The Parable Project: The Parable of the Sower (Ep 105)

Introduction and Episode Overview

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Jason: Thank you for listening and welcome to the podcast. We are your host, Jason.

Laura: And Laura,

Jason: And in this episode, Laura and I will jump into one of the most well known, and in my opinion, a foundational parable in scripture. The Parable of the Sower, found in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. This teaching is critical to understanding faith and discipleship.

Jesus doesn't want listeners. He wants followers, people who allow his truth to take root in their lives and bear lasting fruit. So we're going to unpack this parable together. Talk about what was Jesus saying, what do these soils represent in our own spiritual journey, and most of all, as we navigate this topic, consider one question, which soil are you?

I believe this conversation will both challenge and encourage us all, so what are we waiting for? Let's get started.

Laura: let's get started.

Hosts' Personal Updates

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Jason: So hello listeners, and hello Laura, welcome back.

Laura: Thank you, Jason. Glad to be back.

Jason: What have you been up to? Anything fun?

Laura: Oh, lots of fun. Um, started Taekwondo lessons?

Jason: Okay, so now you're a lethal weapon. Got it.

Laura: I am not. Maybe lethal to myself.

Jason: Fair. Right on. Good for you.

Laura: yeah, did a bit of traveling, looking to relocate in the next several months or so, but We'll see where God leads me.

Jason: Fair enough. So I'm gonna brag a little bit, because this weekend on Saturday, my daughter and I are going to see Wicked on Broadway, and, and on Sunday we're going to the Renaissance Festival.

Laura: Ugh, not fair. Yeah, my weekend is filled with, is gonna be filled with laundry, schoolwork, getting caught, caught up from last week's, uh, weekend trip to Texas, and Extra practice for my first testing session for Taekwondo, so yay.

Jason: Good luck with that.

Laura: Oh, and I am going to get to meet another friend from the Facebook group we met in.

Jason: Excellent.

Laura: Our esteemed Kathleen.

Jason: Oh, you said her name. She's so she's my she's my underpaid marketing director.

Laura: Extremely underpaid, but yes.

Jason: Yes.

Laura: Hi, Kathleen!

Jason: Hi. Yeah. Hi, Kathleen.

Introduction to the Parable of the Sower

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Jason: So I've been reading First Kings and I got through chapter three the other day. And that's obviously where Solomon starts out by marrying the Egyptian princess, which, kind of a bad thing, kings aren't really supposed to marry pagan princesses, but, but he goes to Gibeon, offers a thousand burnt offerings, and then God comes to him and says, Ask for whatever you want me to give you.

And as you know, if you've read 1 Kings, Solomon asked for wisdom. And God gave him a wise and discerning heart, along with wealth and honor and things that he didn't ask for. Got me thinking. In my own prayers, how often do I pray and don't bother to ask for wisdom? Right? I

Laura: Oh, truth. But then you get over to James chapter 1, verse 5. Let me flip there real

Jason: Yep, if any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. I

Laura: Yeah,

Jason: same one.

Laura: Yeah, that one. Couldn't get there fast enough and I don't have it exactly memorized.

Jason: I don't either, I wrote it down because I was gonna mention it, so Good, you know, we're on the same page here, this is awesome.

Laura: Are you, are you sure? Because different Bibles have different page numbers.

Jason: that's that's fair. All the jokes are already starting.

Laura: Hey, you know me, and if our listeners listen to any of Unfailing Revelation, they know me too. So, it is what it is.

Jason: Yeah, I just thought, I mean, like, you ask God, help me with whatever, but, you know, you should be asking, grant me the wisdom I need for situation, or life, or whatever. So,

Laura: Job applications.

Jason: Job appli yes, definitely job applications. So, other than that, that's pretty much all I've been up to, including dad stuff, church stuff, and work stuff.

So,

Laura: How fun.

Reading and Analyzing the Parable

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Jason: um, okay, so we're going to be doing the Parable of the Sower. And this parable can be found in all three of the Synoptic Gospels, meaning Matthew, Mark, and Luke. All three of these accounts are very similar. Um, some nuanced differences. Um, I don't know that we necessarily need to compare and contrast them, but if you want to, because you know, you do a better job of preparing for this stuff, then feel free to,

Laura: Um, sometimes I do a good job at faking it. Google's

Jason: good. I mean, Google's right there. Just, just click on it.

