The Parable of The Indiscriminate Sower

Have you ever heard the parable of the sower?  Jesus taught it and it can be found in Matthew 13:3-8.  Like all of Jesus’ parables, this one contains amazing surprises.  This parable speaks of seed being scattered on stony places, shallow places, among thorns and on good ground.  It says the good ground produced some 30, 60, and some 100-fold return.  And so as soon as we hear Jesus talking about these incredible returns, we jump right to the part where we try to figure out how to be “good soil”.  We want to see ourselves as the good soil, we like the ability to categorize and label, to judge and compare ourselves against the other soils. 

I Bet You Think This Parable Is About You

All the sermons that I’ve heard preached about this parable focus on the different types of ground.  In this parable, it’s easy to get caught up in the business of the soil.  We struggle over the details of where we fit and of what steps we can take to become “good” soil.  When Jesus explains this parable, He never encourages or exhorts anyone to try and be good soil.  Why?  Because this parable isn’t mainly about soil but souls.  Jesus gives us the clue right at the beginning.  Jesus says, “Hear then the parable of the sower”.  This parable is about the sower.  Not about us.  It’s about God.  About this sowing God who seems radical, haphazard, and all over the place.  A God whose seeds end up everywhere.

The Crazy Sower

Would a normal farmer act like the sower in Jesus’s story?  Would a normal farmer waste seed?  Of course not.  What would you think of a farmer scattering seeds in a thorn patch?  Wouldn’t you think he was crazy?  Wasting good seed among thorns?  After all, that is seed that will clearly and obviously not produce any fruit for him.  What does a normal farmer do?  If he sees a field with stones in it, he removes the stones before he sows the seed.  If he sees a field with weeds in it, he removes the weeds before he sows the seed.  But that is not what Jesus’s sower does.  He sees hard ground and he sows seed on it.  He sees weedy soil and he sows seed on it.  He sees good soil and he sows seed on it.  No matter what kind of ground he sees, he just sowed the seed.

So why is Jesus telling a story about such an indiscriminate sower?  Because Jesus isn’t talking about literal seeds and soils types.  He is talking about the Sower, His Father.  This parable describes a sower scattering seed with wild abandon, willing to imagine and see if seeds will grow – even in the most unexpected places.  This parable is about a God who sees possibility even in the rocky, hard, shallow and thorny places.  Places where others don’t see potential or any hope.  Even knowing that the seeds may not grow in poor conditions, God scatters seed anyway. 

God declares that all these different soils are acceptable for His Word to be scattered on.  This parable shows us a God who has decided to scatter grace, mercy and love in all directions.  It is a God who is wants the Word of the Kingdom to be heard everywhere and anywhere.  It shows a God who is determined to let us know, that no matter what kind of soil we are, we are deemed worthy of His seed.   This sowing God is showing us that the lenses of good and bad soil that we see the world through is not how He sees.  The productivity of the soil does not determine whether He sows His seed.  Whether we are good and holy, whether we are hard or rocky… these things do not determine whether God loves us.  We are cherished and loved, imperfections and all.  The sower sows not because we are good, but because He is good, and He has decided to not withhold His seed from us.  And there is no amount of fruit that we can bear or fail to bear, no good works that we can do to earn His love or sins that we can commit that can separate us from God’s love and mercy.

Stop Waiting on Perfect Conditions to Sow God’s Word

Ecclesiastes 11:1,4, says, “Cast your bread upon the waters, . . . He who observes the wind will not sow”.  Sharing God’s Word or your testimony is not about perfect soil conditions.  Your job is not to try and remove stones and weeds or cultivate their heart, but to simply scatter the seed.  You don’t have to build a relationship with them before you can share the word of God with them.  We way overthink evangelism.  The picture of evangelism that Jesus presents in this parable is the exact opposite of what most believers are taught.  Tossing the seed out as much as possible on anyone and everyone is crazy. We say, “they don’t know me, they need to get to know me first, they may be wayside soil and need me to help plow their heart and get it ready to receive His word”.  But that just isn’t what Jesus said.

Please don’t misunderstand me, there’s nothing wrong with building a relationship with people unless the only reason that you are doing so is to “win” them to the Lord.  Of course, you should care about people.  Sure, you should be nice to people.  That is what Christians do.  We love people.  We don’t love people because that is the way we get to share the gospel with them.  We love them because that is what Jesus did, so that is what we do.  We need to stop acting like we are supposed to be testers or cultivators of the soil.  Don’t try to determine if the conditions are right to share God’s word, just toss the seeds of His love, grace, and mercy everywhere you go.