Matthew 13:3 He told them many things in parables:
“A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell alongside the path; and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky patches where there was not much soil. It sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow; 6 but when the sun had risen, the young plants were scorched; and since their roots were not deep, they dried up. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 But others fell into rich soil and produced grain, a hundred or sixty or thirty times as much as had been sown. 9 Those who have ears, let them hear!”
18 “So listen to what the parable of the sower means. 19 Whoever hears the message about the Kingdom, but doesn’t understand it, is like the seed sown along the path — the Evil One comes and seizes what was sown in his heart. 20 The seed sown on rocky ground is like a person who hears the message and accepts it with joy at once, 21 but has no root in himself. So he stays on for a while; but as soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, he immediately falls away. 22 Now the seed sown among thorns stands for someone who hears the message, but it is choked by the worries of the world and the deceitful glamor of wealth, so that it produces nothing. 23 However, what was sown on rich soil is the one who hears the message and understands it; such a person will surely bear fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
(interpretation) Mark 4:13 Then Yeshua said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How will you be able to understand any parable? 14 The sower sows the message. 15 Those alongside the path where the message is sown are people who no sooner hear it than the Adversary comes and takes away the message sown in them. 16 Likewise, those receiving seed on rocky patches are people who hear the message and joyfully accept it at once; 17 but they have no root in themselves. So they hold out for a while, but as soon as some trouble or persecution arises on account of the message, they immediately fall away. 18 Others are those sown among thorns — they hear the message; 19 but the worries of the world, the deceitful glamor of wealth and all the other kinds of desires push in and choke the message; so that it produces nothing. 20 But those sown on rich soil hear the message, accept it and bear fruit — thirty, sixty or a hundredfold.”
(interpretation) Luke 8:11 “The parable is this: the seed is God’s message. 12 The ones along the path are those who hear, but then the Adversary comes and takes the message out of their hearts, in order to keep them from being saved by trusting it. 13 The ones on rock are those who, when they hear the word, accept it with joy; but these have no root — they go on trusting for awhile; but when a time of testing comes, they apostatize. 14 As for what fell in the midst of thorns these are the ones who hear; but as they go along, worries and wealth and life’s gratifications crowd in and choke them, so that their fruit never matures. 15 But what fell in rich soil — these are the ones who, when they hear the message, hold onto it with a good, receptive heart; and by persevering, they bring forth a harvest.
We see here with this parable that the Messiah Himself gives the interpretation. But we need to put this interpretation into today’s terms or else you’ll deceive yourself into thinking you are ok.
The one who sows the message of the Kingdom. The identity of the sower isn’t directly mentioned but we’ll see later who it should be.
The seed the sower sows is the message of the Kingdom, God’s message. Do you know what this message is?
Those that hear and don’t understand. This is simple and easy to detect. The path is full of people coming and going, and even if something springs up it will get trampled. The ground is hard and compressed so it’s nearly impossible for anything to survive. Or suppose it is hard-headed and decides to keep growing. Remember, this is a path and someone will come along and cut it down because it will be in the way of people’s lives. You can’t be among the masses and yield a harvest.
Those that hear and accept the message but trouble comes and they fall away. The heat comes to all but these in particular have no root. There is nothing to reach down and pull water from the ground in order to survive the times of drought. The sun is a natural and useful piece to the growth formula but here it is the source of death. It is critical to know that the sun exists and the heat will be severe. So you must reach deep so you can draw water in these trying times. Being a fair-weather believer will not last.
Those that hear but are choked out by the “worries of the world and the deceitful glamor of wealth”. These thorns are things that have no use in your field and if asked directly, you know they do not belong in the field at all. Yet here they are. Everyday stress, schedules, busyness, the need to build wealth, news of wars and rumors of wars, and just the news itself. Think about last week. Can you even remember what all you did? Do you know what all happened? Can you remember all of the critical news items that you couldn’t live without? Your schedule that owned every moment of everyday, what all was on it? Even if you do remember this all, how much of it is worth the trade of not producing for the Kingdom? Everyone is busy. And that’s a problem.
Those that hear and understand. This is simple. Well, it should be. But even these have different yields. Some 30-, some 60-, some 100-fold. This is a bit perplexing to me. I mean, if you’re in the field already, why not produce 100-fold? Is it the weeds that are robbing you of nutrients? Are there rocks in the field and the roots have trouble going deep? This is the point of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. We have one week to prepare our field for the planting that comes between the barley and wheat harvest: cleaning the trash out, getting rid of rocks, and plucking the early weeds. The counting (cephering) of the omer is an opportunity to watch for weeds, water when needed, fertilize, and pluck weeds when they appear. If we’re diligent, this should pull us close to the 100-fold increase. But it takes work and sometimes we get lazy. Hence, 30- and 60-fold.
Where do you fall on this scale of receiving the message of the Kingdom?
If you’re reading this you likely aren’t on the path getting trampled because you’re at the mall hanging out with your friends or sidling yourself beside unbelievers in the world. You also are not likely among the rocks drying out (at least not fully) because they can’t be bothered reading something like this.
For the rest of us, our minds quickly went to the good soil and we even thought of selecting a hundred-fold. Then we “humbled” ourselves and maybe thought something like, “Well, I know I’m not really there but God knows my heart and He knows this is what I truly desire.” After a little hand waving, we settle on, “I’m working on it” and never really give a true answer.
But I’d like to challenge you to consider whether you are in the field at all. Based on how our culture works, it’s likely most believers are camped amongst the thorns. Trying to survive and only producing enough yield to stay alive themselves. We fight those weeds at times but that's not our job.
Even if you are in the field, however, the question I have for you isn’t really with regard to how much you yield. I’d like to have you consider whether or not you’ve transitioned into the role of the sower.
Of course you need to have had the seed itself land in your field and produce enough to spread around. This takes time. You need to produce enough seed for eating and enough for planting. You really should be pushing 100-fold if you aim to be a sower.
So get off the path, pull away from the rocks, and most importantly, flee from the thorns. Once these are taken care of, step out into the field and root yourself deeply in the most fertile and clean field you can. There is no traffic, your roots are established and the weeds are nowhere to be found.
Almost sounds like the life we’ve been called into.