The Parable of the Sower: Part 2, Jesus’ Interpretation

In the last post, we looked at the Parable of the Sower. We saw that the emphasis of the story is on the generosity of the sower, who sows liberally without regard to potential yield. But that isn’t the whole story. For this is one of the rare times when the Bible records Jesus interpreting a parable, and he pulls out a different emphasis from the story. So today I’d like to look at his interpretation, why it might be different from what emerged last time, and whether we should be concerned about that.

(If you don’t have time to read the whole study, feel free to skip to the summary at the end.)

Text

Again using Matthew’s version of events:

[13.18] So then, hear the parable of the sower: [19] When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart; they are what was sowed along the road. [20] As for what is sown on rocky ground, this one is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. [21] But they do not have a root system and so they don’t last; when trouble or harassment comes on account of the word, they immediately get tripped up. [22] As for the one sown among the thorns, they hear the word and the cares of this world and the lure of wealth chokes the word, and it becomes barren. [23] But as for the one sown upon the good earth, they are the one who hears the word and understands it, and indeed bears a crop, yielding sometimes a hundredfold, sometimes sixty, and at others thirty. (Matthew 13.18-23)

In all three Gospels, the interpretation is the third piece of a three-part sequence: First Jesus tells the parable itself; second he discusses why he has started to teach in parables; and third he offers this explanation of the parable. Our study today will have to take all three sections into account.

Experience

Again, it’s hard for me to come at this text with fresh eyes. But, after the exciting reading of the parable that emerged the other day, I was struck by how different the emphasis here: The story focuses on the sower, but the explanation focuses on the types of soil. What might this mean?

Encounter

In the text, we again encounter Jesus, who is setting the stage for a new strategy in his teaching ministry. We also meet this disciples, who form the direct audience for the explanation. I wonder the extent to which the shift in audience accounts for the shift in focus.

In the story, the farmer is the only real character, but here in the explanation, the different types of ground also become ‘characters’. I’m curious about these details.

Explore

These first two steps have identified two broad questions that will guide the rest of the study:

• How do the three sections of this larger unit fit together?
• What else can we learn about the types of ground?

Literary Context

Story vs. Interpretation

Last time we saw that there was at least some fluidity in the early Church concerning this parable, including the parable circulating independently of the interpretation and at least one prominent Apostolic Father (the author of 1 Clement, which came very close to being included in the New Testament) pulling from it a different message. That said, there is nothing to suggest that the interpretation is not a legitimate teaching of Jesus: 1. The entire textual tradition we have includes it; 2. we know that parables in the ancient world generally included an interpretation so it’s not strange to find one here; 3. and by their nature stories contain many themes that can be pulled out as required. (And perhaps most importantly, 4. since we are coming to the text as Christians first and foremost, and not as textual critics, it’s a moot point: The interpretation is in our canon either way!)

The difference in focus here can be easily explained by the change in audience, from telling the story for a large crowd to interpreting it for just a small group of disciples. Jesus even says (more on this below) that his message shifts when he’s speaking to his followers instead of the public. In this case, the story he tells in public focuses on the almost laughable generosity of the Sower in sowing his seed no matter the potential for success. In private, however, the story lends itself to shifting the focus on why the message may not always take hold — which would indeed be a strange message to preach to the masses!

Why Parables?

Two posts ago, we looked at the verses that intervene between the story and its interpretation, which offer Jesus’ rationale for teaching in parables. To summarize that study:

• After Jesus tells the story in public, his disciples take him aside and ask him about his shift to preaching in parables
• In response, he says a different approach is needed for teaching the public from what he can use with disciples, who are already receptive to his message and therefore able to understand him (though, from the Gospels, even this is far from certain! (Scott 346; OSB)).
• He compares his situation to Isaiah’s, who also preached to a people largely unable or unwilling to understand what God needed them to hear
• Teaching in parables reveals those who are truly willing and able to hear from those who are not; and for those who are not, a little confusion may even be what’s needed to soften their hearts and minds.

This context goes a long way to explaining the different focus of the interpretation from that of the story itself. Jesus is having a different conversation now, one about the frustrations of public ministry and the different ways people receive or reject his message.

Narrative Details: The Ground

(For a study of the details of the sower, his technique, and the seeds, see the previous post.) Four types of surface are described in the parable:

1. The Path

The seed cannot penetrate this hard-packed ground and so is susceptible to depredation. Here in the interpretation, Jesus compares this to the word of God just bouncing off hardened hearts. This is akin to the situation described by his earlier appropriation of Isaiah 6, with its hints of the hardening of Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus (F Stern 29). That there are more than two options in the parable reveals a more nuanced reality than the either-or of understanding and lack of understanding suggested in his rationale for speaking in parables.

The depredation is an interesting detail but doesn’t add much. Just as birds may eat seed strewn on a road, so too may evil (however that’s imagined) steal away the word. However, as Capon notes, even if the evil one tries to use the word for his own purposes, the word remains the word and his attempts at changing its essence will fail.

