Matthew 13:1-23 Parable of the Sower Discussion Review
I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving break and you’ve recovered from food, travel, and all the activities of the long weekend. I posted a Thanksgiving article exploring the Biblical idea of giving thanks and gratitude, and looking at some Scripture on our call as the church for gratitude and generosity. I didn’t have a chance to work through the previous weeks church discussion, so this week, we’ll double up on our two Sundays on Matthew 13.
In our discussion on the beginning of Matthew 13 last week we spent some time looking at the passages, specifically 1-9, and how to notice different things in the text that show patterns, important points, or raise more questions worth exploring. That was a fun exercise to do as a church family, so I wanted to share more on that and show how I will break down a text when I’m studying, especially when preparing a sermon.
I start by copying the text of the passage into a document, and separating each verse into its own line. Then I will drop down new thoughts into its own line and tab over to the right to somewhat match up where the new thought connects to the previous thought. Conjunctions are an obvious place to start with this tactic and then you can break it down further from there. I find it’s even interesting to read by jumping thought to thought to get a stripped down read of the direction of the text. For instance, verse 1 could read “Jesus went out and sat and great crowds gathered…” When you cut out the extra info you can quickly grasp narrative steps, like a “this then that then that” to quickly wrap your head around who’s doing what before diving deeper. That doesn’t always work or make sense, but if it does it’s a good short cut, especially in the narrative and descriptive blocks of text.
I’ve also highlighted specific words that repeated or were related in thought or action to help visualize the thoughts in the text. We can see the repetition that the “seeds fell” onto four specific places and three things happened to them and one thing happened with them, which is the key distinction in the parable.
Here’s a helpful table from the commentary Opening Up Matthew:
There are a lot of ways of interpreting and applying meaning here to this famous Gospel parable. I think first of all from the lens of the sower doing the action, “Jesus is reminding us that not all our gospel labour has a positive effect. Sometimes, only a quarter of the labour and effort we exert will be effective in yielding a harvest to God’s glory.” [OUM] The good news about that is that God does not give up. Isaiah 42:1-4, which Matthew began quoting in chapter 12, tells us that the Messiah will bring justice and hope, and He will not be discouraged or grow faint in His efforts.
Likewise, we are called to the same labor, being commissioned as disciples into the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:11-6:13), we too must make effort and persevere in spreading the Gospel, regardless of short term outcomes. “Jesus is also telling us that the effectiveness of our gospel witness might not be immediately apparent. At the end of a hard day’s sowing, the sower had very little to show for his labour… The sower sows in faith, believing that what he does will have a consequence in the future, if not in the immediate present.” [OUM]
Another aspect of meaning we can apply to this parable is looking at our own lives through the lens of the soil. Nick asked us a few questions regarding this last week: Do you want to know God? Are you listening, looking, and wanting, but the soil of your life doesn’t reflect Jesus? What kind of soil are you? Thinking practically about it, what do you need to cut out of your life in order to cultivate better soil? What do you need to add in? What are things in your life that need cleaned out (rocks)? What desires, anxieties, fears, or sins are waiting to choke out the growth of Gospel seeds in your life (weeds)?
We later get an example of what good soil looks like from the disciples when they go in verse 10 to ask what the parables mean. They show that they are seeking out the Truth by asking more. We see that reaction frequently in the Gospels, when Jesus is finished teaching or performing a miracle and very few come back seeking out to know more. Often the crowds go away confused or religious leaders who opposed him left angry, but there’s usually a few faithful that keep their eyes fixed on the Kingdom values that Jesus is teaching and pursue learning more. So let’s follow their example by laboring diligently in spreading the Gospel, regardless of difficulties or results, and strive to keep the soil of our lives free of the rocks and weeds of the world.