meaning to what lies behind. So for example, the crops yielded in The Sower of 30, 60 and 100% are not literal harvests, they are ‘the mass of Christians, the Gospel celibates and the martyrs’. This was an approach particularly favoured by Origen and Augustine, two of the church’s first theologians in the 2nd-3rd and 4th-5th centuries. This is not the approach that I will be taking this morning.
2. Traditional – this approach is the common sense approach, which takes the parable at its face value, including of course, Jesus’ explanation to his disciples in vv.18-23. The farmer is God, the seed is his word, and the soil is the people who receive his word. The seed is always good, but some waste is to be expected, because of the conditions surrounding the soil – beaten down with overuse, exposed because of rock underneath or overgrown with thorns.
3. Disciple-orientated – more recently, scholars have suggested that the parable was in fact aimed at Jesus’ disciples. Although he told the story to the large crowds gathered round him, it is not clear how many of them understood him. The explanation, however, was reserved for his disciples. In this view, the disciples were increasingly disillusioned and discouraged at the hostility that Jesus was experiencing. He responded by telling them, in effect, that they needn’t worry because although there is always waste when sowing, the great harvest is assured. This, in turn, communicates the same message to us. ‘We must never be discouraged…although nothing seems to be happening….We must [also] be prepared to take a risk.’ We must be prepared to ‘sow’ although we know that many things can interfere with a harvest. ‘It is the [person] who accepts the risk who reaps the harvest.’
4. I would like to suggest a fourth approach. In true Latin American fashion, I want to look at the verb. In John 1, where it says that ‘in the beginning was the Word’, the Spanish and French says, ‘in the beginning was the Verb’. In the same way, the common thread linking the people (described as soil in the parable) is that they all hear. To hear is a verb. It is something active. So just as the fruitfulness of the soil depended on the way in which the seed could be received, in the same way, the fruitfulness of people depends on the way they hear the Word of God.
This makes more sense of the passage that links the parable and its explanation, where Jesus responds to the disciples’ question, ‘Why do you speak to the people in parables?’ with [read vv.11-17].
In the sketch, we saw a speaker and a listener. The speaker was having difficulty getting through to the listener. While it was clear who was listening, the quality of the listening varied from bad to worse, so that the effects on the speaker were negative. Just like the words that were depicted by the seed that fell along the path, where the birds ate it, the speakers words fell on flat ears, where they were heard but not really heard. Just as the seed fell on rocky places, where it grew quickly because the soil was shallow, but then withered away, at the beginning the listener was eager (too eager!) to hear what the speaker wanted to say, but then lost interest. Just as some seed fell among thorns, described as the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth, the listener soon found that other things were much more pressing – like meeting Andy and Louise to talk about coursework! All this wreaked havoc with their relationship. If I were the speaker I would be sorely tempted to never speak to that listener again!
The sketch is an exaggeration, but it does give an indication of the fruitlessness of relationship where one person does not actively listen to another, giving them their full attention. It is interesting that Jesus includes, ‘Though seeing, they do not see;’. It is well known that much communication is non-verbal – that body language accounts for about 70% of communication. So hearing and seeing are part of the one act of listening properly – of receiving God’s word. To produce fruit, God’s word needs to be:
· Understood
· Held onto through trouble or persecution - persistence
· Focussed on as the central priority in our lives – don’t get distracted!
Fruitfulness is also not about how we begin, but about how we end. The seed on rocky soil and among thorns grew to begin with, but was unable to survive. So it is those who hold on to the end who are guaranteed a crop.
Jesus promises that those who ‘see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn’ – will be healed. There is an action included that is the result of effective listening to God – receiving His word – and that action is to turn from whatever does cause trouble or produce distraction – and turn to Him. Then they will be healed. James 1:23-25 says that, ‘Those who listen to the word but do not do what it says are like people who look at their faces in a mirror and, after looking at themselves, go away and immediately forget what they look like. But those who look intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continue to do this, not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it – they will be blessed in what they do.’
Listening is good for relationship. That intimate relationship with God is what Jesus was really talking about in the parable of the sower. Those that see and really see and hear and really hear will be fruitful, because they are receiving God’s word, and therefore God himself, in the way that it is intended to be received, and that has repercussions in every part of our lives – especially in relationship to others. The challenge to us this morning is to practice listening in such a way that we really see and really hear all that God is saying to us.