July 22, 2025 • 27 mins
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Matthew 13: 1-9 - 'A sower went out to sow.'
Catechism of the Catholic Church Paragraphs:
- 546 (in 'The Proclamation of the Kingdom of God') - Jesus' invitation to enter his kingdom comes in the form of parables, a characteristic feature of his teaching. Through his parables he invites people to the feast of the kingdom, but he also asks for a radical choice: to gain the kingdom, one must give everything. Words are not enough, deeds are required. The parables are like mirrors for man: will he be hard soil or good earth for the word? What use has he made of the talents he has received?Jesus and the presence of the kingdom in this world are secretly at the heart of the parables. One must enter the kingdom, that is, become a disciple of Christ, in order to "know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven". For those who stay "outside", everything remains enigmatic.
- 29 (in 'The Desire for God') - But this "intimate and vital bond of man to God" (GS 19 # 1) can be forgotten, overlooked, or even explicitly rejected by man. Such attitudes can have different causes: revolt against evil in the world; religious ignorance or indifference; the cares and riches of this world; the scandal of bad example on the part of believers; currents of thought hostile to religion; finally, that attitude of sinful man which makes him hide from God out of fear and flee his call.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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(00:11):
Hello everyone. Welcome back to logical Bible
study. We're all about taking a look at
the literal sense of scripture and particularly The Gospel
reading for today is a mess. What was Jesus trying to
communicate in the original context?
What does the text mean? When we let it speak on its own
terms and we try and do this in a rigorous Catholic Academic
Way. So today, we're going to look at
(00:33):
two passages Matthew 13 verses 1to 9 and then verses 18 to 23.
Now, this episode is going to bethe same on two days this week.
So the reason for that is the parable is given in Wednesday's
lectionary readings. So Wednesday of week 16 in
ordinary time we get to hear theparable verses 1 to 9 and then
(00:57):
the parable is actually explained by Jesus later in the
chapter. So in verses, In 223 which we
here on Friday of week, 16, we get to hear Jesus own
explanation of the parable. So, I've combined both of those
together and we'll look at both of those at the same time which
means this episode is going to be exactly the same on Wednesday
(01:17):
of week 16 in ordinary time and also Friday of week 16.
So you might have already heard this episode depending on when
you what day you're listening. So here's today's text Matthew
chapter 13. Verses 1 to 9.
And verses 18 to 23. Jesus left the house and sat by
the Lakeside, but such large crowds gathered around him, that
(01:41):
he got into a boat and sat there, the people all stood on
the beach, and he told them manythings in Parables.
He said, imagine a Cellar going out to.
So as he sowed some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the
birds came and ate them up. Others fell on patches of rock,
where they found little soil andsprang up straight away.
(02:05):
Because there was no depth of Earth.
But as soon as the sun came up, they were scorched and not
having any Roots, they withered away.
Others fell among thorns and theThorns grew up and choked them.
Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some, a
hundredfold. Some sixty, some Thirty.
(02:28):
Listen, anyone who has ears? Jesus said, to his disciples,
you are to hear the parable of the sower.
When anyone hears, the word of the Kingdom.
Without understanding the evil, one comes and Carries off what
was sown in his heart. This is the man who received the
seed on the edge of the path. The one who received it on
(02:50):
patches of rock, is the man who hears the word and welcomes it
at once with joy. But he has no root in him.
He does not last. Let some trial come or some
persecution on account of the word and he falls away at once.
The one who received the seed inThorns, is the man who hears the
word, but the worries of this world and the lure of riches
(03:13):
choke the word. And so he produces nothing.
And the one who received the seed in rich soil, is the man
who hears the word and understands it, he is the one
who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold Now,
60 now 30. So, here we are, at the start of
Matthew, Chapter 13, and that's often called The Parables
(03:36):
chapter of Matthew. So here, Matthew has assembled
7, Kingdom parables. It's possible that Jesus spoke
them all on the one day as Matthew presented here.
Or they could have been ones that he spoke a different times,
but Matthew has assembled them and put them all in one chapter.
Some of the Parables will see inthe coming days.
