This is a copy of a talk I gave on Wednesday 19 July 2023 at the 10.00 am service at Saint Mary Magdalen, Billericay. The Bible Reading was Matthew 13:1-9 & 18-23. 

Introduction
This morning, we look the Parable of the Sower, as it’s known, but it might just as well be called the Parable of the Soils, because its focus is a range of different kinds of ground, and how productive they are when you sow the same kind of seed in each one. But, as Jesus spells out, this is not an Alan Titchmarsh master class in how to win the gold rosette at the village show with your monster leeks. This parable is about people not parsnips!

In Jesus’ teaching in this parable, the issue is even more serious than the physical survival of a crop, as the people Jesus is speaking to would have understood his parable.  What is at stake is not physical life, it is eternal life.

The seed being sown, vs19, is the Kingdom of God. And the reality of what we see around us is that the message about Jesus generates a wide range of responses, many of them unfavourable. What Jesus does in this parable is to help us to see what’s happening as the message about him is spread around.

What I want to do this morning is to ask three questions: How do people react to the Word of God? Why do they react in the way that they do? How should we react to this parable?


1) How do people react to the Word of God?

Jesus teaches that we can expect three different reactions to the message. Some will say “No!” Some will say “Yes, but …!” And others will say “Yes, yes, yes!” I know there are four different kinds of soil in the parable, each of them representing a different kind of reaction to the Word. But two of them fall into the “Yes, but …!” category.

Talking to those who say “No!” is like sowing seed on a much trampled and compacted pathway. It gets nowhere. This is anyone who “hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it …” (vs19). It’s not that they don’t hear. These are people who are told about Jesus, hear the message but choose to ignore it. If people are the polite and courteous types, they might even say to you “I understand what you’re saying …”

But you will immediately know that they mean the very opposite. And these people just don’t budge an inch. Some even come to church week in week out. But they don’t change. They hear, but they are deaf.

The rocky places and the thorn covered ground, are the “Yes, but …!” types. Vs20: What was sown on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. Vs22: What was sown among thorns is the man who hears the word, but … 

They respond positively to Jesus – even with great enthusiasm. They change and it’s extremely encouraging to see them growing in faith. But after a while, it all begins to go wrong. Like an old romance that came to nothing, Jesus eventually becomes just a phase that was passed long ago. Other things take over. I wonder if you have said “Yes!” to Jesus in the past, and there is a “But …” just beginning to form in your mind and taking shape on your lips.

The good soil stands for those who say “Yes!” to Jesus, and who keep on saying “Yes!”  Vs23: But what was sown on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.

For such people faith in Jesus is not a curious if interesting mental abnormality, only to be pitied. Nor is it a passing phase that will be consigned to the fading photos of the family album, fondly remembered maybe, but definitely not around any longer, like an old college friend who you somehow still think of as a friend, but who you haven’t been in touch with for years and years. No, for people who are good soil, faith in Christ is life and health and peace. So, how do people react to the Word of God? Either with a “No!”, or with a “Yes, but …!”, or with “Yes, yes, yes!”

 

2) Why do they react in the way they do?

Jesus says that each response to the message about him has a different underlying reason. People say “No!” because of sin and Satan. They say “Yes, but …” because of sin and the world. They say “Yes, yes, yes!” because of God. Jesus talks about why people respond as they do in his explanation to the disciples of the meaning of this parable, in verses 18 to 23. What about those who say “No!”? Vs19:  When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

What about those who say: “Yes, but …!”? There are two sorts. Both responses are caused partly by the same kind of hardening of the heart that we’ve already seen. Both are also partly caused by the impact of the world on fledgling faith. I also want to say that recent CofE teaching is having an impact on fledgling faith. But the pressure that the world applies takes two different forms. One is represented by the rocky places and the other by the thorny ground.

Vs20:  What was sown on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. When we come under pressure because of our faith, there is one sure fire way of relieving that pressure: give up our faith. For many around the world this is a matter of facing physical hardship and suffering – even death. Millions of Christians around the world can bring about a major improvement in their physical safety and economic welfare, and that of their families, if they just soften or drop their allegiance to Jesus. Many do and we can’t judge them because we may do exactly the same in their circumstances.

We are in no position of superiority. The pressures on us are more subtle. They are less frightening. But we, the church in this country, it seems to me, have, for too long, backed off whenever the world has advanced towards us. “How can you believe that? How can you think that?” has been the taunt. And far too often we have said to the world “Oh, well then, we don’t want any aggravation. We’ll quietly amend what Jesus has taught us. We’ll gently relegate him to the sidelines. We’ll go along with you.” And, before you know it, robust biblical faith in Christ has withered and died in too many hearts.

The world’s attack on Christianity is on two fronts. Trouble or persecution as a direct result of faithfulness to the gospel is one. The other is what Jesus pictures as the thorns. Vs22: What was sown among the thorns is the man who hears the word but worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. This is not direct pressure on our Christian faith. This is simply becoming so preoccupied with our earthly lives that we lose all eternal perspective.

What, then, does Jesus say about those who say a consistent “Yes!” to him and his Word? Vs22: But what was sown on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. And when God works like that, what is the result? Fruitful lives. Lives that count for the kingdom. Vs23:  “He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Have you ever seen an onion that has gone to seed? If an onion or a leek or ? is not harvested and left in the ground it will grow a stalk with a flower head that is packed tight with new seeds which will have 100’s if not 1000’s of seeds in this one plant.

Sometimes, the ground is bad, plants die after a few weeks and, if the ground is good, you can see the result.  Now we are not all the spiritual equivalent of leeks, and that’s fine. What God wants is the crop we are designed for. But when Jesus speaks of a crop of up to a hundred times what was sown, that is no exaggeration. That is how God works. Think how the Christian church has grown to hundreds of millions from a small band of twelve disciples.


3) How should we react to this Parable?

Here are four things we can do:

a) Understand other people’s reactions to the gospel. We need to have an optimistic realism about the effect of telling others about Jesus. Jesus himself warns us that there will be many “No’s” and many “Yes, but’s”. But there will also be the “Yes’s”, and through them the kingdom will multiply, and nothing will be able to stop it.

b) Identify your own reactions to Jesus. How are you behaving towards him in your life at the moment? Don’t dwell on past mistakes, what about the now?

c) Ask God for his transforming grace. This is a sign that the Spirit is at work within us.  Ask for more. And keep on asking that your life will be good ground in which the Word can flourish and bear fruit.

d) Keep on listening to and telling the message about the kingdom. We need to be fertile, weed free ground. We are to sow the seed of the gospel wherever and whenever we can. Each new day brings many opportunities. We need to be praying for the boldness and the grace to take them.

COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER: The text contained in this sermon is solely owned by its author, Revd Paul A. Carr. The reproduction, or distribution of this message, or any portion of it, should include the author’s name.