The Parable of the Sower

Introduction

In this sermon on the parable of the sower (Luke 8:4-15), Mark Fletcher reframes Jesus’ familiar story as the parable of the soil, asking what kind of ground our hearts have become. Drawing on the four soils, he calls us to a fruitful faith built on spiritual roots that endure hardship, and to the daily work of nurturing faith — cutting back the weeds that choke its growth.

So my grandfather was a gardener in his early life. He did it professionally, and then he went and worked on the railways. But at the end of his life he took great delight in his garden, and some of my earliest memories are of helping him out there. I’m not entirely sure how helpful I was, but I was certainly having a fantastic time, and I have these lovely memories of getting my hands dirty. He had a greenhouse of tomatoes, and the smell of those ripening tomatoes has always stayed with me. Gardening — I know some of you are real expert gardeners — but I’m struck that it’s an amazing thing. We take it for granted. But isn’t there just something magical about the idea that you can take something as ordinary as a seed, plant it in the ground, water it and take care of it, and it will grow into something beautiful and unique and distinct? I think it’s a really wonderful thing. But of course the reason that matters this evening is because the Bible says that our faith is something like that — that it is a seed which is planted, and if it is nurtured, it will grow up and make something beautiful. Beautiful and fruitful. That’s what we’re about as church. We want to plant those seeds and help one another to live these fruitful and abundant lives which are a blessing to one another and to the world. And so we’re going to reflect a little bit on that, on one of the simple but wonderful parables of Jesus.

We’re kind of at the end of Luke’s gospel here actually. We’ve been following and retelling this story over the last months, and it all culminated at Easter with the resurrection of Jesus. We call this the good news: that God has loved us and has come to rescue us. And the scripture describes that good news as like a seed which is planted in our lives. The question for you of course is, well, how is it growing? Is it rooted and established and bearing fruit? Or is it being crowded out by the demands of life?

I think it’s a really important picture, because we are reminded that faith is not something that just happens. It’s not something that some people have and other people don’t. It is a seed which has been planted, and we share some responsibility to help it grow — to be strong and fruitful. And if you don’t do that, perhaps like a neglected house plant in the corner of your house, it will grow stringy and pale and it will wither.

These parables, and this one in particular, are a good example of Jesus’ teaching. And he is amazing, isn’t he? He’s one of the best storytellers that has ever existed. We’ve worked our way through Luke’s gospel, but what we didn’t have time to do was look at this body of teaching which is right at the heart of Luke’s gospel. My encouragement to you would be to go back, read it, digest it, and allow it to do its job. The parable of the sower is one of the best examples of this teaching.

One other observation before we crack on. Did you notice that these parables are intended to act as some kind of filter? Did you hear Jesus said, “let those who have ears to hear, hear”? In fact, he said quite specifically in verse 10, “to you has been given the secrets of the kingdom of God, but to others I speak in parables so that looking they may not perceive, and listening they may not understand.” They seem so simple, don’t they? And yet it seems that they do this job of filtering out some people — people who don’t have ears to hear. My reflection on why that is, is that I wonder whether it’s something about the very ordinariness of parables: that you need to be quite humble and questioning to understand the spiritual depth that is here. You need to listen, and to reflect, and to respond. It doesn’t play into our desire for clever words. These are simple truths that are profoundly important.

So, this is the parable of the sower and the seed. Let me read the crucial bit to you again. “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the air ate it up. And some fell on rock, and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. And some fell amongst the thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.” And then he said, “let anyone who has ears to hear, listen.”

