Saturday evening’s TV schedule from August through to May is fairly predictable. After the game shows and Casualty, when the News has finished, then the familiar theme tune begins, and Match of the Day kicks off. I’m sure you’ll know how it works even if you don’t watch it. Every Premier League game played that day is featured, but they don’t show the whole game. Instead, they show the highlights, and then they talk about what they’ve seen.
This morning, we’re getting the Match of the Day highlights from another day of Jesus’ teaching. As we’ve already noticed with Mark, he tells us where Jesus is - he’s by the lake (1). And as we’ve also noticed with Mark, he focuses on the crowds that are gathering to hear and see Jesus. This time, the crowd is so large that Jesus has to get into a boat, out on the lake, with everyone along the shore, listening to all that he’s saying.
It’s in verse 2 that we see that we’re getting the Match of the Day type highlights. ‘He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said...’ So Jesus taught many things, but Mark is picking out one memorable parable to present here in his gospel. And it’s certainly a memorable parable. I’m sure that as you heard it being read, you thought to yourself, here we go, the parable of the sower. We know what that’s about. You’ve heard it all before.
But don’t switch off just yet! Don’t start organising your week, or counting the number of panes on the windows, or seeing how many sweets you can eat before the sermon finishes. Because this is a story about you. I’m not sure if Premier League stars tune in to Match of the Day to see what’s said about them. But this story that Jesus tells today is about you. You’re featured in it, somewhere. I wonder can you find yourself in it?
The story itself is well known. The farmer goes out to sow his seed. But don’t think of a high precision type of operation, where each individual seed is guided into a purpose-dug hole, for maximum yield. The word Jesus uses is (4) ‘scattering the seed.’ Think of a bag of seed, and the farmer scatters it as he walks along. And, as Jesus tells the story, we see that the seed really does go everywhere. Some on the path, which (Mary Poppins-style) feeds the birds. Some seed on rocky places, with quick growth and quick withering. Some seed among the thorns, where it doesn’t really get a chance to grow. And some seed on good soil, producing a bumper crop, thirty, sixty or a hundred times what was sown.
And that’s the story over. To round off the story, Jesus says, there in verse 9, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’ So, did you hear what Jesus said? And if you did, what did he really say?
You see, it sounds as if Jesus was giving a lesson in agriculture - helping people to work out where they should sow their seed to get maximum output. Or maybe he was dictating a column for the Farming Life on sowing techniques. Is that what he wants us to hear? Or what is it all about?
Well, there’s something more going on here. You see, verse 2 had said that Jesus taught in parables. And a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. But what is the meaning? And why does he bother speaking in parables? Why not just come out and tell us what he means?
That’s a good question, and it’s the one that the disciples ask in verse 10. The crowds are away. It’s just Jesus with the Twelve and the others around him. And they ‘asked him about the parables.’ (10). They’re confused as well, they don’t really understand what he was saying. (So we’re in good company if we’re not sure either!).
Verse 11: ‘The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”’
Jesus says there are insiders and outsiders. The insiders are his disciples, and they receive the secret of the kingdom of God. But those on the outside hear the parable, but don’t really understand what’s being said. Jesus is quoting there from Isaiah 6 (our first reading), where the prophet Isaiah is sent out by God to preach, even though the people aren’t going to listen to him. The same thing is happening here - the crowds are flocking to hear Jesus, but they don’t really hear him, they don’t really understand him.
We are in a privileged position, because we get to hear the inside story. We get to hear what the parable is all about, and so we can find where we are in the story. But first, there’s a little bit of a rebuke for the disciples there in verse 12. ‘Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable?’ This is a basic parable, an easy one to grasp, so let’s see what it’s all about.
Verse 14: ‘The farmer sows the word.’ So in the parable, every time you see the seed, what is being sown is the word - God’s word. It’s the same seed, the same word. And God’s word is scattered, it’s sown everywhere and anywhere. But that word falls in four different types of soils, four different types of hearers. Every time the word is sown, you’ll have these four different reactions. So which of these are you?
First of all, some people are like seed along the path, with the birds. ‘As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.’ (15) That might be some of us here today. You hear what’s said, you hear God’s word, but before we stand to sing the next hymn, it’s gone. You’ll not think of it again. Satan has taken it away, so that it doesn’t even have a chance of growing in you.
Other people, they’re like the rocky places. They quickly respond to what they’ve heard - ‘they receive it with joy.’ (16). And you think - brilliant! They’ve got it, and they’re making quick progress in growing up as Christians! But in the rocky places there are no roots, and so ‘they only last a short time.’ (17). Quick response, and quick falling away. Why do they fall away? They’re not rooted and able to keep going when trouble comes. ‘When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.’ It’s not about how you start, but about how you finish.
Other people, they’re like the thorny places. They’ve heard the word, they’re starting to grow up, but other things are growing in the same place. ‘But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.’ (18-19).
So far, the farmer’s labours haven’t really seemed worth it, have they? Three quarters of his seed has been sown and he has nothing to show for it. And if you’re involved in sowing the seed of God’s word in whatever way, perhaps you can too easily focus on the discouragements - the people who don’t really seem to get it; or the people who started well and then fell away; or the people who got choked up on everything else.
But don’t give up just yet. You see, the last type of soil more than makes up for the rest. Alongside the path, and the rocky soil and the thorny ground, there is also the good soil. The soil where the seed produces a bumper crop, multiplying thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown. It’s all worth it, and the harvest will be gathered in.
So why does Jesus tell the parable, and what does it mean for us? I wonder did you notice how the parable started and ended. At the start of it in verse 3, he says: ‘Listen!’ And at the end of it in verse 9, he says: ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’
Jesus is calling us to listen, to hear what he’s saying, for the word to take root in our hearts. The only way it can take root in our hearts is by listening to Jesus, hearing his word, and responding to it. So listen carefully!
And perhaps, as you hear the parable, and you identify yourself in the story as one of the soils - perhaps Jesus is challenging you to improve your soil, by removing the rocks or the weeds that keep us back from hearing and growing. So how soil-y are you?
But the focus is really on the sower. And we can find ourselves sowing the seed of God’s word in a variety of ways - formally and informally. Maybe in church, preaching, or in Sunday School or some of the youth organisations as you share something from the Bible; maybe as you share a nugget from the sermon with someone you meet; maybe as you share a verse on your Facebook or other social media; maybe as you have family Bible times around the kitchen table. But as you sow, you’ll encounter these differing responses. And you might be tempted to give up. To not bother sharing God’s word. But Jesus says to keep doing it! Because as you scatter, it will sometimes land on the path, or the rocky ground, or the thorny ground. But sometimes it will land on good soil, soil that is ready for God’s word, and the growth will be amazing, far bigger than you could ever imagine.
So this is a word for sowers - keep sowing, wherever and whenever you can. And this is a word for everyone who hears God’s word - listen up!
This sermon was preached in St Matthew's Church, Richhill on Sunday morning 3rd March 2019.
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