1 The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. 3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: 8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 13:1-9 KJV)
The Parable of the Sower
When Christ preached this sermon, it was the same day that he preached the sermon in the previous chapter. He was tireless in doing good and working the works of Him who sent Him. Christ preached at both ends of the day, setting an example for His church. Though He had been opposed in the morning by His enemies and disturbed by His friends, He continued His work.
He preached to great multitudes gathered to Him. We do not find that any scribes or Pharisees were present. They were willing to hear Him in the synagogue but thought it beneath them to hear a sermon by the seaside, even though Christ Himself was the preacher. It was better to have their absence than their opposition. When Christ went to the seaside, multitudes followed. Where the King is, there is the court; where Christ is, there is the church, even by the seaside.
Here, Jesus shared one of his popular parables—the parable of the sower and the seed. The full explanation of the parable is found in Matthew 13:18-23. Christ’s parables are drawn from common, everyday things, not from philosophical ideas or unusual natural phenomena, but from familiar experiences within everyone’s understanding. Many are taken from farming, like this one and the parable of the weeds.
Christ used common, everyday things to create his parables so that familiar comparisons could make spiritual truths clearer and easier to understand. He also used these common, everyday things for his parable so that everyday actions could become reminders of spiritual things, leading us to think of God even in our busy lives. In this way, God’s Word would stay close to us and speak to us often (Proverbs 6:22).
The parable of the sower is simple enough (Matthew 13:3–9). The explanation is given by Christ Himself. The disciples, when they asked, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” (Matthew 13:10), were seeking an explanation not only for the crowd’s sake but for themselves too. Jesus graciously responded and explained the meaning, speaking to the disciples while still within hearing of the crowd, since He didn’t send them away until Matthew 13:36.
The purpose of the parable of the sower is to show the different effects the word of God has on people’s hearts and the reason for that difference. The seed is the word, the sower is Jesus and the preacher, and the soil is the heart and soul of man.
Satan is compared to birds that snatch up the seed before it can take root. The devil is very wary of the power of the word and works hard to destroy it before it can impact the heart—sometimes through worldly cares, sometimes through bad company that extinguishes early convictions. If he can steal or choke the word, he accomplishes his goal.
By the four types of soil, Jesus identified four types of people who listen or hear the word of God, and whenever a preacher preaches, he may be speaking to one, two, or all of these types of hearers:
- The roadside – they do not understand the word and do not believe.
- The rocky ground – they believe but have no root.
- The thorny ground – they believe but are unfruitful.
- The good soil – they believe and bear fruit.
In His explanation, Jesus said that the first type of audience did not believe in the message preached. Therefore, out of these four types, three of them believed. They are:
- Those who believe but have no root/the rootless believers
- Those who believe but are unfruitful/the unfruitful believers
- Those who believe and are fruitful/the fruitful believers
Out of those who heard and believed, only one of them, the good soil, achieved the ultimate goal, which is bearing fruit. God’s word is spoken to us so that we will live by it to undergo a lasting positive transformation. Those who undergo this transformation are the ones who bear fruit to the glory of God.
NB: See Matthew 13:18-23 for the full explanation of the Parable of the Sower.