Laura: right there, and yeah, just, anyway. But before we get started on this parable, I was actually After our last, um, recording session, Jason, I was looking through one of the commentary books I got for Christmas, and it has a section on, you know, it's got a supplemental section with, uh, all the prophecies of the Messiah kind of outlined, you know, the time for his birth, he was, he would be born in Bethlehem, the flight to Egypt, all of that, but then I came to this one where it says the Messiah would speak in parables, parables.

Um, it says in Psalm 78 verses 2 through 4, I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done.

Which actually ties into The parable we're getting ready to go over, uh, Matthew 13 and then verses 34 through 35, Jesus actually quotes the book of Psalms. So,

Jason: It's a good find.

Laura: I thought so. I was like, oh, well that's fun.

Jason: Yep. I was going to pull, I told you before we started recording, I'm going to pull from Matthew, um, but jump in with Mark and Luke if, if you feel motivated, but. What I thought was interesting is that, like, verse 13, 13, sorry, chapter 13, verse 1 starts out by telling us that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake.

And if I'm not mistaken, this was the Sea of Galilee. I

Laura: sounds right.

Jason: think it's right. Somebody can email me if I'm wrong. But in verse 2, it tells us this large crowd gathered. So large that he got into the boat and the crowd stayed on the shore. And for me, this just seemed like a very Jesus thing to do. Like he would use anything as a pulpit.

A boat didn't matter. But there's a theme in boats here. I mean, you have Luke five, one through eleven. Jesus climbed into Simon Peter's boat when he eventually told him, from now on, you will be a fisher of men. We've got Mark four. Where they departed to travel the other side of the Sea of Galilee, and there's this huge storm, and Jesus is asleep, and everyone's freaking out, trying to wake him up, and he rebukes the wind.

And then you have the one where Jesus walks on water, Matthew 14, and they're all, like, boat involved, and I'm wondering if there's something, like, a thread there.

Laura: That would be an interesting thing to take a deep dive into later, I would guess.

Jason: Absolutely. But Jesus would use his surroundings to teach people, that was just something that he did.

Cultural and Theological Insights

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Jason: The parable really starts in verse 3. But now my turn to go do a little backtracking. We mentioned in our last episode, in the intro episode, that parables generally have one main point or principle, unlike an allegory.

And I did some reading, and I found an interesting quote from a theologian named William Barclay. He was a Scottish author, radio TV personality, a minister, a professor, all this stuff. But anyways, he wrote, A parable is not an allegory. An allegory is a story in which every possible detail has an inner meaning.

But an allegory has to be read and studied. A parable is heard. We must be very careful not to make allegories of the parables. I thought that was kind of neat.

Laura: That is interesting, and there's something in one of my commentary books here in just a minute, but I did want to mention that with the boats, from what I understand from different pastors I've heard that have gone over to Israel and have gone, like, out on the lakes, out on the boats, it was actually better acoustics, and their voices carried better, and people could hear them better.

From the seashore or from the lake on to the land, I

Jason: Interesting. That's very

Laura: I've, I've never been to Israel, so I don't know how true that is, but

Jason: Yeah.

Laura: it would make sense since microphones and megaphones and. Sound systems were not a thing, but one of my commentary books says, Long winded, pharmaceutically sedative sermons are not in Jesus's repertoire.

Jason: I like that.

Laura: Or if they were, Mark doesn't seem to remember them any more than we remember last week's sermon, if the preacher numbed us with abstract theological cliches.

Jason: Wow. That's raw.

Laura: It can be true though, but

Jason: Yeah, that's yeah, absolutely. Um, all right. So we should actually probably read this parable. So it starts in verse three of Matthew. Um, then he told the many things in parables. Now, remember parable means to throw alongside of right? So he's using a story to throw alongside the truth. Anyways, uh, Then he told them many things in parables, saying, A farmer went out to sow his seed.

As he was scattering the seeds, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it. Some fell on the rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But then the sun came up, and the plants were scorched, and they withered, because they had no root.

Other seeds fell among the thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still, other seeds fell on good soil where it produced a crop hundred, 60 or 30 times what was sown. So I remember in our last episode, we talked about picking out relevant components, and I thought that would be a fun little thing that we could try doing.