As we look at Matthew 13, they only appear in the gospel of
(03:58):
Matthew, so there's going to be someone's in here that you won't
hear all that often. But of course, today we have one
that's very well known in the parable of the sower.
Some Scholars call Matthew Chapter 13.
The parable of the sermon on theSI senor.
As the sermon on the plain and The Sermon on the Mount.
This is kind of like sermon on the see.
Now we're going to look at Parables and this is where I
(04:20):
think the science of exegesis becomes really focused and
really useful. We need to do proper solid,
exegesis on The Parables. Many would say that Parables
have lots of hidden meanings andyou can make of Parables, you
know, draw, lots of different meanings that are Parables and
that is true to an extent. Jesus probably did deliberately
(04:40):
choose Parables that had Multiple spiritual meanings but
still it's generally the case. In fact, almost always the case
that when Jesus picks a parable,he has one specific literal.
Meaning in mind, he means one specific thing.
There's one thing he's trying tosay about the kingdom of God, to
his audience, and that's what wewant to get out in this podcast.
(05:01):
We want to look at what is probably the literal sense of
the text. What did Jesus mean?
Now, we're lucky, because for this, Parable, Jesus actually
gives us the interpretation here.
Tells us what he means, though. Most of the time we don't get to
hear that. So in verses 1 to 9, Jesus gives
the parable of the sower and that's red on Wednesday a week
(05:22):
16 in ordinary time. And then there's a gap where he
talks about something else for verses 10 to 17.
The disciples asked him about parables in general and that
discussion about Parables is we hear that in the lectionary on
Thursday of week 16 in ordinary time and then he comes back to
interpreting the parable of the sower in verses 18 to 23.
(05:43):
And we hear that on Friday of week 16 in ordinary On.
So today's episode is going to look at the Wednesday and the
Friday and there will be a separate one for Thursday of
week. 16. This podcast is all about
getting at the literal sense andfor Parables that means what did
Jesus intend when he gave that Parable and as I said, we're
(06:05):
going to see that Jesus actuallygave us the interpretation.
So that's why we want to read the Parable, with the
interpretation rather than trying to just read the parable
and then coming up with your owninterpretation.
So we started first one, Jesus left the house.
What it actually says there is on that same day, Jesus went out
of the house, so it's on the same day that he finished up at
(06:27):
the end of chapter 12. So if we read the end of chapter
12, here was in the house in Capernaum speaking to the crowds
and that's when his relatives come and they want to speak to
him, this waiting outside the house in Capernaum.
Now, it's significant that Matthew mentions.
This he wants us as his readers to notice that this occurs On
(06:47):
the same day. What else happened in chapter 12
on the same day? Well, he had the confrontation
with the Pharisees in chapter 12and many of The Parables, as
will see. Continue this same theme of
division. It says he sat by the Lakeside,
so he's sitting down, which is acommon teaching position of a
rabbi verse to such large crowdsgathered around him, that he got
(07:10):
into a boat and sat there. So, there becomes so many people
by the Lakeside that he has to get out into A boat so that they
don't press into hard against him.
And this boat would have been like a large canoe, and they've
actually found a first century fishing boat in Israel that you
can look at online if you'd liketo which is very similar to
(07:31):
probably what, what he would have sat on.
And so he sitting in the boat and the people stood on the
beach, now, sound carries quite well over water.
So when Jesus is speaking here on the boat, it's not just to
get away from the crowd. It's also so that they can hear
him better as he speaks over thecrowd.
There would have been thousands on the slope going down to the
Sea and they could probably hearhim speaking from the boat.
(07:54):
Verse 3, he told them many things in Parables.
So what's a parable will, it's from the Greek Parabola.
And that basically means comparison.
And when we look at the Thursdayepisode, which is a discussion
about, why does Jesus speak in Parables, will look at this in
more detail. There were some parables in the
Old Testament but Jesus uses them and quite a specific way.
(08:17):
They're basically a short memorable story from daily life
that confounds profound conveys,profound spiritual All truth.
In most of Jesus Parables Jesus sets up some sort of familiar
situation that everyone in the crowd would be familiar with and
then he basically says the kingdom of God is like this.
