The Sower and the Seed

THE SOWER AND THE SEED 
Today I would like to share the parable of the Sower and the seed.

Matthew 13:3 Jesus told the people many things in parables, saying, ‘A Sower went out to sow. While he sowed, some seeds fell beside the roadway, and the birds came and devoured them. But other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they did not have deep soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And because they did not take root, they withered away. Some seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. But other seeds fell into good ground and produced grain: a hundred, sixty, or thirty times as much. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.’

Jesus explained the parable of his Kingdom to his disciples, and he described the seed as the Word of the Kingdom. The Kingdom of God is the realm of the activity of God where he reorders everything to be aligned to his will and purpose for life on the earth through his Word. That living Word was Jesus (the Logos), who spoke the creative Word that brought the Universe into being. Jesus likens the seed that is being sown in this parable to that same living Word logos, which has the power to transform our lives when we receive this seed that is planted into our hearts.                                                                                                                               
James 1:21 … receive with meekness the implanted word (Logos), which is able to save your souls.
Paul said that he planted seed and that those that received it with faith were God’s field. He said it was a team effort - he planted the seed and Apollos watered it and God gave the increase (1Corinthians 3:6). 
The parable describes the way that farmers sowed the fields with seed. The sower was scooping seed out of a satchel that hung around his neck in front of him. He was walking on well prepared soil in a field and scattering seed as he went. There is a roadway beside the field and beside the roadway there was rocky ground in a shallow layer of soil, and between the rocky ground and the field was a deeper layer of soil that had grown random thorns and thistles. The only place where the seed can properly take root is in the good soil of the field of the hearts that are prepared to bear the life-giving grain. 
But seed will be scattered everywhere, and the seed is precious to God. Each one of us has a roadway seed challenge in life, and a rocky ground seed challenge and a thorns and thistles seed challenge. And each one of us has a prepared field challenge to accept God’s invitation to receive the life changing seed of faith and hope and blessing. 
Jesus has built redemption into every parable of the Kingdom because of the power of his resurrection and the sending of the Holy Spirit into our hearts and he can redeem every barren roadway seed challenge and clean up every rocky ground obstruction and uproot every thorny ground chokehold upon our faith.

Jesus explained that the seed that fell on the well-trodden roadway of the world was not able to take root in people’s hearts because the seed was snatched away by birds, which represents Satan blinding people minds and hearts from God’s love and truth. 
The roadway (hodos) also means ‘the journey’. The world has been on a journey for thousands of years with roadways and pathways of good and evil. There have been pathways of good intention and valuable discoveries and astounding humanitarian progress and achievement. There have also been roadways of ambitious greed and self-advantage and political power and corruption. Each one of us has had to tread the well-trodden paths of the world and have seen the dangers of the places where they may lead, and we have all had our own journey that started within a certain culture or religion or influence that sent us in directions that have resulted in a mixture of successes and failures.

The routine of roadways also tends to lock people into a sense of movement from the past and into the future with only a fleeting sense of the present moment, and we can wonder where the time has gone and where it is all leading. And until we stop and ask ourselves these hard questions and ponder our ways, we have little chance of allowing the seed of God’s loving future and hope to be the implanted seed that saves our souls and to not be snatched away by the devil. 
We can’t avoid being in the world, but we do not have to be of the world, with its political activism and intensely strong opinions that cause emotional distress and anxiety of the soul. We can debate issues with Godly wisdom and even hold positions of power or be skilful problem solvers in the marketplace with both feet on the ground, and still live with the assurance that our hearts and minds are planted in God’s field of life and truth. When we know who we are we know where we are. The only way we get on the right path when we’re on that roadway is when we see The light of the Holy Spirit that exposes the darkness and gives the grace to walk in faith.

Jesus also explained that the shallow, rocky soil represents the heart of a person who hears the seed word and receives it joyfully, but who hasn’t given enough attention to removing the rocks and stones of emotional obstacles in their life that have held them back from going deeper in God. In the words of Jesus, ‘he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution (diogmos – trouble and harassment) arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles’. They stumble on the rocks of conflict with other people, and these become rocks of offence, and harm the quality of relationships. They lose heart and walk away. 
With courage and encouragement, the relational rocks can be removed through reconciliation and commitment to loving relationships and the soil can settle, the seed can remain, and the roots go deeper and a humble commitment to faith and truth and love can make one stand strong in times of adversity. And today’s text  encourages us. 
‘receive with meekness the implanted word (Logos), which is able to save your souls’ (James 1:21).
Jesus goes on to describe the ground covered with thorns and thistles. ‘Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the delusion of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful’.
The choking activity of thorns in this illustration has two points of attack. The first point of attack is the ‘cares of this world’. The word for cares is ‘merimna’ and the root meaning of this word is ‘to distract and to disunite’. This speaks of the inordinate amount of time that can go into trying to control the circumstances of life that distract the soul from pursuing the deeper inner life of faith. It also speaks of the worry that fragments and fatigues the soul.  
The second point of attack is the ‘delusion of riches’. When pursuing financial gain that holds out promises of success and profit we must always factor in the need of diligence and effort and risk, and without a proper balance of these three things the success and profit turns into failure and loss. Another delusion of riches is that they are what bring happiness and fulfilment to our lives. These delusions choke off the fruitful life of the faith and love within the implanted seed.

The thorns and thistles can be uprooted and die off if we seek the Lord for wisdom in our financial priorities and if we set in order our relationship to God and to                                                                                                                                                                                      those in our care. ‘for where your treasure is there will be your heart also (Matthew 6:21)
Neither will the thorns and thistles choke off the good seed if we set our hearts to find his grace to help concerning the cares of this world. 
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. (1Peter 5:6)

Jesus spoke simply and profoundly about preparing our hearts as the good ground. 
‘But other seeds fell into good ground and produced grain: a hundred, sixty, or thirty times as much. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.’
We can picture the sower in the field as we did before, walking on well prepared soil in a field and scattering seed as he goes. Furthest from him is the roadway and a little closer is the rocky ground and a little closer still is the slightly deeper layer of thorny soil. In from the thorny ground the soil would become richer and richer the further on in you go. Right next to the thorny ground the soil might only yield thirty-fold, and then a bit further in it would yield sixty-fold, and then a little further in where the sower was walking a hundred-fold, as the differing distances from the sower signify the different qualities of the soil.  This speaks to us of the various stages of the preparedness of our hearts to receiving the word of God, which is the logos, the living seed that contains the spiritual DNA of the life of Jesus within us. So, we get off the roadway, then we remove the rocks and stones then we dig up the thorns and thistles and then we become his field.

But note those final words of Jesus that speak to us clearly about ‘having ears to hear’.
Whenever Jesus says ‘whoever has ears to hear let him hear’ he is telling us that there is a truth that he is teaching here at a deeper level than what people are hearing. He is teaching us how to overcome the distractions and disturbances at the emotional and mental and material levels of our lives that prevent us from hearing what he is saying.
God wants to teach us how to learn his language of silence and stillness so that we will know how to hear his voice. We practice a ‘presence prayer’ attitude of receptivity and allow our usual busy emotional and mental activity to be put in brackets while we draw nearer to God and become his rich field in the deeper spiritual level of our being. And it is in this place of faith where we believe in our hearts that we are receiving into our spirit his seed of life that is changing us into his likeness.