Because

Laura: Okay.

Jason: first

Laura: me with your best shot.

Jason: Yeah, first thing that comes out is the sower. And I think the sower represents God and the seeding of his message.

Laura: The sower could also represent those of us who share God's word.

Jason: There's that's good. I like that. Good one. Seeds obviously represent the word of the gospels or the word or the gospels, or the word of God, however you wanna phrase that.

Laura: Right. And not necessarily just the gospel message, salvation through Jesus, but also any word that gets planted into our hearts, you know, whether it's by a word of knowledge from somebody or something that we read and God kind of impresses on us himself. It all kind of goes back to it is a word from God, whether it's scripture, gospel, that sort of thing.

Jason: Yeah. Planting a seed. I even think you can do gospel in what I call gospel in action. I've mentioned it a couple times in a few episodes. You know, you don't necessarily have to speak the words of gospel, but you can. You can behave in accordance with the gospels and it, and it helps plant the seed as well.

Laura: Absolutely.

Jason: One thing that jumped out at me is. I don't know if it's ironic or funny or just nothing, but the birds, I think the birds represent Satan, like,

Laura: You're absolutely right. Uh, or because the last thing Satan wants is for us to accept The Word of God. So, in this case, they're falling on the footpath, which is a hard heart, and the seed can't get down quick enough before Satan sends something to take it away.

Jason: right? Yep. Absolutely. And then, of course, we have the four soils starting with the hard soil. Someone you just said that they hear the word, but they don't receive the word. Their heart's hardened. Their heart is hardened. I can't talk today.

Laura: That's alright.

Jason: and, you know, you could say it's somebody is hardened by sin.

You know, Satan is working in their life. And they just can't receive it,

Laura: Right. And it could, and it not necessarily sin. It could be hardened by some sort of traumatic event. Some sort of, um,

Jason: even church hurt.

Laura: Church hurt, some sort of abusive situation, they completely shut down and don't care to hear it. So whatever gets sown to them gets taken away.

Jason: Yeah, absolutely. Um, the shallow soil reminds me of ADHD. They get, they, they get very excited and then lose faith quickly and I think it's more self focused than ADHD. I don't want to, you know, disparage anyone who has ADHD, but,

Laura: yeah, it's not necessarily cares of, but the hot sun represents the, um, persecutions. Like they, they accept God's word with joy, with gladness. It springs up quickly. And then people start picking at them, making fun of them, trying to, what's the word I'm looking for here, trying to convince them that this isn't what you think it is, you know, you, that's not what God said.

God's not really, you know, that sort of thing.

Jason: but, but instead of leaning into the word, they recoil from it.

Laura: Right. You know, because some, because even though it was a quick, joyous faith, it wasn't rooted.

Jason: it's a good way to put it. Um, thorny soil is, uh, you know, I'm just going off my notes here. Someone who does receive the word, but it's easily kind of distracted by the sins of this world. Like, you know, they, they receive the word. They're willing to hear it, but then they see that. I don't know, maybe it's interrupting their lifestyle, and it contradicts what they're doing.

Laura: Yeah. Those, those thorns are the cares of the life, like, cares of our lives. Like, they want to make more money, so they work extra on Sundays or, and that's not to say that if somebody happens to have to work on Sunday, that that's a problem, but they need to find other ways to get plugged in.

Jason: Right, you have to feed yourself.

Laura: exactly.

Or other things like, Oh, I'd rather sleep in. Or, Oh, I really want to go see that new Captain America movie instead of going to church. Not necessarily a sin. But a distraction.

Jason: See, now you're making me feel bad for going to the Ren Faire on Sunday.

Laura: Jason, seriously, you're gonna go with that? You are at church more than most people, okay?

Jason: Fair, I suppose that's fair.

Laura: You can take a day off.

Jason: That's what everyone at church is saying. They're like, Oh, that's great. You need a time. You need some time off. I'm like, really?

Laura: I mean, I was on vacation last weekend, and I still went to church. Well, most mostly because if I'm going to be moving there, I needed to visit the church in person,

Jason: There you go. It's

Laura: which by the way,

Jason: Good. Um, and then the last soil is a good soil. Someone who hears, understands and receives the word and allows God to do works in their life.

Laura: exactly.

