GOSPEL MEDITATION PARABLES # 2
Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23
The Parable of the Sower and its Interpretation
- Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
- Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
- Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer
- Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
- Slowly and carefully read the passages of Scripture.
- Reread them. From memory, determine the central points.
- The Parable of the Sower, with its interpretation, is perhaps the most important parable that Jesus told His disciples.
- Seed is scattered liberally with no care of where the seed fell; the ploughing follows. The seed, according to Jesus, is the “word” which is logos in the Greek and is the message of Jesus, both who He is and what He did.
- The seeds on the path and amongst the rocks fail to yield a crop. Seed on the path is snatched away by the destroyer Satan. The seed on rocky ground sprouts quickly, and with joy, but does not last long due to difficulties, mostly attributable to persecutions because of the Word. (see John 1:1) It is most probable that genuine new birth is not in view in the first two locations where the seed fell.
- The seed/Word fallen amidst weeds appears to picture genuine conversion. Notice the words Jesus uses: “received,” “hears,” and “unfruitful.” Indication is the ‘believer’ did not mature. Instead, cares, riches, and pleasures of life serve to choke out the plant. There is a plant, but no fruit.
- Seed sown on good soil does produce, and as Paul points out in 1 Corinthians 3:7, “God made it grow.” The sower is indispensable to the work, but is not alone responsible for the harvest.
- The harvests will vary, even greatly so, yet this is not a concern of the sower. The sower is to sow the seed given out to him or her. and expect a harvest.