How I Read The Parable Of The Sower
Recently, I found a series of videos on YouTube about great works of English literature. They all have the same title, “How To Read … (the book’s title)”.
I’ve always liked the writer Thomas Hardy, and was drawn to one video in the series, “How to Read Far from the Madding Crowd”. A helpful title, I thought. But perhaps a little brave to tell other people how to read one of the richest classics in the literary world!
So, I’ll be a little more measured in this blog. This is how I read the very first parable told by Christ: the parable of the sower, found in Matthew 13, Mark 4, and Luke 8. Matthew’s version can be found HERE.
I REMEMBER WHO IS SPEAKING.
It is the Lord Jesus Christ, of course. I must never become lazily familiar with His voice. That voice – that dying voice – was heard on the cross making a declaration about my salvation, “It is finished!” Therefore, I should declare every moment I live – “His voice above every voice!”
A minister called Samuel Rutherford wanted to encourage a troubled friend. He wrote a letter advising her to value highly the voice of the Lord Jesus: “The Christ that saves you is a speaking Christ”. So, before I read about the sower, my blood-washed heart finds new reverence as it echoes again with the conviction, “No one ever spoke like this man!” (John 7:46).
I ASK THE LORD FOR UNDERSTANDING.
The disciples hear this parable for the first time and immediately ask what it means (Luke 8:9). Shame on me if I think I’m already in possession of every inch of territory which these verses cover! I pray especially for things to which my Master refers in the same context as the parable:
EYES that are open to the things of Christ,
EARS that miss no nuance of His teaching,
a HEART that is soft and turned towards God ,
and a KNOWLEDGE of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven
that BLESSES me abundantly
(Matthew 13:11-12, 15).
I LEARN AFRESH THAT THERE ARE SERIOUSLY INADEQUATE RESPONSES TO THE WORD OF GOD AND HIS KINGDOM.
Richard Glover, a Baptist pastor, rightly identified the four types of soil as four types of soul: (1) Those who take no hold of the word of God; (2) those who take a superficial hold; (3) those who take a disputed hold; (4) those who take a full hold.
My mind turns to family, friends, and neighbours. Will I pray with renewed concern, and plead with my Father for a Thessalonian response? – “… when you received the word of God … you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God” (1 Thessalonians 2:13).
I CHECK MY OWN CROP.
If by the Spirit’s working, I am the “good soil” (Matthew 13:23), where is my crop to the glory of God? Where is the close resemblance to Christ, the Spirit-led life, the mourning over sin, the deep humility, the courageous faithfulness, the self-denying love, the restless concern for the Christless, the habitual doing of the word, and the daily prayer?
In Far from the Madding Crowd, Hardy introduces his leading lady, Bathsheba, in this way: during a break on a journey, she unwraps a small mirror and admires herself. Her smile betrays her vanity. When I look into the mirror of the parable of the sower, if I smile it is in admiration of the Saviour – how He can speak His gracious word to a sinner’s heart and grow a harvest for His own honour and purposes.