Jesus Explains the Parable

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Laura: And funny enough, this is the only parable where Jesus actually explained it.

Jason: He does. And if we could read that later, if you want, um,

Laura: which we kind of just went through. We kind of just went through what his explanation was

Jason: We did. And I, I mean, that's kind of why I picked it. I'm like, well, at least he's telling us what this one means. It's a good starting point.

Laura: right now. What's what I found interesting in reading through this earlier today. Um, his disciples, after he was done telling the parable, his disciples come to him and say, why do you use parables?

Jason: Right. We touched on that in the intro one.

Laura: Right. And a lot of people would assume that this was the first parable Jesus ever used. But if it was the first, why would the disciples ask, why do you speak in parables?

Jason: That makes sense.

Laura: Because they must have heard several before this particular one.

Jason: I would assume. So, yeah, I know there is a point where, you know, he, again, we talked about in the intro, he didn't always speak in parables,

Laura: No, he

Jason: but something happened and now he has to, or, or he's prophesized to and, um, And this is a thing now. It's, you know, this is the way he can, um, you know, I know he shifted at one point from, like, let's not tell anybody about this cool stuff I'm doing to not caring about that.

And I don't know if that's where that intersection happened.

Laura: Commentary book I'm looking at says, Uh, Water from the lake did amplify Jesus voice, lifting it to the crowd scattered on the sloping hillside. So, I'm like, Huh, interesting. Because sound does travel better over water.

Jason: Yeah, I suppose it does. I did not know that.

Laura: Um, anyway, sorry, scrabbit.

Jason: I'm surprised we haven't had more of those up to this point.

Laura: I know, considering this is totally unscripted, and I'm, I've got my Bible on one side, with commentary, I've got my commentary book on another, and it's like, ooh, what are we gonna talk about?

Jason: So now, before we get too far, there is something interesting in Matthew 13 verse nine. Which was, whoever has ears, let them hear.

Laura: Whoever has hears, huh?

Jason: Whoever has ears, let them hear. I'm gonna leave that in.

Laura: That was funny.

Jason: But, I mean, where have we heard that before?

Laura: Revelation!

Jason: Yes! He was saying it

Laura: I,

Jason: I didn't even notice that before.

Laura: didn't I mention that in the intro?

Jason: Oh, you might have. You might have. I didn't listen to it. No, I'm just kidding.

Laura: wait a minute, don't you listen to a toy?

Jason: Yes, I do. But I know that Jesus doesn't mean ears of corn. I know we're talking about seeds, but it's not ears of corn.

Laura: Oh, come on. That would have been funny or corny as the case may be.

Jason: Oh, it's happening.

Laura: I know.

Jason: So,

Laura: And we don't even have a script to get us back on track.

Jason: right? Um, cultural significance plays a part in this parable. Because agriculture was a thing back then, and a lot of people would have understood this context. And I even read in, I can remember, it was a commentary somewhere that the, the poor class, the peasant class, if you will, would have been angry that the landowner was being so wasteful of their seed.

Laura: Oh, good point. Because

Jason: it's context.

Laura: it, there are people. There are Christians much too, I'm trying to think the right word here,

Jason: Your dismay?

Laura: much too most people's dismay that they pick and choose who they want to share the gospel with,

Jason: Or what they want to share.

Laura: or what of the gospel they want to share, or if God tells them to say something to somebody, like impresses it upon their heart or whatever, they don't out of fear.

Jason: Yeah, absolutely. Fear of being ridiculed, fear of being persecuted. Fear of being rejected

Laura: Oh, that, that is definitely true. That was also mentioned many people reject or give up the seed of God's message and Jesus is telling the disciples they shouldn't be discouraged when they're rejected. For sharing the word, because some people, the people, some people who do receive it will produce that 30, 60 or 100 fold,

Jason: that was another thing that was interesting as far as cultural significance Because I was curious about that. My understanding is that one might expect four to five fold return on a sewing But thirty sixty and even a hundred would have been mind blowing me that level of return Would pay for the sewing would have paid for all the taxes and still had enough to feed A family for an entire season.

I mean, the magnitude of that alone draws a supernatural conclusion.

esus's miracle of feeding the: 5000

Jason: Yeah, absolutely. That's a good way

Laura: See, um,

Jason: It's a good connection to.

