of God are separate entities. "The kingdom of heaven" is used in the Gospels only by Matthew, who em-
Jesus Illustrates His Gospel
taught nothing markedly different. But when the Israelites saw no signs of any earthly kingdom, they had rejected their Messiah's rule. Thus they had forfeited the kingdom altogether and had no right to be privy to the truths He was now teaching.
And so the parables beginning Matthew 13 were given to reveal the mystery of God's kingdom to His true disciples while concealing the truth from those outside the kingdom (cf. Mark 4:11). The parables describe the nature of God's rule during the period between Israel's rejection of Christ and the ultimate consummation of the earthly millennial kingdom. This phase of the kingdom in which we are now living is a mystery not revealed in the Old Testament.
What is the kingdom? In Scripture it is usually called the kingdom of God; Matthew often refers to it as the kingdom of heaven.2 The kingdom — God's rule over the earth and in the hearts of people — exists now in mystery form. Christ does not exercise His full divine will as King over all the earth, though He is ultimately sovereign. He rules as King only among those who believe. His kingdom encompasses all the redeemed, but not in a form that is visible to an unbelieving world. This aspect of God's kingdom was utterly missed by those who were looking for a political monarchy.
As always, Jesus' preoccupation was with seeking and saving the lost. That is also one of the main activities in the mystery kingdom. It is no surprise, then, that the first parable He told focused on preaching the gospel:
Behold, the sower went out to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and devoured them. And others fell upon the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. And others fell on the good soil, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear. (Matt. 13:3 – 9)
The Lord was using a familiar metaphor. Agriculture was the heart of Jewish life. Everyone understood the sowing of seed and the process of growing crops. It is even likely that from where Jesus was teaching, the multitude could
2. Th ere is no biblical support for the teaching of some that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God are separate entities. "Th e kingdom of heaven" is used in the Gospels only by Matthew, who employs it some twenty-two times. Cross references, such as Matthew 13:11 with Mark 4:11 and Luke 8:10, show that the terms are interchangeable. Th e Jews used heaven as a euphemism for the name of God. Th us the distinction seems to refl ect the sensitivities of the Jewish audience to whom Matthew wrote.
The Soils
see men sowing seed. The sower would drape a bag of seed over his shoulder. As he walked up and down the furrows, he would take handfuls of seed and broadcast it. The seed he threw would fall on four kinds of soil.
The Wayside Soil
First was the hard-packed dirt of the road bordering the field: "And as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and devoured them" (Matt. 13:4). Palestine was covered with fields. No fences or walls surrounded them; the only boundaries were narrow paths. Travelers from all over used the paths; Matthew 12:1 describes how the Lord Jesus and His disciples plucked grain to eat as they were walking through the fields, no doubt on one of these paths.
The method of sowing by broadcasting caused some of the seed to fall on the paths. The soil of the paths would be beaten hard, packed down, uncultivated, never turned over or loosened. The continual pounding of travelers' feet, along with the dry climate, would so compact the soil on these paths that the surface would be as hard as pavement. Any seed the farmer threw beyond the furrow and onto that hard ground could not penetrate the ground. It would lie there until the hovering birds ate it. What they did not eat, Luke 8:5 says, was trampled. Thus the birds and travelers obliterated the seed that landed on the wayside.
The Shallow Soil
Matthew 13:5 describes the shallow soil: "And others fell upon the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away."
"Rocky places" did not refer to soil with stones in it; any farmer who cultivated a field would remove all the stones he could. In Israel, however, strata of limestone rock bed runs through the land. In places, the rock bed juts up so close to the surface that it lies only inches beneath the topsoil. As seed fell on these shallow places and began to germinate, the descending roots would soon reach rock and have nowhere to go. With roots unable to probe deeper, the young plants would generate tremendous foliage, making them more spectacular than the surrounding crop. But when the sun came out, those plants would be the first to die because their roots could not go deep for moisture. This part of the crop would shrivel to nothing long before it could bear fruit.
Jesus Illustrates His Gospel
The Weedy Soil
Matthew 13:7 talks about weedy soil: "And others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out." This soil looked good. It was deep, rich, tilled, and fertile. At sowing time it looked clean and ready. The seed that landed there began to germinate, but the fibrous roots of weeds hidden under the surface also sprouted. They inevitably choked out the grain crop.
Weeds that are indigenous to an area always have an advantage over cultivated crops. The weeds are where they flourish naturally. The planted crop is a foreign element that needs cultivation and care. If the weeds in their natural habitat get a foothold, they will dominate the ground. The weeds grow faster and send out their leaves, which shade the planted crop from the sun. Their stronger roots also soak up all the moisture. In the end, the good plants are choked out.
