Sow Far, Sow Good
Scripture Reading: Matt. 13:1-9
Having grown up in the suburbs and having spent most of my life living in and around cities, it’s no surprise that I know next to nothing about farming. Yet there was a small family farm just down the road from where I grew up. Pirhala Farm was its name. The edge of the farm bumped up against a softball field, with a chain link fence serving as the dividing line. The neighborhood kids, including me, used to play pick-up games on that field, with everyone swinging from the heels to try to hit one over the fence and into the farm, which would’ve been quite a stroke.
When someone did manage to hit the ball over the fence, we had to stop the game and retrieve the ball. The rule was whoever hit the home run had to get the ball because no one wanted to incur the wrath of Old Man Pirhala, who would shout angrily if he saw some teenager traipsing through his carrots. As kids do, we probably exaggerated the danger of trespassing on to the farm, imagining Old Man Pirhala to be patrolling his property with a shotgun while no doubt smoking a corn-cob pipe.
So what little knowledge of farms and farming I have comes mostly from when I was a kid trying to sneak on to Pirhala Farm to retrieve softballs. And yet, my knowledge of farming seems to be on par with, if not superior to, the knowledge that the sower shows in the parable that we just heard Jesus tell. Even I know that soil must be cultivated before seed is planted. You don’t just throw seed on to untilled ground and expect anything to grow. And what kind of farmer throws seed amid rocks and thorns and on to a path where people walk? That’s just wasteful!
The Parable of the Sower is one of the cornerstone parables. A version of it appears in all three gospels that feature parables, which is to say Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Here in Matthew it’s the first parable that Jesus tells. In that sense, it sets the stage for all the parables that come after. It serves as a kind of template. Its key image—seeds—is one that Jesus will use again in other parables. It’s also an image that the crowds that came to hear Jesus would have found familiar. Galilee was in the countryside, and many people lived off the land. They knew all about soil and seeds.
Although Galilee was somewhat remote, still Jesus can’t help but draw a crowd. Matthew begins the story with just a hint of humor. Verse one reads, “That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the lake.” Maybe Jesus just wants to enjoy the scenery. Maybe he wants to have his morning cup of coffee by the lake, but no. Matthew tells us that “such great crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there, while the crowds stood on the beach.” So much for his morning coffee.
Now seated in the boat, Jesus doesn’t break into the parable straight away. He readies the crowd for what he’s about to say by uttering one simple word: “Listen.” He invites their close attention. The parable he’s about to share with them might appear simple on the surface, but its meaning will prove to be elusive for many.
Let’s try a little experiment. During the Scripture reading I purposely did not read verses 18 to 23, in which Jesus explains the parable to the disciples. Jesus has to explain the parable because not many appear to understand it, not even the disciples. Now, you may be familiar with Jesus’s explanation, but for the sake of this experiment, try to put that out of your mind. Let’s listen again to the parable as Jesus tells it:
Jesus has to explain the parable because not many appear to understand it, not even the disciples.
“Listen! A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched; and since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Let anyone with ears listen!”
How I wish I could have seen the reaction of the crowd to hearing this parable! Would they have known what to make of it? I don’t think so. It falls outside today’s reading, but after Jesus finishes the parable, the disciples ask him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” The implication is that if Jesus wants to be understood, he should speak plainly, not in these parables that are open to interpretation.
Another thing Jesus could do to be more easily understood would be to let people know what he’s talking about. It seems odd, but he never says to the crowd what the parable is about. He doesn’t give any sort of introduction. He just says, “Listen,” and then launches into the parable. Only to the disciples does he reveal that the parable is about the kingdom of God. “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven,” he tells them, “but to them it has not been given.”
We have to understand that Jesus isn’t arbitrarily keeping some in the dark about the nature of the kingdom of God. We should hear these words in the context of what we heard Jesus say last week about who does and who does not welcome his ministry. Last week we heard him say, “I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants.”
Those who welcome Jesus’s ministry are like infants. They come with no preconceived notions of what the Messiah should do or say. They are fully open to all possibilities, even the possibility that, in Jesus, God is up to something new. In the same way, those who understand the parable must also be like infants. They must be open to the newness of Jesus’s message. Because Jesus isn’t giving them instructions on how to better obey the law. He’s not telling them that they’d better get their act together and straighten up. The people have heard that before, but with this parable Jesus is telling them something new.
I believe that the crowd who heard this parable from Jesus’s lips would’ve had to wrap their minds around the notion that the sower is God. After all, God was thought to value order and rationality. That’s what we see in the law. God’s law gave order and structure to Israelite society.
But the sower shows neither order nor rationality. He’s extravagantly wasteful. He scatters seed here, there, and everywhere. He throws seed seemingly without rhyme or reason, on to the path, on to rocky ground, amid thorns, in the middle of the street, in the parking lot, and yes, even a little bit on to good soil as well. What is he doing wasting seeds like that? Doesn’t he know how expensive seeds are? He’s literally throwing money away!
Those are the kinds of questions I believe the crowd would’ve been asking themselves. If the sower is God, then what does this parable say about God? First of all, I believe that’s the right question to ask. We ought to resist the temptation to make the parable about us. Let’s not ask ourselves what kind of soil we are, whether our hearts are filled with rocks or thorns that inhibit God’s Word. That’s not the point.
Let’s not hear about how we need to make sure that we are good soil by cultivating Christian habits, like reading the Bible, praying, attending church, and giving to the church. Now, don’t misunderstand me. By all means, do those things! Those are good things! But they are not the point of the parable. The parable is not about what type of soil we are but rather what type of sower God is.
The parable is not about what type of soil we are but rather what type of sower God is.
God is the type of sower who casts seed with lavish generosity. If Israel was God’s garden—one small plot of land cultivated and nurtured with great care—then the whole world is now God’s field. And on this field there are no fences, no borders, and no boundary markers. No part of the world is off limits to God’s loving care and kindness. The whole earth is the Lord’s, and the Lord desires that all would come to know him. That’s why the sower throws seed even amid thorns, and rocks, and on to footpaths, places where it is unlikely to take root and grow. For God’s grace falls upon these places as well, just as much as it does upon good soil.
And if seed does not grow in such places, then we are not to despair. Believe me, I know it’s tempting. When we see one church after another closing in Rockland County—and not just Presbyterian churches—it’s easy to lose hope for the future of the Church. But as the parable suggests, the same was true in Jesus’s day as well.
As Jesus explains to the disciples, some people hear the word of the kingdom and don’t understand it. They are like seed that’s thrown on a path that the birds swoop down and eat. Some are like seed that’s thrown on rocky ground. They hear the word and immediately receive it with joy, but endure only for a while, and when trouble arises on account of the word, they fall away. Others are like seed that falls among thorns. They hear the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.
Whether people respond to the Word of God when it’s read or preached or proclaimed is largely a mystery that’s beyond our control. Leave that to the Holy Spirit. All we can do is continue to read and preach and proclaim God’s Word, trusting in the goodness of the sower who sows far and wide with gracious abandon. At the same time, rejoice that the Lord has planted the seed of faith in your heart and celebrate that it has taken root and is bearing fruit even now.