Laura: I'm trying, I'm trying to remember. There was a, one of my friends posted, I think it was one of my friends, hold on, oh hush, um, had posted about The, for lack of a better term, like spiritual fathership, so to speak. Um, and how this person led this person to the Lord, and this person led that person to the Lord, and this person led that person to the Lord.

And then finally it gets to this last name on the list who led thousands upon thousands to the Lord. And Billy Graham was the last name on the list.

Jason: Oh, wow.

Laura: And I'm trying to see if I can find it so I know what the other names were. But the interesting thing about that is my grandmother actually accepted Christ while watching Billy Graham on TV.

Jason: Really?

Laura: So if that first person had not done, had not led the next person to the Lord, then all the way down, my grandmother may not have accepted Christ. Which means I probably wouldn't be here on this podcast.

Jason: It's fair. You'd mentioned that Jesus explains the meaning of this parable. Do you want to do? Do you mind reading that one? Will you do the honors?

Laura: one. Sure, I can read that one. When the disciples asked, why do you use parables, Jesus replied, You are permitted to understand the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge.

But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use parables. And then he, he actually goes back and says, this fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah. When you hear what I say, you will not understand. When you see what I do, you will not comprehend.

I'm going to kind of skip over the rest. So basically, he's going back to the Old Testament to a prophecy as to why he's speaking in parables in the first, in the first place. And then he tells the disciples, but blessed are your eyes because they see and your ears because they hear. I tell you the truth.

Many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see, but they didn't see it. And they longed to hear what you hear, but they didn't hear it. And then starting in verse 18, he goes on to explain. He says, Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the kingdom and don't understand it.

Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts. The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's Word. The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God's Word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so that no fruit is produced. The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God's Word and produce a harvest of 30, 60, or even 100 times as much as had been planted.

I

Jason: what we already described, but it's good to hear the actual gospels. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. The main theme here is. There's four ways to respond to the Gospels. You know, we can hear the word, let ourselves continue to be lost to Satan as he works in our lives. We can get excited about the word, but then don't let it take root and then get discouraged because of the hardships in our lives and just give up on God and his message.

We can hear the word, but if it starts to kind of invade our lifestyle or whatever, we begin to worry about how being a Christ follower is impacting ours, our lives instead of. reflecting on what needs to change in us, maybe, uh, then the thorn bushes, you know, the tainted parts of our lifestyles will cause our relationship to God to be choked out and eventually die.

And then we can hear the word, live it out in our lives and trust that God will provide. And did I miss anything?

Laura: don't think so. But I did find, I did find the, the thing that I was looking for, the spiritual lineage for, for Billy Graham. Um, it went from Edward Kimball led Dwight L. Moody to the Lord. And under Moody's ministry, Wilbur Chapman was saved. And then Billy Sunday was converted because of Chapman's preaching.

And because of Sunday's preaching, um, Mordecai Ham was saved and then at a ham crusade, Billy Graham came to Christ

Jason: Well, that's quite the lineage.

Laura: and nobody, nobody knows about Edward Kimball, but if he hadn't done what he was supposed to do, then. I mean, think of all the thousands upon thousands of people who heard the gospel and received it because of Billy Graham.

Jason: That's fair. That is fair. Uh, all right. I think, I think we've beaten this horse to death. You have any last words or any final thoughts on this

Laura: final thoughts. No, I don't think I do. I think this, I think we just about covered it. And I mean, obviously there's probably more we could delve into, but

Jason: Yeah, I'm sure there is. Yes.

Final Thoughts and Takeaways

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Jason: But I'll just finish it up and say thank you for joining me and Laura as we went on this incredible journey through the parable of the sower. Seems like a good place to start with this series, and I can't speak for Laura, but I wasn't disappointed.

Laura: well, that's nice to hear. I was not disappointed either.

Jason: Good. I think my overall takeaway is this. Be the good soil that God plants a seed in. Don't let Satan take the word away from you. Don't let him work in your life. Let God's message take root. Let it change you to be more godly and be more Christlike. Trust that God will provide for you and trust that God will see you through all of your hardships.

But until next time, keep loving your neighbors, dive into God's word daily, and may the Lord bless you and keep you and fill you with his peace. Take care and God bless, and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye!

Laura: Bye.

Jason: I had to say it.

Laura: No, you didn't.

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