Today we’re going to start looking at the parable of the sower, this is found in Matthew 13v1→9 with the explanation in 13v18→23, it’s also found in Mark 4v1→20, and Luke 8v4→15. We’ll be spending out time looking at Matthews gospel. For those who are not familiar with the parable of the sower, here is a quick run down of what its about (it’s obviously better if you go read the scriptures though). A farmer goes out to sow seed, and as he scatters the seed it falls on different types of soils (hard, rocky, thorny, and good soil). Each of these different soils produce a different crop from the same seed.

Here is the clue to understanding this parable; the farmer is the person who tells others the Gospel, the seed is the Gospel message, and the soils are different people that hear the message. This is a super important parable, because Jesus tells us (in Mark 4v13) that it is vital that we understand this parable if we want to understand any other of Jesus’ parables.  So let’s dig in!

There are two ways that you can read any parable of Jesus, either you read it as a “them” or you read it as a “me”. What i mean by this is that when we have a look at the parable of the sower we can either see the different soils as “…those other people out there who don’t want to receive the Gospel.” Or you can read it and ask yourself the question; “Which soil am I?” obviously there is a place for us to apply this parable to those outside of the Christ who have heard the Gospel, but i think that Jesus’ primary intention was that we would first apply it to ourselves. So that’s what i hope that we do as we spend the next few weeks having a look at the different soils within this parable.

The big question that you must ask yourself is this; “In what way am I like this soil?” This will require you to be honest with yourself, and to take a long hard look at where you are at spiritually. However, it is my prayer that through this parable, Jesus would meet us where we are at and begin to take us to where He wants us to be. Over the next few days, take some time out to read through the whole parable of the sower, maybe even try read through it in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Then next week we’re going to begin looking at the first type of soil.

Related Posts

1. Parable of the Sower – The Hard Soil
2. Parable of the Sower – The Good Soil
3. Parable of the Sower – The Thorny Soil