Matthew 13:1-9 (Pentecost 7)
St. John, Galveston 7/12/26
“The Sower went out to Sow”
Rev. Alan Taylor

+ In Nomine Jesu +

Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.

    “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, 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 produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”

     After Jesus spoke this parable, He explained it to His disciples. His explanation of the various soils on which the sower’s seed fell serves as a warning to each of us regarding the influences that seek to rob us of the comfort and peace of God’s Word. The path, where the birds came devoured the seed, depicts the person who hears God’s word, but doesn’t understand it, and so the devil comes along an snatches the word of God from him. This is the threat of pride, because we tend to think if we have to struggle to understand God’s word, it really isn’t worth our time. To such a person, God’s word strikes him or her as a relic from the past, perhaps a compilation of fairy tales and myths.

    The rocky ground, said Jesus, is the person who receives God’s word with joy, but since there is not much soil for it to take root, even though it springs up quickly, when tribulation or persecution comes, the person falls away, leaving God’s word behind. This is often the purely emotional reaction to God’s word. It can be an exciting thing to hear about the love and mercy of God, how He even numbers the hairs on the head of His people, but when tribulation and persecution come because God’s word has been embraced, life begins to depict God in whole different way from that which we receive in His word. It’s the difference really, between a theology of glory, of being delivered from everything hurtful in life, and a theology of the Cross, where Jesus calls us to deny ourselves and to take up our cross and follow Him.

    Finally, the thorny soil represents the one who hears God’s word but the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful in his life. While God created us to love Him with our whole heart, mind, body and soul, we are most often tempted to love His creation more than we love Him. It is the very reason that the Apostle reminds us that “the love of money is the root of all evil.”

    The first three soils in the parable serve as a warning to us regarding the hearing of God’s word, reminding us of the various forces that would seek to take God’s Word away from us. The fourth soil, the good soil, speaks of the power of God’s word to produce fruit in the lives of His people, not in an equal manner, but according to God’s good measure, some sixty fold, some thirty, and so forth.

    Though it is important for us to pay careful attention to the soils in the parable, the parable isn’t ultimately about the various soils. Rather, it’s about the sower. In many of Jesus’ parables, there is an unexpected, even extravagant feature that represents behavior that is not “normal.” For example, in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, after the prodigal squanders all of his inheritance on “loose living,” he comes to his senses and he returns home. As he is making his way back home to explain to his father how sorry he is for his actions, before he even gets within earshot, his father sees him on the road and he runs to him. Welcoming his son home, the father even has the fatted calf prepared for a feast to celebrate his son’s return. Being that the father in the parable represents God, you could say that this passage is the only place in the Scriptures where it is said that God ran. The father’s actions in the parable though are unexpected. One might say they are even extravagant. The older son, who complained about the feast his father threw for His wayward son, certainly thought so.

    In the parable of the sower, there is some behavior that is also not ‘normal.’ It involves the sower himself, who is actually the central figure in the parable. He went out to sow His seed, but He did so in a very unconventional way. He takes a handful of seed and He throws it to the ground indiscriminately, without any regard for where He throws it. The sower’s behavior is neither efficient or prudent. He is certainly not responsible in His sowing of the seed, at least in the way that we think of as responsible.
    
    As the father, in the parable of the Prodigal son, represents God, so the Sower in this parable represents God too, and the seed He sows represents the Gospel, Jesus’ life given for the life of the world. In both cases, the behavior we see as “not normal,” depicts the gracious action of God for His creation and for the world that He so loves. The fact is, the Gospel never comes to us because God considers us worthy of receiving it. He doesn’t look out over the people of the world and ask Himself, where is the good soil, that I might sow the seed of My grace responsibly? Rather, out of His great love for all people, He sows the seed of His mercy into their lives extravagantly, and freely, in each case that the seed would turn soil that is rocky, or thorny, or even dried up, into good soil, soil that receives the seed of God’s grace and subsequently produces fruit, not by it’s own goodness, but by the power of the seed itself.

    I’m not much of a gardener anymore, but I used to do a little gardening in the backyard of our house in San Antonio. I’d spend a fair amount time preparing the soil before I planted any seeds. Once the ground was ready, I’d lay out mounds of rows and make nice little trenches in the rows to plant the seed. It was quite the meticulous process. One seed per hole. Just the right amount of dirt over the seed. As the days went by, I’d go out to the garden and look around for any signs of life. I might even pick at the ground a bit, which was kind of counterproductive, since disturbing the seed as it germinates isn’t a really good practice. But that’s a whole parable altogether.

    How my method of gardening was unlike that of the sower in today’s parable. He sowed recklessly, and His recklessness serves as a sign of His goodness and grace. God, we are told, would “have all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” We are also told that “He so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.” In whatever nook or cranny a person finds him or herself in world, God sows the seed of His word, a word that can save the hearer from the power of sin and death, even from the power of the devil Himself. For, the Gospel, the seed of God’s word, has the power to produce fruit in whatever soil it lands. Why, it even has the power to raise the dead, and to give life to the lifeless.

    Lord, you have sown the seed of your word into the world, and by your grace, and even by the reckless manner by which you have sown the Gospel, it has fallen even on me. As such, you have called me by the Gospel, you have enlightened me with your gifts and you have sanctified and kept me in the one true faith. Move me to receive your word with humility and thankfulness, that the good news you have sown, the news of your forgiveness and grace in your Son Jesus, would produce fruit in my life to glory of your holy name.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.

+ Soli Deo Gloria +