So Jesus hope is that by settingthings up this way, people will
(08:41):
understand a bit more about how the kingdom of God works by
seeing kind of an analogy of howsomething similar Works in
everyday daily life. But of course, it's a bit more
complicated than that we can't just stop at saying.
It helps make the Move called clearer because Jesus actually
says that he chooses to speak inParables because he wants to
make things less clear, which isquite surprising.
(09:04):
And we'll see that when we look at the Thursday episode, which
is verses 10 to 17 will discuss more about the purpose of
Parables. Now, Jesus has done Parables
earlier in the gospel of Matthew.
But now Matthew here in verse 3 says, he begins to speak to them
at length in Parables, so he gives the crowd rapid Firepower.
(09:25):
Parables and that confuses the disciples.
They wonder why he starts talking in Parables as we'll
see. When we look at verse 10 there's
probably some Parables that Jesus spoke that we don't get to
hear but Matthew just gives his audience the ones that he feels
the most appropriate for his purpose which is to show that
Jesus is the messiah. So he starts by saying this,
(09:48):
imagine a solo going out to. So so we're talking here about a
farmer planting seed. Remember he's speaking to the
Jews in Galilee his by the Sea of Galilee and they probably
could have looked around and seen Fields And there probably
could have seen Farmers sowing seeds just as Jesus is speaking.
They live in quite an agricultural area.
(10:09):
Now, when a farmer was sowing seed, the general strategy was
to plant seed everywhere and then plow the ground When he
plants some on the path and thenthe rocky ground in the Thorns
as will see, he's not being careless.
He knows that some of his seed is not going to work, but his
strategy is to scatter it everywhere.
And then plowed into the ground he knows that some of it won't
(10:31):
work and some of it will miss the mark but he knows the
strategy is the widest, the space, you can cover with the
seeds. The more crop is able to produce
and that's an interesting metaphor for the kingdom, isn't
it? Also, this image of a sower
sowing seed would also have beenfamiliar from the Old Testament.
There's a few times in the Old Testament where God is depicted
(10:51):
As A sower CC that in Isaiah, 55and Jeremiah 31, and Hosea,
chapter 2, and in the Old Testament, the seed of the sower
represents God's word, the god hopes will produce an abundant
crop. Interestingly.
Now in this Parable the seed is Jesus own word, not God's word.
It's actually kind of Jesus word.
(11:13):
So this could be a subtle reference to Jesus claiming to
be God. Perhaps, because certainly
Matthews readers would have recognized the similarity to
what God says about sowing seedsin the Old Testament.
So that's an interesting thing. We often miss here.
Now, as we go on Verses 4 to 8, Jesus tells the parable and
we're all pretty familiar with the parable.
(11:34):
So the sea gets spread into fourplaces so it falls on the edge
of the path and that's eaten by the birds because it's quite
visible so easily accessible to the birds.
Some of it falls on Rocky groundand Israel did have quite Rocky.
Volcanic rock, that was not goodfor growing soil.
And Jesus says the seed on Rockyground finds little soil and
(11:57):
sprang up. Right away.
It had no depth of Earth. And when the sun came up, it was
scorched and not having any Roots it withered away.
So, in other words, the seed wasn't properly grounded.
It wasn't in good soil. So it didn't last very long,
even though it did spring up quickly.
It doesn't last long in verse 7,there's another group of seeds
(12:19):
that are sown among Thorns. So the Thorns grow up and they
choke it and even though it has good soil and good roots, it
produces no fruit. Shoot.
And then in verse out, some seedfalls on the good rich soil, it
grows, tall and strong. And as the parable says yields
thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
(12:40):
Now, for a farmer working in ancient Galilee thirtyfold is an
excellent Harvest, that's great.And then 60 fold is awesome.
You would only get that a coupleof times in your career, as a
farmer to get a hundredfold would be miraculous.
And that's kind of the point, isn't it?
When Jesus says yielding a hundredfold that's incredible.
That Done by man alone. So already, we have hints here
(13:02):
that we're dealing here with thework of God.
Now notice what the measure of success here is in this Parable.
How do we tell whether the seed was successful or not?
Well, it's how much grain or fruit it produces.
This is something people often miss in order of most
productive, C2 least productive,the most productive in the
(13:26):
parable is the rich soil, obviously.
