I found myself musing over the parable of the sower and its explanation. First the parable itself:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear” (5-8).
Now the explanation:
“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop” (11-15).
Reading the explanation I got to wondering if the seed among thorns people are ‘saved’ but they just don’t mature into fruitful believers. In our family garden sometimes things we plant don’t fully mature but are still edible. Last year we planted what we hoped would be onions... but they never matured and we ended up with a crop of scallions.
As I looked back at the parable, the clear indication is that only the good soil seeds produced a bountiful crop, indicating they alone are the ‘saved’ ones. This pushed me to realize that I was over thinking the parable. I mean Jesus’ clear intention is that the super yield of the good-soil seed is the point of the story.
As I pondered the parable more I began to realize that I was superimposing my 21st century biases onto the text. Jesus never equates salvation with getting to heaven. Eternal life is part of salvation for certain, but salvation affects how we live in this world and producing fruit is the demonstration of our faith this side of eternity.
This thought/realization begs the question... How is my fruit producing going? Am I producing kingdom fruit? Are you?
Think about it.
Lord, may your Word nourish my soul and my life so that I produce a 100-fold bountiful crop. In Jesus’ name and for the sake of the Gospel’s advance I pray. Amen
An additional thought from verses 38-39: The man from whom the demons had gone out begged to go with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return home and tell how much God has done for you.” So the man went away and told all over town how much Jesus had done for him. Sometimes people say the Gospels don’t say Jesus is God. The more I read them the more I see Jesus’ divinity. Notice the bolded words in the above. Told to say how much God did for him, the healed man proclaims Jesus. This is a clear yet subtle explanation by Luke that Jesus is God.
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