'And when much people were gathered together, and were
come to Him out of every city, He spake by a parable:
5. A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed,
some fell by the wayside; and it was trodden down, and
the fowls of the air devoured it. 6. And some fell upon
a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered
away, because it lacked moisture. 7. And some fell
among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and
choked it. 8. And other fell on good ground, and sprang
up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when He had said
these things, He cried, He that hath ears to hear, let
him hear. 9. And His disciples asked Him, saying, What
might this parable be? 10. And He said, Unto you it is
given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but
to others in parables; that seeing they might not see,
and hearing they might not understand. 11. Now the
parable is this; The seed is the word of God. 12. Those
by the way-side are they that hear: then cometh the
devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts,
lest they should believe and be saved. 13. They on the
rock are they which, when they hear, receive the word
with joy; and these have no root, which for a while
believe, and in time of temptation fall away. 14. And
that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they
have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares, and
riches, and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit
to perfection. 15. But that on the good ground are
they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard
the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.'
--LUKE viii. 4-16.
Luke is particular in dating this parable as spoken at a time when
crowds resorted to Jesus, and the cities of Galilee seemed emptied
out to hear Him. No illusions as to the depth or worth of this
excitement beset Him. Sadly He looked on the eager multitudes,
because He looked through them, and saw how few of them were
bringing 'an honest and good heart' for the soil of His word. Just
because He saw the shallowness of the momentary enthusiasm, He spoke
this pregnant parable from a heavy heart, and as He tells us in His
explanation of it to the disciples (ver. 10), uses the parabolic
garb as a means of hiding the truth from the unsusceptible, and of
bringing it home to those who were prepared to receive it. Every
parable has that double purpose of obscuring and revealing. The
obscuring is punitive, but the punishment is meant to be remedial.
God never cheats men by a revelation that does not reveal, and the
very hiding is meant to stimulate to a search which cannot be vain.
The broad outstanding fact of the parable is tragic. Three failures
and one success! It may be somewhat lightened by observing that the
proportion which each 'some' bears to the whole seed-basketful is
not told; but with all alleviation, it is sad enough. What a lesson
for all eager reformers and apostles of any truth, who imagine that
they have but to open their mouths and the world will listen! What a
warning for any who are carried off their feet by their apparent
'popularity'! What a solemn appeal to all hearers of God's message!
I. Commentators have pointed out that all four kinds of soil might
have been found close together by the lake, and that there may have
been a sower at work within sight. But the occasion of the parable
lay deeper than the accident of local surroundings. A path through a
cornfield is a prosaic enough thing, but one who habitually holds
converse with the unseen, and ever sees it shining through the seen,
beholds all things 'apparelled in celestial light,' and finds deep
truths in commonplace objects. The sower would not intentionally
throw seed on the path, but some would find its resting-place there.
It would lie bare on the surface of the hard ground, and would not
be there long enough to have a chance of germinating, but as soon as
the sower's back was turned to go up the next furrow, down would
come the flock of thievish birds that fluttered behind him, and bear
away the grains. The soil might be good enough, but it was so hard
that the seed did not get in, but only lay on it. The path was of
the same soil as the rest of the field, only it had been trodden
down by the feet of passengers, perhaps for many years.
A heart across which all manner of other thoughts have right of way
will remain unaffected by the voice of Jesus, if He spoke His
sweetest, divinest tones, still more when He speaks but through some
feeble man. The listener hears the words, but they never get farther
than the drum of his ear. They lie on the surface of his soul, which
is beaten hard, and is non-receptive. How many there are who have
been listening to the preaching of the Gospel, which is in a true
sense the sowing of the seed, all their lives, and have never really
been in contact with it! Tramp, tramp, go the feet across the path,
heavy drays of business, light carriages of pleasure, a never-ending
stream of traffic and noise like that which pours day and night
through the streets of a great city, and the result is complete
insensibility to Christ's voice.
If one could uncover the hearts of a congregation, how many of them
would be seen to be occupied with business or pleasures, or some
favourite pursuit, even while they sit decorously in their pews! How
many of them hear the preacher's voice without one answering thought
or emotion! How many could not for their lives tell what his last
sentence was! No marvel, then, that, as soon as its last sound has
ceased, down pounce a whole covey of light-winged fancies and
occupations, and carry off the poor fragments of what had been so
imperfectly heard. One wonders what percentage of remembrances of a
sermon is driven out of the hearers' heads in the first five minutes
of their walk home, by the purely secular conversation into which
they plunge so eagerly.