Then, the next most productive, interestingly is the rocky
ground. The seed that falls on Rocky
ground because they produce fruit for a short time, which is
interesting. It's this, the fruit doesn't
last and then the next most productive would be the Thorns.
So in Way, we could say, it doesn't produce any fruit, even
(13:49):
though it looked promising as though, it was going to produce
fruit, it doesn't actually produce any.
And then lastly, those on the path, they don't even start the
process of producing fruit at all.
So that's interesting verse 9, Jesus finishes.
The parable by saying, listen, anyone who has ears or most part
translations here, say he who has ears.
(14:09):
Let him hear basically means, Absorb into one's heart.
That's what it means to hear. It means to really reflect on
and meditate on. So Jesus here is signaling that
what he's just said, is important.
He wants the crowd to go away and reflect on it to think about
their place in the kingdom and whether they really do
understand the kingdom or not. When the crowd heard this
(14:32):
Parable, they don't get to hear the interpretation that we get
to hear in a few verses time. So they would not have
necessarily known straight away.What he meant.
The point was, Jesus wants them to go away and think about the
parable and think about what it means and hopefully it will
force them to not be neutral. It will force them to be
challenged and to make a decisive response and commit to
(14:54):
the kingdom. So then we have the Gap verse 10
to 17, which we look at Thursdayin week 6.
In week, 16, where the disciplesasked Jesus about parables in
general and then we get to verse18.
So Jesus is still speaking to his disciples.
He says, Remember, he's just speaking to his twelve
(15:15):
disciples. The crowds are gone now.
You are to hear the parable of the sower.
So Jesus perceives that they don't understand the parable and
he wants to help them. He wants to make sure that they
do understand the parable, he gives them the inside scoop and
he tells them the meaning of theparable.
And we're very thankful that he does that because now thanks to
Matthew writing it down. What he says, we get to hear
(15:37):
what Jesus meant when he gave the parable, which we don't get
to hear from most of the parables.
So here's what he says, is the meaning of the parable of the
sower. Let's keep in mind, this is
Jesus our own interpretation. In marks version, we get a bit
more here. Jesus tells us a bit more about
what each of the specific elements represent.
So if you look at Mark, Chapter 4, verses 1 to 20, Jesus,
(16:00):
specifically, says, to the apostles here, the seed
represents the word and in fact,Matthew calls this, the message
of the Kingdom. So, Matthew tells us this is
specifically about the kingdom of God.
The information that Jesus is providing about the kingdom of
God. So that's the seed, the What
represents those spreading the message of the kingdom of God.
(16:23):
So that's what marks version tells us.
So we get the seed and the sower.
Now what might the roots mean? This is just my interpretation
because Jesus doesn't tell us exactly what the roots are.
But I think this is a decent interpretation Roots.
We can say, is something like intellectual understanding.
So it's understanding the basicsof the kingdom of God and what
(16:44):
it costs. I think that's a decent.
Understanding of what the roots would be understanding, what the
kingdom of God is about, and what it requires, and then
fruit, I think we can reasonablysay that means acting on the
message of the kingdom. And Good works.
Fruit is often a metaphor that Jesus uses for good works, so I
think we can safely assume. That's what fruit is here.
(17:06):
Producing good works in responseto the kingdom.
So I'll say those four elements again and then we'll try them on
for size here. So, seed represents the word,
the message of the kingdom of God, the seller represents those
spreading the message of the Kingdom.
Roots is understanding the kingdom of God, and what it
costs and fruit is acting on themessage of the kingdom.
(17:28):
And Producing good works. So Jesus now tells the disciples
what that means in terms of eachof the four kinds of seed, who
do the four types of seeds represent.
So firstly the seed that fell onpath basically represents and
this is what Jesus says here. It's the people who hear the
word the message of the Kingdom without understanding.
(17:52):
And Marx version actually says that Satan is involved here that
Satan immediately takes away theword from their heart.
So they don't perceive it at all.
What does that mean for Satan totake away the word from their
heart and Matthews version is calls it.