So let’s listen. What does it all mean? The first thing to note: the significance in this story is not the sower or the seed, is it? It’s the soil upon which the seed falls. Perhaps it would be better if we called it the parable of the soil. It contains these important lessons, and some warnings too, about how to nurture fruitful faith and fruitful lives. There are, it seems, four outcomes that Jesus describes. The first: some seed fell upon the path. Verse 5 — it fell on the path and it was trampled, and the birds of the air ate it up. So the path, says Jesus, is hardened and trampled ground. The seed can’t penetrate and so can’t take root, and soon it gets snatched away by the birds of the air. What’s he referring to? Well, he says there are those who are closed off to any mention of God. I’m sure we know people like that — the subject comes up, they turn away. And perhaps people who know just enough about Christianity to dismiss it as not really very important or worth your time. But of course, that’s not really an appropriate response. C.S. Lewis once described Christianity as either not important at all or the most important thing. The one thing it can’t be is moderately important. But this seed, this good news, this greatest news of all, gets snatched away quickly by, well, what? The half-truths that people tell about Christianity. The prejudice that surrounds the Christian faith. Jesus warns us to be very careful — not to be those who hear but who never take it to heart, and never allow it to take root, and are never able to put it into practice. So the first outcome is the seed which lands on the path and comes to nothing. The second is seed which lands on rocky ground. Verse 6: “some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture.” The picture here is seed which falls on shallow, stony soil. It lands and it finds it very hard to put down roots. And apparently, if seeds can’t put down roots, they will spend all of their energy growing upwards. So it will appear fantastic. It will appear to be growing much faster than other seeds. There’s this picture from Jesus of people who respond joyfully to the good news, but then it doesn’t last — those who, when times get tough, their faith withers.

There was this particular issue, I think, for the Christians in Luke’s day, because it was hard and dangerous to be a Christian in the context of the Roman Empire. But there is this encouragement to us too, isn’t it? To take seriously the need to be putting down roots into God and his word — roots that will sustain us when things get hard. There’s a lovely picture in Psalm 1 of a tree planted by streams of water, and those roots sustain it through the testing times and through the droughts. Faith needs to be nourished. It needs to be deeply rooted. And of course that requires those everyday spiritual disciplines of prayer, and reading scripture, and time with God. I think it requires fellowship — not trying to do this by yourself. Join a home group. Join the life group. Have Christian friends that you share your journey with. That’s crucial when things get hard. We need to put down roots that will sustain us.

So, there was the seed which fell on the path. Second, the seed which fell on shallow stony ground, which grew up quickly but then withered. Thirdly is the seed which falls amongst weeds. Verse 7: “some fell amongst thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.” Now my suspicion is that this is the biggest warning for you and me. This is a very insightful and telling warning by Jesus. He says this is what it means in verse 14: this is those whose faith is choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, so that the fruit does not mature. You get the picture of a seed which lands, takes good root and starts to grow — but it’s not the only thing growing. There are these weeds and thorns which are growing up alongside it. And little by little the life gets squeezed out of it. We’ve got some things planted in our garden, but they are surrounded by weeds, and we have to cut back and dig up the weeds regularly to allow the things that we want to grow to be healthy. Jesus is painting that picture of our life of faith. So there is this real, real danger that the busyness of life, that our wealth and our pleasures, choke the life out of our faith. Jesus is saying we need to cut back the things which are in danger of crowding out our growing faith. You need to regularly do that — through repentance, through humility, through seeking God. Perhaps being vulnerable with other faithful friends, saying to them, “Listen, how am I doing? Are there things in my life that I need to think about cutting back on?” We need to take this stuff seriously, because this is about growing well and bearing fruit in our lives — rather than having the most important things in our life choked and stifled.

Finally is the seed that falls in good soil. Verse 15: “these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience and endurance.” That’s the goal. That’s what we want to see in one another. That’s what a fruitful life looks like. But note that phrase: “hold fast.”

Consciously and deliberately nurture your faith. Practise endurance and patience, so that you might bear fruit. Because the way of faith has never been easy. It requires dedication, and perseverance, and attention. We need to be like a good gardener of our souls. We need to do that for one another. Pay attention day by day, that faith might flourish, and that we might bear the good fruit of love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self-control. That’s what life is meant to look like. That is the fruit of good roots that grow strong. The word of God has been planted in you and in your life, but it needs to be putting down deeper roots. It needs to be nourished. Otherwise it will wither. We need to cut back the weeds and the thorns which are in danger of choking it back. We need to work hard to prepare the ground and create the right environment for the things that matter most to flourish in our lives — those good spiritual disciplines which allow us to be that which we are created to be. To cut back the weeds and the thorns which entangle us, and to commit ourselves to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, that our lives might bear the fruit which are the real riches in this world and the next. Amen.