II. The next class of hearers is represented by seed which has had
somewhat better fate, inasmuch as it has sunk some way in, and begun
to sprout. The field, like many a one in hilly country, had places
where the hard pan of underlying rock had only a thin skin of earth
over it. Its very thinness helped quick germination, for the rock
was near enough to the surface to get heated by the sun. So, with
undesirable rapidity, growth began, and shoots appeared above ground
before there was root enough made below to nourish them. There was
only one possible end for such premature growth--namely, withering
in the heat. No moisture was to be drawn from the shelf of rock, and
the sun was beating fiercely down, so the feeble green stem drooped
and was wilted.
It is the type of emotional hearers, who are superficially touched
by the Gospel, and too easily receive it, without understanding what
is involved. They take it for theirs 'with joy,' but are strangers
to the deep exercises of penitence and sorrow which should precede
the joy. 'Lightly come, lightly go,' is true in Christian life as
elsewhere. Converts swiftly made are quickly lost. True, the most
thorough and permanent change may be a matter of a moment; but, if
so, into that moment emotions will be compressed like a great river
forced through a mountain gorge, which will do the work of years.
Such surface converts fringe all religious revivals. The crowd
listening to our Lord was largely made up of them. These were they
who, when a ground of offence arose, 'went back, and walked no more
with Him.' They have had their successors in all subsequent times of
religious movement. Light things are caught up by the wind of a
passing train, but they soon drop to the ground again. Emotion is
good, if there are roots to it. But 'these have no root.' The Gospel
has not really touched the depths of their natures, their wills,
their reason, and so they shrivel up when they have to face the toil
and self-sacrifice inherent in a Christian life.
III. The third parcel of seed advanced still farther. It rooted and
grew. But the soil had other occupants. It was full of seeds of
weeds and thorns (not thorn _bushes_). So the two crops ran a
race, and as ill weeds grow apace, the worse beat, and stifled the
green blades of the springing corn, which, hemmed in and shut out
from light and air, came to nothing.
The man represented has not made clean work of his religion. He has
received the good seed, but has forgotten that something has to be
grubbed up and cast out, as well as something to be taken in, if he
would grow the fair fruits of Christian character. He probably has
cut down the thorns, but has left their roots or seeds where they
were. He has fruit of a sort, but it is scanty, crude, and green.
Why? Because he has not turned the world out of his heart. He is
trying to unite incompatibles, one of which is sure to kill the
other. His 'thorns' are threefold, as Luke carefully distinguishes
them into 'cares and riches and pleasures,' but they are one in
essence, for they are all 'of this life.' If he is poor, he is
absorbed in cares; if rich, he is yet more absorbed in wealth, and
his desires go after worldly pleasures, which he has not been
taught, by experience of the supreme pleasure of communion with God,
to despise.
Mark that this man does not 'fall away.' He keeps up his Christian
name to the end. Probably he is a very influential member of the
church, universally respected for his wealth and liberality, but his
religion has been suffocated by the other growth. He has fruit, but
it is not to 'perfection.' If Jesus Christ came to Manchester, one
wonders how many such Christians He would discover in the chief
seats in the synagogues.
IV. The last class avoids the defects of the three preceding. The
soil is soft, deep, and clean. The seed sinks, roots, germinates,
has light and air, and brings forth ripened grain. The 'honest and
good heart' in which it lodges has been well characterised as one
'whose aim is noble, and who is generously devoted to his aim'
(Bruce, _The Parabolic Teaching of Christ_, p. 33). Such a soul
Christ recognises as possible, prior to the entrance into it of the
word. There are dispositions which prepare for the reception of the
truth. But not only the previous disposition, but the subsequent
attitude to the word spoken, is emphasised by our Lord. 'They having
heard the word, hold it fast.' Docilely received, it is steadily
retained, or held with a firm grip, whoever and whatever may seek to
pluck it from mind or heart.
Further, not only tenacity of grasp, but patient perseverance of
effort after the fruit of Christian character, is needed. There must
be perseverance in the face of obstacles within and without, if
there is to be fruitfulness. The emblem of growth does not suffice
to describe the process of Christian progress. The blade becomes the
ear, and the ear the full corn, without effort. But the Christian
disciple has to fight and resist, and doggedly to keep on in a
course from which many things would withdraw him. The nobler the
result, the sorer the process. Corn grows; character is built up as
the result, first of worthily receiving the good seed, and then of
patient labour and much self-suppression.
These different types of character are capable of being changed. The
path may be broken up, the rock blasted and removed, the thorns
stubbed up. We make ourselves fit or unfit to receive the seed and
bear fruit. Christ would not have spoken the parable if He had not
hoped thereby to make some of His hearers who belonged to the three
defective classes into members of the fourth. No natural,
unalterable incapacity bars any from welcoming the word, housing it
in his heart, and bringing forth fruit with patience.