Some scholars focusing on the social and economic contexts of the parables have suggested that the reference to roads and birds refer to the Roman authorities’ heavy levies on grain production (Van Eck 57f; cf. Herzog), but I don’t think this interpretation is either needed or helpful. Even if the Romans are in mind, Empire is just one face of evil in the world.

2. Rocky Ground

The second type of ground is full of stones and has precious little topsoil. The Gospel versions offer a rather convoluted description that these seeds grow up quickly but are poorly rooted so wither up as soon as conditions grow unfavourable. (The Gospel of Thomas’s version is simpler: there the seeds struggle to take root and are eaten by worms (Thomas 9).) Jesus compares this situation to those who are quick to receive his message, but who retreat as soon as things get challenging. The rich young ruler comes to mind here, but I also like the suggestion that this could easily describe the disciples themselves: They too are easily scandalized by him; and Judas betrays him, while the others either abandon or deny him following his arrest (Nuechterlein Proper 10A; cf. Scott 346; OSB). (This could be a nice play on Jesus’ renaming of Simon as Peter, which means ‘Rocky’.) By extension, this could apply in potential to all followers of Jesus (Hagner 107).

3. Ground Covered in Thorns

Here the seed cannot grow to fruition because of competition from other plants. Jesus equates this situation with those in whom the Gospel cannot mature and bear good fruit because of competing values, specifically a focus on immediate concerns and the love of money — a situation that feels sadly common in our world today! These are “social systems that aggressively engulf everybody and leave no room for anything but thorns begetting more thorns” (Marr; cf. Hagner 107).

4. Fertile Soil

This soil has no impediments to growth and the seed is able to grow and bear a harvest. Jesus equates this with those who have ‘ears to hear’ and who understand and receive his words. It’s interesting here that the harvest is inconsistent (thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold), and there is debate about whether even the greatest yield described here is actually all that incredible (Hagner 104; France 505; NIV BTS; Walton & Keener; Wilson 449). Either way, the focus is on the fact that these seeds bear good fruit — the yield itself and not its relative size is what’s important.

Together, the four kinds of surface are intended to cover the various types and conditions of human beings. It’s “not so much individuals as social environments” that is in view here (Marr). It’s also interesting that the complications — birds, sun, thorns — are assumed to be part of the natural order of things: “Their presence is not unexpected, and their activity does not hinder either the activity of the sower or the success of the seeds that fall on good soil” (Wilson 453). As Capon puts it: “All the evil in the universe, whether from the devil or from us, is now and ever shall be just part of the divine ecology. “

So, while the parable itself invites the audience to focus attention on the generous and abundant activity of the sower, Jesus’ interpretation not only offers an explanation of why the results of prophetic or evangelistic activity are not consistent, but also invites the audience to ponder the state of their own heart before God.

Challenge

Subversion of First-Century Expectations

See the previous post for a discussion of the absence of Israel from the parable’s logic.

Contemporary Challenges

Aside from the aforementioned extreme socio-economic readings of this parable that I think can be easily disregarded, the main challenge I see to the discussion here comes from the standard theodicy questions: Is this situation just? But for the purpose of the Parable of the Sower at least, I think we can pull out even more hope for those who are not receptive to God’s message than the text itself might suggest. If we think through the analogies further, seed that gets eaten by a bird or animal gets carried off and distributed into unknown places, where it can grow. And, the sprouts which grow but quickly wither, or which are out-competed by thorns, can break up the rocky soil as they grow and fertilize it as they decompose, making the ground more receptive to future sowing. As Pastor Kim Beckman beautifully put it:

[I]t is the sower’s continued sowing that in time transforms even these failed situations into good soil and a chance for abundant life. Good soil only comes about through the processes of death and decay. Even the seed that falls to the earth and dies participates in this. (quoted by Nuechterlein Proper 10A)

Expand

So, how does this reading encourage us to grow in faithfulness and love? What we have here is first and foremost a parable about the excessive love and generosity of God. But Jesus’ interpretation of it opens up further areas of reflection, inviting us to question the quality of the soil of our own heart, and, if necessary (and it always is to some extent), to repent and do the work that will help us break up our hard-heartedness and unblock our ears and eyes. And, by expanding on the story’s details, we might even pull out a beautiful teaching offering hope for even the least welcoming of soils; for repeated cycles of growing and dying are a big part of what makes soil healthy and receptive.

Summary and Conclusions

While he kept to big messages and themes in his public teaching, Jesus could have different conversations with his disciples. While the Parable of the Sower is about the excessive love and generosity of God, and how we might respond to it, this same story allowed Jesus also to talk about why his message wasn’t met with universal acclaim. It therefore acts as a balm for those in ministry, reminding us that people’s response to God’s message of love is not our responsibility. Our only duty is, like God, to be generous in sharing it.

 

* For full references, please see the series bibliography.