Parable of scattering the seed
Luke 8:4-15
While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. 6 Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.”
When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that,
“‘though seeing, they may not see;
though hearing, they may not understand.’[a]
11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
What does the Story Say?
Jesus tells this story to people from a rural context who are gathering together to hear him. His disciples don’t really understand the parable and so Jesus explains it to them.
Jesus is using this parable to help people understand that there are different responses to the word of God. The seed is God's word, and the ground is the state of the heart and determines the response to the seed and the fruitfulness of God's word in people's lives.
What do we learn about God?
God’s Word is sent out. It will accomplish what he planned for it, but not everyone will respond.
Isaiah 55:10-11
10 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens
and stay on the ground to water the earth.
They cause the grain to grow,
producing seed for the farmer
and bread for the hungry.
11 It is the same with my word.
I send it out, and it always produces fruit.
It will accomplish all I want it to,
and it will prosper everywhere I send it.
The interesting thing about the parable, is that it seems like some of the word does not accomplish its purpose. But God knows who will and who won’t accept his word, and his purpose will always be accomplished in the world.
Jesus understood that the hearts of the people were hard. They look, but do not really see, they hear, but they are not really listening and learning. As a result, Jesus uses parables, and says – listen to the truth and understand it – he who has hears – should listen and understand. God wants us to listen to his word, to take notice of it, to learn from it and for it to be able to grow and produce fruit in our lives.
Isaiah 53:3a
“Come to me with your ears wide open.
Listen, and you will find life.
God wants us to really listen to him and to understand him, to take notice and to act on it. This is hearing with the intent to act! When we truly take the time to listen, and listen with the right attitude we will actually receive more understanding.
God says he will remove from us the ability to understand if we don’t come to him with the right heart.
Luke 8:18
So pay attention to how you hear. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given. But for those who are not listening, even what they think they have will be taken away.
This sounds kind of harsh, but Jesus never minced his words. The word is sent out to accomplish God's purpose in our lives.
What other truths does the story portray?
This is also a story about the state of the human heart.
1. Sometimes the heart is so hard that the devil can easily take the word away. This person is so bound up that the heart is so hard, that the grace of God has not had a chance to penetrate. They have no interest in the things of God and the truth of his word. They have shut themselves off from God’s grace.
2. The rest of the seed falls on ground where it is received, and received with joy. The next group of people are those who have heard the word. They are joyful, because they have understood and received God’s grace and salvation. The difficulty here is that they forget to devote themselves, or they devote themselves for a while but slacken off quickly.
I liken this group to those who accept Jesus from emotion, rather than from faith. There is no substance and no deep roots of belief or desire to know God in a real way. There is temptation in this world, and these people easily succumb because they do not have the strength and the maturity to face it, and overcome it.
The sad thing is that these people have actually heard and joyfully accepted the truth, but the lack of substance, the lack of deep roots means they fall away easily. This is the “I tried Christianity and it didn’t work” people. There is something in this I think about a selfish heart that does not deeply care about God, but is only joyful about what God can do for them. There is no desire to really honour and worship God.
But God actually enables us to stand against temptation if we will allow him.
1 Corinthians 10:13 (NLT)
13 The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.
Proverbs – people make their own dumb mistakes and the blame God for it.
Prov 19:3
People ruin their lives by their own foolishness, and then are angry at the Lord.
Developing deep roots takes time and effort, reading the word, praying, worshipping, and seeking a kingdom purpose not a self-purpose.
We can ask ourselves:
How am I ruining my own life because of my own foolish behaviour?
3. The seed that falls among the thorns, is heard, taken in and starts to grow and develop. This seed grows, but the growth is choked.
It is choked out by:
Care – the things of this world that we worry about. We allow them to become more important than God’s word and what he has to say about the situation. Jesus often said "do not worry, God knows what you need". The writers of the letters talked about not allowing cares to get in the way, but to bring them to God and to let him deal with them.
Dea with cares, give them to God. Look up these verses and see what they say about dealing with worry and care.
1 Peter 5:7; Phil 4:6-8, Matt 6:31-33
The key is to act on these scriptures, not just to repeat them.
Riches – This is a big one for us. We either allow what we have to choke out the word of God, or we are so focussed on what we don’t have, that we let it get in the way. Either way, it is indicative of a heart that is captured by wealth, and more intent on storing up treasure here on earth than on storing up treasure in heaven. The bible has a lot to say about the riches of this world
1 Timothy 6:6-8
6 Yet true godliness with contentment is itself great wealth. 7 After all, we brought nothing with us when we came into the world, and we can’t take anything with us when we leave it. 8 So if we have enough food and clothing, let us be content.
9 But people who long to be rich fall into temptation and are trapped by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. And some people, craving money, have wandered from the true faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.
The love of money is a trap. It stops us from growing in to the people God has called us to be and it blinds us to the truth of God’s word. These people know and hear the word, but don’t apply it to life because the chasing after riches has become the main focus.
Pleasure –(The Greek word is Hedone) - This is basically hedonism. The "feels good so it must be right" attitude. The word of God is planted and growing, but the desire for “pleasure” is greater than the desire to know God and to actually experience true joy.
This is a misunderstanding of what joy is. God is not against fun, and he’s not against pleasure, these things have their place in the right context. The people Jesus is referring to are those who get side tracked by these things and allow them to become more important that God’s word. They allow the things of life to be more important than producing fruit for the kingdom of God.
Titus 3:3-8
3 At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Saviour, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 8 This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.
The sad thing about this group of people is that they have the potential to reach maturity. They just never do because the things of the world have become more important than what God is doing in their lives.
James 4:1-3
What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
Unfortunately, I think this group of people often present to the world as who Christians are and give the world a misunderstanding of who God is and his love for them. Christian maturity is developed over time, when people are proactive in their faith and deliberate about removing the “weeds” from their life.
My garden has many great plants. The new plants struggle if I don’t constantly keep the weeds down. This is a good picture of what this means. If we don’t remove the weeds, if we don’t give the plant a chance to grow, then the plant will not produce the new fruit and will not achieve its purpose.
What weeds do I need to extract from my life?
What is choking out what I know God wants me to do.
4. The good ground is soil that is well prepared. The hard work has been done to prepare it to hear what God has to say. This soil receives the word and grows and produces fruit. This is well prepared soil and represents a well prepared heart, ready to receive the news of salvation, and ready to receive the grace of God.
This soil represents the person who makes the effort to keep their heart right and to remove anything that will affect the quality of the soil. The word is able to take root, to grow strong, and to produce good fruit. In fact, through perseverence, these people multiply the seed and there is a huge harvest.
What do we learn about how we are to live?
Ideally we are to live in a way that allows good soil to develop in our hearts. There are many aspects to this story. There are many ways we can look at it. Jesus was talking to people who were God followers. They were people who already had an understanding of who God is.
Which people do we most relate to in the story? Why?
The truth is, this is not just about the salvation message. The word of God is there, we read it, we hear it. Our hearts can be open to one aspect of it and closed to another. Sometimes we just don’t want to hear what the word of God says because we know it will mean a change. It is helpful to take time to take a good hard look at our lives.
What kind of people are we? What heart issues do I need to address?
What do I need to do now?
How am I making sure that my heart is in a place where the word can grow and develop and produce good fruit?
What actions might I need to take this week? What issues of life might I need to address?
Will I listen with the intent to act or the intent to ignore?
Next Steps
What will I do with what I know. How will I apply these truths to my life?
No comments:
Post a Comment