Luke 8:4-8
When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: “A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.” As he said this, he called out, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!”
We tend to squish together the parable of the sower and its interpretation, which follows a few verses later. That makes some sense, as they are connected by subject matter; namely, the parable.
But they also occur as two parts of a larger three-part narrative. The parable itself is what we’ve just read in verses 4-8 and stands as part one. Part two is comprised of verses 9 and 10, where Jesus discloses something of the surprising purpose of parables. And the interpretation of the parable then follows as part three in verses 11 to 15.
While we’ll have an opportunity to survey the whole matter in time, there’s also good reason, I believe, to start by treating each as distinct parts. Indeed, they are different enough in tone and focus that many biblical scholars wonder whether these may have once been independent traditions that Luke and the other evangelists put together. So, on to the parable itself.
The parable is bracketed by two interesting elements. First, Jesus is now attracting significant crowds. It’s in this setting – when huge numbers of people have come to listen – that he begins to teach. But the teaching comes in the form of a parable.
Parables are not common moralisms, offering simplistic ethical counsel. Nor are they usually straightforward allegories, where one element of the parable corresponds equally and directing to something from life. Rather, parables are something of a riddle, something that almost always has a twist – some unexpected element with a latent meaning that only makes sense a little later. Jesus will say a bit more about parables shortly. For now, we note that in response to the huge crowds, he begins to teach in parables.
The parable concludes with Jesus’ call, “Let anyone with ears to hear listen!” There’s something of a challenge here. Jesus admits that what he says is not necessarily easy to hear, to understand, to take to heart, or even to believe.
And what is it that is so challenging? Well, a farmer goes out to sow seed. Everyone listening would be familiar with this scene; indeed, some may have done this task themselves. And the seed falls all over the place – some on the path to be trampled and eaten by birds, some among rocks where they could not find moisture and withered, some among thorns where they were choked and died, and – finally, we might add – some among good soil that grew and flourished.
Simple enough.
Except for one thing. And it’s the one thing everyone in Jesus’ original audience would have known: no farmer sows seeds like this.
You see, seed doesn’t just fall, it’s thrown, or better, given what we call a farmer doing this task, it’s sown. Farmers don’t just scatter seed, they sow it, planting it with intentionality so that it might grow. All of which begs the question, what kind of idiot sows three-quarters of his seed where it has next to no chance to flourish? What kind of farmer, that is, is so wasteful as to indiscriminately scatter seed hither and yon with little to no care about where it lands? What kind of farmer doesn’t count the cost and sow with care, but instead throws it away so freely, wildly, and carelessly.
If this is a parable of the kingdom, the kingdom of God Jesus has come to proclaim, then it sounds like Jesus is saying that that’s what God does.
Let anyone with ears to hear listen.
Prayer: Dear God, you are wildly indiscriminate, even wasteful, with your love. Let us be similarly wild and indiscriminate with sharing your love with all of your people. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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