The Sower

You all know the parable of the sower. You know ... the one where the sower sows seeds and some fall on the road and the birds eat them and some fall on the rocky soil and they fry when the sun comes out and some fall on the shallow soil and they are choked by weeds and some fall on good soil and they bear fruit. Easy enough. So easy that Jesus had to explain it.

The sower sows the word. These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, but the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold. (Mark 4:14-20)

Now, I've heard lots of sermons on this passage. They tell us to be careful to have hearts that are cultivated. Okay, good, I suppose. They tell us to sow. Seems obvious, but if a farmer doesn't sow, he cannot expect to harvest. Included in the text is the necessary lesson that you will be wasting "seed" if you sow. Yes, some will end up producing "thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold", but there is only one of four types of soil that produce and the rest is "wasted". There is certainly a sense in which the sower doesn't try to take into account the soil type; he just throws the seed out there. So should we. We shouldn't try to figure out of the field is ready or not; just sow.

These are all valid lessons from this parable. One, however, I've never heard is on the seed itself. In this day and age it has been suggested that we need to be good apologists, defenders of the faith. I, of course, am in favor of defending the faith (since we're commanded to do so), but the perception for many today is that this is "sowing". You need to give it your best shot, present the most persuasive argument, provide the best reason and evidence, give the most cogent and coherent presentation. I'm sure all of those are nice, but when I read the parable of the sower, I don't see anything of the elegance of a rational defense of the Gospel. The seed, it seems, that produces fruit is not a rational defense of the faith. According to Jesus, "the seed" is the word. It is the word that produces fruit. It is the word that is planted and grows. Some tell us today that we ought to avoid the Bible in our presentations of the Gospel because it's not compelling, because people just don't want to hear it. But the "seed" that Jesus wants sown is precisely the Word, that powerful, supernatural source product without which faith is not found.

We need to sow. We will be "wasting" seed, but we need to sow. We shouldn't be evaluating the ground; just sow. But let's not forget in all of our offerings of the Gospel that the word is the primary and powerful point. Best arguments and coherent logic is all well and good, but it's really the power of God that we want in this enterprise. We want to be like the farmer who sows and then wonders in the morning where the fruit came from (Mark 4:26-27). We want to experience the power of God's Word.