Articles / Class Lessons
“Lesson 01 - Understanding the Parable of the Sower”
Introduction:
Most people – churchgoing people, at least – would agree that Jesus’ parables are important. Yet, if asked further, most would say that His parables are nice stories intended to teach universal moral lessons. If you understand the moral of the story, you’ve gotten the parable.
There’s one problem with that explanation: it doesn’t square with what Jesus Himself said about His parables. Rather than trying to create a set of nice stories for the world, Jesus bluntly said that He taught in parables because His hearers wouldn’t immediately understand His teaching (Matt 13:13).
But the problem goes beyond that. When you start looking at His parables, a lot of them aren’t nice stories at all: a king destroys an entire city for speaking out against him; a manager cheats his master out of money and is praised by Jesus for it; a fig tree is cursed for not bearing fruit. When taken at face value, the parables can be confusing and hard to understand. In fact, to get a nice moral out of some of them requires a good bit of twisting. Parables are not simple moral stories that teach a lesson.
So what are parables?
The Bible explains that Jesus had specific purposes for teaching in parables. Matthew tells us that in at least one instance He spoke to the crowd only in parables and said nothing without a parable (Matt 13:34). Why is this?
As Jesus said in Mark, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it?” (Mk 4:30) It is important to understand that the parables cannot be separated from Jesus’ teaching on the Kingdom of God. If detached from His larger teaching ministry, they don’t make sense. Rather, the parables are like different lenses used to view different aspects of the Kingdom of God. Jesus Himself often started His parables with, “The Kingdom of God is like…”
To Jesus, parables are comparisons between the natural and spiritual realms that teach His followers different aspects of the Kingdom of God. In this sense, parables are keys to understanding the things Jesus wanted His followers to know about His Kingdom. On the one hand, they are like little instruction manuals explaining what God is like and how He acts, as well as how people in His Kingdom ought to live. On the other hand, they describe how people inside or outside the Kingdom actually do live. The reason Jesus spoke in parables was that He knew they were the best method for teaching about the Kingdom He was inaugurating with His life, death, and resurrection.
Lesson One
u n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e p a r a b l e
Matthew 13:1-23
Mark 4:13-20
Luke 8:11-15
Matthew 13: 1-17
1 That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 And [a]large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach.
3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 He who has ears,let him hear.”
An Explanation
10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?” 11 Jesus answered them, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 12 For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away from him. 13Therefore I speak to them in parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 In their case the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,
YOU WILL KEEP ON HEARING,BUT WILL NOT UNDERSTAND; YOU WILL KEEP ON SEEING, BUT WILL NOT PERCEIVE; 15 FOR THE HEART OF THIS PEOPLE HAS BECOME DULL, WITH THEIR EARS THEY SCARCELY HEAR,
AND THEY HAVE CLOSED THEIR EYES, OTHERWISE THEY WOULD SEE WITH THEIR EYES, HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART AND RETURN, AND I WOULD HEAL THEM.’
16 But blessed are your eyes, because they see; and your ears, because they hear. 17 For truly I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
The Sower Explained
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road. 20The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the [l]world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
Mark 4:13-20
Explanation
13 And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? 14The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.16 In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17 and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19 but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”
Luke 8:11-15
Explanation
11 “Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God. 12Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. 14The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity. 15 But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.
Summary
Some things seem simple on the surface. But once you look into them you realize more is there than you originally thought. Simplicity can be deceptive: by focusing on what you think you understand, it is possible to miss what is really there. The parable of the sower is like that. What can be simpler than to talk about a man going out to sow seed in different soils? It seems so obvious. Yet after Jesus told the parable to the crowd, His disciples came to Him and asked what it meant.
Jesus often berated His disciples for being slow to understand, but these were not unintelligent men. Rather, as the New Testament writings of Luke, Paul, John and Peter demonstrate, many of them were quite brilliant. The only explanation is that there is much more to the parable of the sower than many of us realize, and that Jesus is teaching something that is not as patently obvious as we may be led to believe. The fact is, the parable of the Sower is an extraordinary piece of genius that explores the whole of Christian history from beginning to end, including the way the Kingdom of God will grow, the obstacles it will face, and the wonderful ending that will inevitably come.
Setting and Context
This parable is the first among the parables. It is one of only a handful of parables included in all three synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). It is the same parable that all three gospel writers use to introduce the rest of Jesus’ parables. And it is one of just a few parables that Jesus explains in detail. No other parable holds all these distinctions, and because of that, we should take special consideration not to pass it by too quickly. Matthew tells us that when Jesus told this parable, He had been teaching by the Sea of Galilee. On this particular day, the crowds had swollen to such a size that Jesus got into a boat and pushed a little way off shore. The slope of the land down to the water’s edge, combined with the acoustic properties of sound on water, created a natural amphitheater. The people who sat on the shore were a mix of the local population. Some would have traveled from little villages all around to hear the new rabbi teach on God and His Kingdom.
They were mostly peasants, many of them farmers. As they traveled to see Jesus, they would have had to walk down paths and roads between the countless fields that spread across the countryside.
Matthew tells us that Jesus began to teach them in parables starting with the parable of the sower. He later says that “Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable.” (Matt 13:34) We saw in the passage above that this method intrigued His disciples and they asked Him why He taught that way. His answer was rather unexpected, and it should still give us pause: He replied, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.” Matt 13:10-13
It is important to recognize that Jesus’ first-century Jewish audience already had strong opinions about the Kingdom of God and the coming of the Messiah, just as Christians today hold very strong opinions about the second coming of Christ. From their interpretation of the Old Testament, everyone expected a powerful Messiah to come suddenly, wipe out the Roman oppressors, then quickly set up a magnificent, visible kingdom here on earth. Luke reveals this popular mentality when he writes: “Jesus went on to tell them a parable, because he was near Jerusalem and the people thought that the kingdom of God was going to appear at once.” Luke 19:11
The problem with this popular interpretation was that it was wrong. In complete disregard of everyone’s assumptions and expectations, God sent a suffering servant to establish a spiritual kingdom that would slowly grow to fill “the entire earth” (Dan 2:35). This true Kingdom would certainly have physical manifestations – but not those assumed by Jesus’ audience. That was the secret. Unless listeners understood that the parables were all about Jesus and His unique ministry, they could not understand the parables. The secret that had been revealed to the disciples was Jesus Himself and His unexpected method of redemption.
John 12: 31-32
31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. 32And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”
The people who came to hear Jesus this particular day were expecting a conquering king who would set up His Messianic kingdom in great splendor from Jerusalem. Instead, Jesus told them that the Kingdom would spread like seed from the hand of a sower. That’s a radical difference.
Questions:
- What was the purpose of Jesus speaking in Parables?
- As you read this parable what do you think the overriding message was that Jesus wanted to get across?
- Why did the people have difficulty understanding this parable?
- What was the most difficult thing for you to understand when you first heard the gospel message?
THOUGHT QUESTION:
Look at the people sitting around you. We all come from different backgrounds and life experiences. One thing we have in common is that someone took the time to sow the seed and that seed landed in our hearts. Now the question is; what kind of soil are you going to be? What kind of fruit will you bear? What can you do at this stage in your growth to help further the Kingdom here at Kettering?
- The_Sower_Lesson_1.doc (73.22 kB)
