
Parable of the Sower – (Matthew 13:4–9, Mark 4:3–9, Luke 8:4–8 )
“When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to him, he spoke in a parable.
“A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up.
Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture.
Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it.
And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.” –
(https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/8)
Of course, later in the Gospels, the Lord moves forward in teaching the disciples the meaning of the parable mean that the seed being spread , is the Word of God. Then, we find the places where the seed lands.. The seed that falls on the path, and gets eaten, is seed that taken by satan, and so the hearer is does not believe and is not saved. The seed falling on rocky ground.. is the hearer, who receives the Word of God, but has no roots, they initially believe but they loose faith in the middle of their trials.
Then the seed that falls in the weeds, is similar, where they initially believe but they loose faith while dealing with worldly issues and/or they choose instead to chase after the worldly pleasures and desires.
Finally, the seed that falls on good ground is the one where the receiver gets the Word of God , believes and perseveres in faith through their lives despite the anxieties , trials and temptations of this life. This would be default make God, the sower.
Lets take another look into the parable and see if we can find some part of ourselves there in each version ! To no small extent our faith is in no small way a product of both education and experience.
Hopefully, when we are young, our parents took us to church, and there was some form of religious education that occurred. Here is where it is that we learned the basic truths of this world and the next.
That God created the world, and each thing within the world, and in Heaven. We learned the reason for our being created, and that we were given free will to choose God or not. All of these truths gave us a basis to relate to our world and all the people, animals and things within it.
As we age, the challenges of life become greater still, and it is possible that our formal education in theology and faith stopped, and the things which we knew and accepted to be true when we were younger seem incomplete. The truth has not changed, but our understanding definitely has.
Returning to the parable for a moment, I would invite you to consider the possibility that the “soil” also can also be our friends, our family, the people who we seek this knowledge from. If the people in our lives are hard, unbelieving, unloving, and not themselves in a journey of faith, then the will likely meet that same fate. If their point of reference is the trials and allurements of this world, then they will not bare fruit for you. If you seek knowledge and bare witness to those who seek God, seek the truth, and are on their own journey, then you will bare the fruit of their witness.
I used to believe that, at least in the United States, everyone had certainly heard the Word of God , or at least had some rudimentary religious education in this modern age. As usual, it has been made clear to me as I have worked in ministry that this is not true for everyone. There are a number of people at every age who were not exposed to a religious education. In the light of this parable those seeds could be considered as still falling, or not germinated as of yet.
I find it important to understand that the paths of these seeds are not absolutes, but rather a manner of education through which to strive. If we love God, and try to serve Him as best we can, then to spite our human failings, and the differing types of ground we find ourselves with, we will always strive to work at tilling our soil, to work at removing the rocks, and pulling the weeds, so that eventually there is nearly nothing left but good soil and our fruit will be abundant.
My father used to say, whatever you are… be the best that you can be. The same is true of our faith lives. We should strive to be the best Christians that we can be. Seek the truth, learn as much as we can, and take care of our (spiritual) family.
May God give you the gift if His peace !