During His ministry, Jesus frequently challenged conventional wisdom, and He also encouraged His followers to radically demonstrate God’s love. He often did this through the use of parables. For Christians, parables are not just short stories illustrating a spiritual lesson, as Jesus used parables to relay important instructions and lessons. Jesus’s parables used elements of everyday life to illustrate a vital message in ordinary language. There are more than 30 parables in the Bible, each with its own dynamic lesson.
The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke each contain Jesus’ teaching of the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-9, Mark 4:1-9, Luke 8:4-8). Jesus tells the story of a sower (similar to a farmer) who scattered seeds on four different types of soil. The first type of ground was hard, and the seed could not sprout or grow. The second type of ground was stony, and the seed began to grow; however, it could not grow deep roots and eventually died. The third type of ground was thorny, and although the seed started to grow, it could not compete with the thorns and eventually withered. The fourth ground was good soil that allowed the seed to plant deep, grow strong and eventually produce fruit.
Jesus used this parable to explain to his followers about the different responses to believing the gospel. The sower in the parable is Jesus and the seed is God’s word. The hard ground represents someone with a hardened heart that may hear the word of God but will not accept it. The stony ground is someone who shows interest and awareness in the gospel, but their heart isn’t completely convinced, so when trouble comes, their faith is not strong enough to last. The thorny ground is a person who receives the gospel but who has many other distractions in life — worries, riches and worldly pleasures that rule their mind and heart, and they cannot grow in God’s faithfulness.
The good soil is someone who has heard and received the word of God and allows it to take root and grow within their life. This person represents God’s salvation and Christian-like faithfulness. Their roots grow deep and can withstand the hardships of life. Their lives grow in God’s love and produce more than they could have ever imagined.
Jesus used the Parable of the Sower to teach how important the state of our heart is to receive the word of God and how our salvation is represented by our choices and actions. God has extended His grace to everyone, even those he knows will likely reject it. God sows the seeds in hopes they will cultivate their heart into the fertile soil and experience life fully through Him.