The evil one, as well. It probably means something like
they hear the message of the Kingdom, but through fear, or
(18:14):
faulty human reasoning, they don't actually absorb the
message of the Kingdom at all. Now, that would certainly apply
to the Pharisees who so misunderstand him that they
think his message is not from God at all.
So they dismiss his message and it could also apply to the towns
that Jesus has been condemning in earlier chapters.
Remember, he's been condemning these local Galilee towns
(18:35):
because they see his works, but they do not repent.
So that would be a reasonable approximation of the seed that
falls on the path. You could also possibly think
about who this might apply to insociety today, certainly That
would apply to people who hear the message of the Gospel that,
but then dismiss it straight away, that would be the seed
(18:56):
falling on the path, verse 20. This is those on Rocky ground
and this is a really interestinggroup.
Jesus says the rocky ground. Soil are people who welcomed the
kingdom with joy but they have no root.
So when the persecution arises because of the word, they fall
away. Now, the Greek word therefore
(19:17):
fall away is Scandal. Oh scandalize am I?
So it has this idea of completely getting rid of the
Faith, Falling away from it, andcausing scandal.
So notice what it says about thepeople in the Rocky ground, it's
people who do well at the start.They receive the message of the
Kingdom with joy, but they leavethe kingdom when they're
persecuted for it. Notice, it's been persecuted on
(19:40):
account of the word, not just tough times in life.
In general, you'll often hear sermons that make it sound.
Like the rocky ground is people who struggle with life, so they
give up on Christianity, it's not quite right.
It's people who give up because they're persecuted for being a
Christian or for A part of the kingdom and we know that there
were many Christians in the timeof Jesus, who did this in the
(20:02):
early years of the Jewish and Christian persecution, many
people did give up the faith when they were at the point of
death so that they could survive.
And many were persecuted for their own families and they gave
in. So that would be people in the
Rocky ground notice. They did produce some good
fruit, but then they fall away verse 22.
(20:24):
This is the thorny soil. It's people who hear the word
but the cares of the world Delight in riches and desire for
other things, enter in and chokethe word.
And it proves unfruitful what itactually says here in Greek, is
the deceit of riches. So they strong Echo, is here of
basically the World, the Flesh. And the devil is, what gets to
(20:45):
this group. So, I think we can say, these
are people who understand the message of the Kingdom.
Notice they specifically said tohave Roots here, They do sort of
take root in the soil but other things, choke them out.
So they probably understand the kingdom, but they're more
interested in other Earthly things.
So in the end, they produce no fruit.
(21:07):
Who would this apply to? While we know that it probably
applies very well to the rich young man will see him later in
the gospel of Matthew in chapter19.
Remember the rich young man comes and says, what else do I
have to do to get into the kingdom?
Jesus says, give up your riches and he won't do it.
That would probably apply to a lot of society today, as well.
Who perhaps have a basic understanding of what
(21:29):
Christianity is on about. Although certainly not everyone
has this, but they're more interested in other things.
And then, lastly, verse 23 is the seed that falls on rich
soil. So that's those who receive the
word and understand it. He is the one who yields a
harvest and producers 30 fold and 60 fold and a hundredfold.
(21:51):
So those who meditate on the message of the Kingdom?
Mm, and cooperate with God's grace.
In other words, they act on Jesus Commandments.
That's who the richest oil is. These are the ones who advancing
the Kingdom, and who understand the meaning of The Parables,
which hopefully would be Jesus, Apostles, and other people in
the crowd as well, who go away and meditate on the mysteries of
(22:12):
the kingdom of God, through God's grace.
He helps them produce fruit and progress further in the Kingdom.
Notice though that not everyone in the category produces the
same amount of yield. So there's thirtyfold sixtyfold
and a hundredfold. So the expectation is not that
everyone in the Kingdom producesexactly the same kind of fruit,
or even the same amount of fruit.
(22:33):
And that's an important teachingfor the kingdom of God.
It's possible to be in the Kingdom, but not to produce as
much fruit as someone else and therefore, those different
levels of reward as well. And that's certainly part of
Catholic teaching about cooperating with It's great.
So it's not the Perfection is required to get into the kingdom
(22:54):
but Perfection is an element that helps people progress
further once they're already in the Kingdom.