The Good Soil
Finally, Matthew 13:8 describes good soil: "And others fell on the good soil, and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty." This soil is soft, unlike the hard wayside soil. It is deep, unlike the shallow ground. And it is clean, unlike the weed-infested soil. Here the seed bursts into life and brings forth a tremendous harvest, a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.
The Parable
On the face of it, the story of the sower and the seed is simple. The only clue that it has a deeper meaning is Jesus' admonition in Matthew 13:9: "He who has ears, let him hear." In other words, if you can understand this, then heed its message. Who can understand it? Only those who have the King to teach them. The disciples must have realized that this simple story about planting and harvesting grain concealed some rich spiritual truth. Mark 4:10 records that they came to Jesus when He was alone with them and asked Him to explain the parable. And He did.
Note the bridge from "He who has ears, let him hear" in 13:9 to "Blessed are . . . your ears, because they hear" in verse 16. This was glorious truth from the Master's lips: "Many prophets and righ teous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it; and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. Hear then the parable of the sower" (vv. 17 – 18).
The Soils
The Seed and the Sower
Now alone with the disciples and other inquisitive believers (Mark 4:10), the Lord took what seemed like a simple, obvious story and used it to unveil the magnificent reality of the kingdom. The seed He spoke of was not literal seed, but rather the gospel: "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom . . . " (Matt. 13:19). The seed is the message about the King and His kingdom. Luke 8:11, a parallel account, is even more explicit: "The seed is the Word of God." Thus the sower is anyone who plants the seed of the gospel by the Word of God (cf. 1 Peter 1:23) in the heart of an individual. The prototype of all sowers is the Lord Himself.
Seed is an appropriate illustration of the gospel. It cannot be created; it is only reproduced. Spreading the gospel is a process of taking that which has been sown and reproduced, and sowing it again. God does not call on us to create our own seed, or message. His Word is the only good seed. There is no such thing as evangelism apart from God's Word.
The Condition of the Soil
The point of this parable is not that something is wrong with the sower or his method. Nothing is wrong with the seed. Nothing is fundamentally wrong with the composition of the soil, either. The problem is the condition of the soil.
The soil illustrates the human heart. Matthew 13:19 confirms this: "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart" (emphasis added). The heart of the hearer is the spiritual equivalent of soil receiving a farmer's seed.
In their essential makeup, all the soils in Jesus' parable are the same. The dirt in and around a field is the same dirt, no matter that it is hard, soft, shallow, or weedy. The difference in the soils has to do with how they have been conditioned. All the soils could receive the seed, if they were properly prepared. But soil that is not properly prepared will never bear a crop.
It is the same with human hearts. We are all exactly the same in essence but conditioned differently according to the influences that are permitted to shape us. This is indeed an important point in the spiritual lesson of the parable: a person's response to the gospel depends primarily on the preparation of his or her heart. A heart not properly prepared will never bear spiritual fruit.
Jesus Illustrates His Gospel
The Unresponsive Heart
The soil by the wayside pictures a hardened, unresponsive hearer. "When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road" (Matt. 13:19). Here is the hard-hearted individual — one whom today we would call "stiff-necked" (e.g., Prov. 29:1 NIV). He is unresponsive, unconcerned, inattentive, indifferent, negligent, and often hostile. He wants nothing to do with the gospel. It just bounces off him. Satan is portrayed as a ravenous bird, hovering over the hardened soil, eager to pluck up the seed the moment it lands. Luke 18:12 makes the meaning indisputable; these are unsaved people: "The devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they may not believe and be saved."
Here our Lord warns that the human heart can be so pounded and beaten down with the traffic of sin that it becomes completely insensitive to the gospel. This is the heart that knows no repentance, no sorrow over sin, no guilt, and no concern for the things of God. It allows itself to be trampled by an endless procession of evil thoughts, cherished sins, and ungodly activities. It is careless, callous, indifferent — never broken up or softened by conviction or sorrow for wrongdoing. This is the heart of the fool described in Proverbs. He hates knowledge. He resists instruction. He despises wisdom. He says in his heart there is no God. He will not hear. His mind is closed. And he does not want to be bothered with a gospel invitation.
Many people have hearts like that. You can shower them with seed, but it just lies there. It does not penetrate. And it does not stay very long before Satan comes and takes it away completely. Each time you try to witness to such a person, you must start again at the beginning.
Dry, hard soil on the edge of the field does not necessarily signify someone who is antireligious. Some of the hardest individuals in the world stay on the fringes of true religion. But because sin has so hardened their hearts, they are utterly unproductive and unresponsive to God. They are very close to the truth, very close to the good soil, often receiving handfuls of seed, but it will not sprout in their lives.
The Superficial Heart
The shallow soil pictures the response of a superficial, impetuous heart. "And the one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word, and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away" (Matt. 13:20 – 21). This kind