The Sower Sows the Word

Most Christians are familiar with the Parable of the Sower that appears in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. The Parable has been interpreted in many ways with various lessons that can be learned from it.

Yet the most basic lesson to be learned from the Parable of the Sower is likely the most often overlooked. And that is that sowing the seed of God’s word into our heart produces a harvest of blessing in our life, as it is the most obvious message the parable demonstrates.

And so, with that in mind, let’s look at the Parable of the Sower in Mark chapter 4.

4 Types of Soil in the Parable of the Sower

This is the basic story Jesus gives us in the Parable of the Sower. A sower of seeds went forth scattering seeds on different types of soil. Three of the types of soil were unsuitable for the seeds to grow in, while the last piece of ground he came to was good ground that brought forth a healthy and abundant crop.

Jesus was using this story as an earthly analogy or comparison to teach us something about the kingdom of God, as we will see in His explanation of the parable.

Jesus’ disciples were well aware that Jesus used these stories, these parables, to teach them about the kingdom of God, to tell them things about the kingdom and how it was to work in their lives. So, they asked Him to explain what the parable meant.

He said to them that it’s given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom. The Lord wants us to know and understand the things of the kingdom. He came to reveal to us how the kingdom works and how to live in it.

Parable of the Sower Explanation

This is our first insight into the parable. The seed being sown is the word of God. The ground the seed is sown into is the heart of the one who is hearing the word.

So, Jesus is using an earthly example to talk about how various people hear the word of God differently, talking about the level or the extent to which they hear it, based on the condition of their heart.

Notice what He said. The word was sown into their hearts. The human heart or, that is, the human spirit is where the seed is sown. Man’s heart is the ground, the soil, that the seed of the word is planted into.

Yet this type of hearer, this type of heart, the wayside heart, this type of soil, is so caught up in busy-ness, activity and commerce, that they can barely pay attention to what they’re hearing. It goes in one ear and out the other, so to speak. And the devil snatches it away from them.

These are people with stony hearts, who have no root in themselves, that is, they have no resolve, no stick-to-it-ive-ness. They receive the word gladly, but as soon as they experience anything that contradicts the word, they abandon it. They quickly fall away.

Again, these are people who heard and received the word. But their hearts are filled with other things, the cares and worries of this life, the pursuit of wealth and materiality, and the desire for other things takes up most of their attention. They are unable to give the word the attention it deserves. And the seed sown dies of malnutrition.

These are the people who hear the word, receive it into their heart, and bring forth a harvest. Notice, it says that THEY bring forth fruit. It doesn’t say the seed brings forth fruit. It says that they do. The heart that the seed is sown into brings forth the fruit.

That’s why the emphasis of the parable is not about the seed that is sown. We can presume that the seed is good seed. The focus of the story is upon the condition of the heart, the soil the seed is sown into.

The human spirit, the recreated human spirit, the born again heart, has the capacity to bring forth or produce something from the seed of God’s word. And Jesus uses this natural analogy to describe this productive work of the human heart. And He opens this truth up even more as He continues to teach.

What is the Main Message of the Parable of the Sower

Jesus has already defined the seed as the word of God and the ground as the human heart, or, that is, the born again human spirit. The seed, the word, is sown into our heart.

We don’t understand how a plant grows. We just know that it does. We sleep each night and we rise each day, and the growth process of the garden continues. We cannot speed it up, even if we try. It grows at the pace it is supposed to grow. And so, we patiently wait for it to grow.

The earth is the human heart in this story. The human heart brings forth of herself. Notice that the earth is referred to here as feminine. The earth brings forth the same way a woman brings forth a child. And again, Jesus is talking about the human heart as the earth. It’s a comparison, a parable, a juxtaposition.

The farmer doesn’t know how the earth did it, but it grew a crop, and it came to fruition. The harvest came, and he put in the sickle. He received the finished crop.

Jesus is telling us how the word of God and the human heart work together to produce a crop of blessing in our lives. And the Bible tells us that the word of God is the incorruptible seed, it is always good. The only thing we must exercise control over is the condition of our own heart.

Break up Your Fallow Ground

How do we prepare the soil of our heart? Well, we make sure we are not letting ourself be overextended in busy-ness. We must make sure we are resolved to hear the word and keep it in our heart. We must not be full of cares and anxieties, not running after too many things.

We must have a desire within ourselves to seek the kingdom of God, to seek God’s right way of thinking through meditating upon the word of God, pursuing an understanding of His word through thinking, reasoning, and enquiring into His word. It involves giving His word the attention it deserves.

Sow the Word

We should determine what we want in our life and then search out the scriptures to find out what the word of God says about it, what the word of God promises us concerning that thing.

And then we sow that word into our heart. We look at the scripture verses, we ponder them, we think about them, we let them speak to our heart. We write down our meditations and we revisit them often and allow the Lord to speak more things to us about them.

In this way, we both sow the seed into our heart and we also keep it fresh and alive within us. And as we continue this way over time, the blessing will germinate and grow, and as we wait with patience, it will come to fruition, and will show up in our life at the right time.