The Parable of the Sower

13 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. ² Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. ³ Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. ⁵ Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. ⁶ But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. ⁸ Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. ⁹ Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

¹⁸ “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. ²⁰ The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. ²¹ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ²² The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²³ But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

[Matthew 13.1-9,18-23]

                                                

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but almost all English Bibles have headings in them.  I don’t mean the names of the books, like Matthew, Mark, Genesis, Deuteronomy. I don’t mean the chapter and verses number either. I mean these extra heading that have been added in.

For example, in most Bibles today’s Old Testament reading – Genesis 25.19-34 – is given the heading Jacob and Esau. As if you couldn’t tell what it was about by reading it.

The epistle, Romans 8, is called Life in the Spirit in one translation, and Life Through the Spirit in an other. Disagreement, interesting.

At some point, someone decided that it would be helpful to put extra titles in the books of the Bible, for all us numbskulls who couldn’t work out what we were reading from the words.  And the strange thing is that most translators seem to agree that we need these titles, but they don’t always agree what the title should be.

Which brings me on to the Gospel reading.  It’s one that most of us will know fairly well. At least well enough that when the minister gets up to do the sermon, we can all nod along sagely. Certainly well enough that every minister who has to do a sermon it racks their brains trying to find something new.

So here’s a quick quiz. Who thinks they know what the heading for today’s Gospel reading is?

The Parable of the Sower.

Does you think it’s called anything else?

Well, I checked every translation of the Bible in our house, just to see.

King James Version (1884) – the Parable of the Sower

Revised Standard Version (1971) – the Parable of the Sower

Good News Bible (1985) – the Parable of the Sower

New International Version (2000) – the Parable of the Sower

Today’s New International Version (2005) – the Parable of the Sower

I have one undated King James Version that calls it the Parable of the Sower and the Seed.

So what does this tell us, apart from the fact that I have a lot of Bibles?

Well, I have another translation – the New Living Translation – and in that the title is the Parable of the Four Soils.

So, in all the other Bibles, the people who translated the story from Greek decided that the most important thing, the thing that should be focussed on is the sower, in the NLT, it’s the soil.

What’s the difference? And what does it matter?

Well, when we look at what these things represent, it makes a bit more sense.

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart; this is what was sown on the path.

So the seed is the word of the kingdom, it’s the Gospel message. Then the sower, must be the person who spreads the message: the minister in church, or the evangelist in the street or workplace.

That means that the soil really represents the condition, the state of the person who hears the message. In the first example, it’s people who just don’t get it, the seed, the word, doesn’t make an impact, at all.

As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet such a person has no root, but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the word, that person immediately falls away.

The second type of soil, the second person is about someone who hears and understands the Gospel, so it starts to have an effect, but as Jesus says, at the first sign of trouble they fall away.  It’s people who don’t cultivate the message.

As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing.

This third type I recognise well, I see it in myself when I’ve planned to read the Bible, but something interesting comes on TV and I’m torn.  This is about people who don’t put the message first.

But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.

The final type is the one we’re all supposed to aim for. The one that bears fruit.

We can see ourselves as the sower. We can put ourselves into the story and be the person sharing the Gospel message. If we do that the lesson is about realizing that we won’t always get through to people, but there’s hope because just one seed, just one well-placed word can have a huge impact.

Or we can see ourselves as the soil, we can recognize that there are times when our faith seems to be failing, instead of thriving. Then we can read this parable and use it to identify what’s wrong: is it that the cares of the world are getting too much?  Is it that we haven’t got deep enough roots? Are we so totally closed off that the message of the Gospel doesn’t even make an impact?

Most Bible translators think that the thing to focus on is the Sower, the messenger, but I like the way that the NLT balances that out, and reminds us that the soil is important too.

Last week in Sunday School I got the group to plant seeds, and I asked them to look after those seeds, while imagining that they represent faith in God.

Looking after a seed takes time, patience, but most of all it takes vigilance: it’s something that we cannot take our eyes off for even a short time, or else it can wither.