Women Accompanying Jesus & The Parable of the Sower & The Purpose of the Parables

Luke 8:1–15

Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions. Be comfortably alert, still, and at peace. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing the Jesus Prayer. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself. Slowly and carefully read the passage.

1.         Women in those days, both in Greek and Jewish cultures, were treated as inferior. For Jesus to accept women as followers, in plain sight, was revolutionary. It would open the door to all manner of accusations.

2.         The Parable of the Sower is perhaps the most significant of all of Jesus’ parables. The parable, used extensively by Jesus, made it easier to remember and memorize important teachings.

3.         The emphasis of this parable is thought by most commentators to be the ground on which the seeds landed. The subject matter, farming, would have been readily understood.

4.         The first two parts of the parable, the seed sown on the path and that which was sown on rocky ground, well, nothing comes of it. The seeds are wasted; there is no fruit.

5.         The seed sown among thorns, plants did appear, but the thorny plant choked out any real fruit.

6.         The seed sown on good soil yielded good fruit.

7.         In His explanation, Jesus says the seed sown is the Word, the Logos of God, or as we know it, the Gospel.

8.         Jesus then explains the parable. It is thought that in the first two instances, where there is no fruit, means there was no conversion. In the second two instances, there was conversion, actual salvation, but in only one case does the plant yield fruit, even hundredfold.

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