4 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."
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. ~ Luke 8:4-15
In today's text, the Lord Jesus begins teaching in parables. The word "parable" appears forty-eight times in the New Testament. This is the Parable of the Soils, also recorded by Matthew and Mark. It's a simple story that teaches a profound spiritual truth about the condition of the human heart. In this story the Lord Jesus uses an analogy that helps us to understand that the condition of the sinful human heart is the issue in all of mankind ills.
According to v.4, "While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable." A parable is a comparison of two things, putting one beside the other in order to better understand it. The Lord Jesus put a story alongside a spiritual truth to make the truth better understood. The Lord Jesus spoke in parables that demanded an explanation.
With the teaching of this parable, a major turning point happens in the ministry of the Lord Jesus. According to Matthew 13:34, from this time onward, He did not speak to the crowds except in parables. His purpose for speaking in parables was to provide deeper understanding to those who were seeking the truth and to conceal the truth from those who were playing games. He taught in parables for two reasons: to reveal the truth, and to conceal the truth: to reveal the truth to those whose hearts were soft enough to received it, and to conceal the truth from those whose hearts were hardened.
In v. 5 we read, "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."
The hearers of the Lord Jesus understood the analogy clearly. They were all in some way involved in an agricultural life. The sower used what was called a broadcasting method, which is to throw seeds in a broad swath. The field was then plowed with deep furrows and up and down the rows the farmer would go and he would have a bag over his shoulder full of seed and he would broadcast the seed, throwing it everywhere. And as the seed was being thrown, very typically, it would fall to the ground and find different soils. There are four different soils mentioned by the Lord Jesus here.
The first soil is pathway soil: "As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path." At that time in Israel the fields basically were divided into long, narrow strips for cultivation. And between those long, narrow strips of field there were beaten paths about three feet wide, so that people could move around the countryside and go between the fields, going from place to place. The only thing that separated the fields were these beaten paths. When the sower threw the seed on the path, it had no hope of getting into the soil. It would just lie there. And the Lord Jesus said when that happens it's trampled underfoot because that's a thoroughfare, that's where people walk and they would just crush it under their feet and what wasn't crushed the birds of the air ate it up.
In v.6, the second soil that which fell on "the rocky ground." This was not soil full of rocks. Israel is a tremendously rocky area, and not just with pebbles and stones, but under the soil, down under the soil is rock bed. There were limestone rock beds that was below the surface just far enough below to have escaped the plow. And so, in those situations the seed goes in. As soon as it grew up it withered away because it had no moisture, the roots can't get down into the water that's down in the soil and so immediately they draw whatever nutrients, whatever warmth, whatever water is out of the surface soil and the plant goes up because it can't go down, and it looks like it's really going to bloom and it's really going to flourish but as soon as the sun comes out and warms it even more and the water is gone, the roots can't go any deeper and it withers and dies.
The third kind of soil is discovered in v.7: "Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants." The word "thorns" is a general word for weeds, thorns, thistles, that category of useless harmful plants, particularly harmful in cultivated crop land. This same word, by the way, was used for the crown of thorns that was placed upon Jesus' head. He was crowned with thorns.
Thorns can look good on the surface, but they suck out the water, drain out the nutrients, and they block the sunlight, and kill the good plant. And so it choked out the vital nutrition in the soil. Weeds win in that environment, squeezing out the good plant.
And then finally in v.8 we read, "Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown." When the seed hits the good soil, it produces an amazing crop.
Then the Lord Jesus ends v.8 with these words, "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear." Note that the effectiveness of the seed is found in the soil or in the heart of the one receiving the seed.
In response to the disciples question about what the parable meant in v.9, the Lord Jesus begins to explain the parable in v.10. "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."
The "secrets" are the spiritual truth hidden in the Old Testament revealed in the New. It refers to those things that the Old Testament people didn't know that the New Testament reveals: the secret of the incarnation, the secret of Christ in you the hope of glory. Truths hidden in the Old revealed in the New and He says it is granted to you by God to know these things. But to the rest, the Lord Jesus spoke in parables, unexplained ones, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand.
Those who are willing to see, see. We are privileged. Those who have a growing knowledge of the truth are those who believe in the Lord Jesus. Those who don't believe in Him don't know the truth. I'm going to start explaining parables only to those who believe so that they are parables of revelation to them. And, for those who don't believe, I will not explain the meaning of the parables, said the Lord Jesus.
In v.11, the Lord Jesus provides for the disciples His explanation. There is no definition of the sower because the sower is anybody who sows. The seed, He says, is the Word of God, His definition of all things.It is His word, His rhema, His spoken word which creates faith in the heart of the believer.
According to v.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." Now the word "hearts" is the key to interpreting the parable. According to v.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." So, you see the parable is about heart condition. It's not about the skill of the sower, it's not about the seed. The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart.
