The Rev’d Canon James T. Payne
St. Thomas of Canterbury Reformed Episcopal Church
February 11, 2007

Sexagesima

A sower went out to sow his seed...(Luke 8:5) A parable is an illustration or story which is allegorical. Jesus often used parables to present the good news of the Gospel, and said that those who new and followed him would understand and that those who did not would miss the point. The overall hidden meanings are sometimes called the "messianic secret". There are thirty-three parables in the synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke, but none in John. The parable of the sower is found in chapter eight of Luke 8, chapter 4 of Mark 4 chapter 13 of Matthew 13. It is one of the few parables that in Scripture which is told with a full explanation of its meaning. As such it is in general, a pattern for understanding those parables which are not fully explained. Jesus used this common image to teach those who heard Him about the condition of the human heart. Here, we see that the seed is the Word of God. The sower is Christ or one who preaches or teaches Christ. The human heart is like soil. It can either receive the seed of the Gospel or produce a harvest of spiritual fruit, or it can be unprepared and produce nothing of value for the glory of the name of God. The sower in this parable is a man who goes into his field with the intention of raising a crop and gleaning a harvest. He expects to reap a profit from the crop he is sowing. Such is the case with God the Father. He sent His Son into the world to die and He sends His Spirit into the world to call sinners into His kingdom so that He might reap a spiritual harvest to the glory of His name. Everyone who preachers or teaches the Gospel is like the farmer. First let us consider the nature of a seed. Every seed carries in it the ability to produce a great Every seed that was sown by the sower had the potential to produce and bear great fruit. Every farmer knows this principle. One bean seed can grow a vine that will reap many beans, with each pod containing several more seeds. Sow one squash seed and it will produce a plant that yields several fully grown squashes, each containing dozens, if not hundreds or new seeds. Plant one corn seed and watch it produce a plant that will yield several ears, each containing many rows of fresh seeds. The seed sewn by the sower had the potential to reproduce itself many times over. Such is the seed of the Gospel of grace. When it is sown and planted in a ready heart, it will germinate and reproduce itself over and over again. Like a plant seed, the seed of the Gospel has the potential to begin small and to reproduce much. It is worth noting that the seed is the same regardless of the ground upon which it falls. The sower does not sew bad seed, only good seed. The Word of God is intended to produce a harvest of spiritual fruit to the glory of God. But as the sower sowed his seed, it fell upon four distinct kinds of soils. We should mention that each of the soils was good soil, but the condition the soil was in when the seed landed upon it determined its potential for producing a suitable harvest. What makes the heart unable to receive the seed is its condition when the Gospel comes to it. A look at the four types of soils mentioned here by Jesus is very revealing when it comes to understanding the human heart and why people respond to the Gospel as they do. This is not to say that we contribute to our own salvation, but reminds us that our free will is operative and that God generally allows us to be the kind of people we want to be and that part of that free will is that we can reject His grace. The first type of soil is that of the "wayside". This is "hard" soil. The "wayside" refers to the narrow footpaths that ran beside and through the fields. These were the roads of the day and the soil on them had become as hard as concrete from the feet of the travelers that had walked upon them. When the seed fell on the footpath, it could not penetrate the soil and it remained there in the open, unable to penetrate the soil, and was thus on the surface to be devoured by the fowls of the air. We are told that this speaks of the person who hears the Gospel, but who doesn't "understand it". That is, they refuse to make the connection between the claims of the Gospel and its application their own life. Perhaps they are calloused and cold toward the things of God and refuse to hear. Maybe they have hardened their hearts for years against the call of the Gospel. Whatever their need, they are hard hearted and the seed of the Gospel cannot penetrate the soil of their heart. When this happens, the devil and his minions will snatch away to Gospel seed by diverting the mind and helping the person become even more hardened against God. This person has a heart that is not prepared for a work of grace leading to salvation. We often wonder how such people can continually spurn the Gospel message! It is because they are hardened to it by their own choice. Remember that in Genesis, God only hardened Pharaoh's heart after Pharaoh had willfully hardened his own heart first! The second type of soil was the rocky soil. These stony places are common in Palestine. Often there will be an outcropping of limestone rock covered by a thin layer of topsoil. This soil looks like it is ready to be sown. This ground looks good and productive and seed cast here will germinate and quickly spring up into a promising plant. But, because there is no depth of soil, just a thin veneer of earth, as soon as the sun beats down on the tender plant, it withers and dies without producing any fruit. This kind of soil speaks of that heart that makes an emotional response to the presentation of the Gospel, but has no depth of faith. They may have good intentions, but their faith is shallow at best. When Christianity doesn't turn out like they thought it would, such people quickly fade away and disappear! They bear no fruit, but quickly relapse into faithlessness. The third type of soil is the "thorny soil". This soil looks like it is ready to be sown also, but underneath the surface are the living roots and seeds of preexisting thorns and weeds. When the seed falls here, it also quickly springs to life and gives every indication that a good harvest will follow. However, the same ground begins to produce the thorns and weeds that were already there and they soon choke out the tender plant. This plant is strangled and crowed out without growing to maturity. This is a picture of a heart that tries to have the benefit of the Gospel while still clinging to the thorns of sin. Without a conscious break from the old life of sin this person does not have a chance of being saved. The seed of the Gospel cannot survive to produce fruit in a heart filled with a preeminent love of other things. The seed of the Gospel must have the ground or the love of sin must have the ground, but it cannot be shared! Jesus said it was the cares of the world and the focus on earthly riches could choke out faith and prevent the fruits of a Christian life. This kind of person also begins well, but soon fades away because they love their old life of sin more than they love Christ. The fourth type of soil is called the "good ground." Finally, in the parable some seed fell onto good ground. This ground was not compacted and trodden upon, was not strewn with rocks, and was not filled with the roots and seeds of thorny weeds. In other words, it had been worked and prepared. It was ready to receive the seed when it came. The seed germinated within the good soil and the plant began to grow. When the plant reached maturity, it began to produce fruit that brought honor and gain to the sower. How does soil get prepared for planting? Does the soil prepare itself? The ground is described as "good", but it was not good by nature. Someone had to prepare it to receive the seed, prepare it fro the Word, which is Christ. Charles Spurgeon, the great Victorian Baptist preacher pointed this out in his own sermon on this parable. "The soil had been made good by grace. God had ploughed it; he had stirred it up with the plough of conviction, and there it lay in ridge and furrow as it should lie. When the gospel was preached, the heart received it…" No one comes to the Lord except that God has prepared his heart by the work of the Spirit. This suggests the great mystery of as found in Romans 8: 28-30: And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according go his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren; and whom he predestined, these he also called; and whom he called, these he also justified; and whom he justified, these he also glorified. The good soil is the picture of a heart that has been tilled, and plowed deeply by the Word of God. It is a picture of a heart that has been prepared by the grace of God. When the seed of the Gospel hits this kind of heart, it germinates, grows up and bears fruit to the glory of God. Finally, there are two important points here for all who try to present the Gospel. The first is that we are to offer it to all. The hard-hearted, the shallow, the world-choked heart cannot receive Christ, but we cannot tell in advance who will respond and who will not – only God knows. As scripture declares: 'Many are called, but few are chosen." Lastly, we should not fret over those who will not respond to the Gospel. Just as we cannot take credit for those who receive the Gospel, we are also not personally responsible for those who reject Christ. We are only called to faithfully sow the seeds of the Word. The rest is up to God. A sower went out to sow his seed...