We need to keep that in mind when we deal with Matthew's
gospel. Notice that Jesus has only told
this interpretation to his Apostles, the crowd does not get
to hear these last few verses where he's interpreted the
parable for them. So, the crowd if they're to
understand the meaning of the parable, they have to go away
(23:16):
and meditate on it. Now, we're lucky because we're
not in the crowd. We can we have access to the
interpretation that Jesus meant we should still meditate on it.
But we don't have to guess aboutthe meaning of the
interpretation and we're quite privileged in that sense.
But in the original context, those in the crowd who do
(23:37):
meditate on, it would be guided by God, through his grace, to
find the meaning of the parable.But those in the crowd who
couldn't be bothered going away and thinking about it would not
have received any extra Grace from God.
They wouldn't Find the meaning. And in that sense, they wouldn't
progress further in the Kingdom.It's interesting, isn't it?
The Dynamics of the parable and what Jesus expects them to do
with it. We often don't hear it.
(23:59):
Praise in those terms. So in this sense, Jesus is able
to impart information about the kingdom of God only to those who
are worthy of it and who really think about it and cooperate
with God not to everyone. We're in a different position
because the apostles and the gospel writers, tell us directly
what the meaning of many of the parables are not all of them and
(24:21):
that's why we still need to do exegesis because there's some
Parables that we can't get the full interpretation of there.
We can get close, but for the crowd, it's different.
So overall from the parable of the sower, Jesus message to his
original audience, the crowd wasfor them to examine their
response to the call of the kingdom of God and honestly
(24:42):
evaluate Your white? What obstacles might be
hindering them from bearing the Abundant Harvest that God
desires of them. Now, let's turn to the
catechism. Where do we see the parable of
the sower reference? Well, it's referenced in a
couple of places paragraph 5 4, 6 is about parables in general
and we're look at this paragraphspecifically when we look at the
(25:03):
Thursday of week 16, but in thatparagraph it does mention good
soil, bad soil, as a metaphor, the Jesus uses Paragraph 29.
There's a really interesting reference to it here early in
the catechism and this is in thesection about desire for God.
It says the intimate and vital Bond of man to God can be
(25:25):
forgotten or overlooked or even explicitly rejected by man.
Such attitudes, can have different causes revolt against
evil in the world, religious ignorance, or indifference the
cares and Riches of this world, the scandal of bad example, on
the part of Believers currents of thought, Hostile to religion,
finally, that attitude of sinfulman, which makes him hide from
(25:48):
God out of fear and flee his call really important paragraph.
And I actually think this early,part of the catechism is one of
the most important, but and it needs more attention, we should
learn the early part of the catechism because it tells us
how we can come to know God. And why some people don't come
to know God. This paragraph in particular
lists several reasons why peopledon't ever come to know God,
(26:10):
even though they could, if they thought about About it.
And that lists one of the reasons as the cares and Riches
of this world, which is referenced directly in the
parable of the sower. So we'll leave it there for
today. One of the most commonly known
Parables is the parable of the sower that we've looked at
today. But I'll, I'm sure you agree
that when you look at it with a bit more depth, there's a bit
(26:32):
more going on here if you think others would benefit from
hearing this podcast. So this episode where we dive
into the parable of the sower, please share it with them.
Subscribe on YouTube. And If you believe the ministry
is worth supporting, then pleasetake a look at the patreon page,
which is in the show notes, helpus do more things with this
podcast. Help us spread the word more.
(26:53):
Get more resources into people'shands and you can get access to
exclusive bonus episodes as wellthrough the patreon page.
So please check it out. If you haven't already, thanks
will continue in the gospel of Matthew tomorrow.
Hello everyone. Welcome back to logical Bible
study. We're all about taking a look at
the literal sense of scripture and particularly The Gospel
reading for today is a mess. What was Jesus trying to
communicate in the original context?
What does the text mean? When we let it speak on its own
terms and we try and do this in a rigorous Catholic Academic
Way. So today, we're going to look at
(00:33):
two passages Matthew 13 verses 1to 9 and then verses 18 to 23.
Now, this episode is going to bethe same on two days this week.
So the reason for that is the parable is given in Wednesday's
lectionary readings. So Wednesday of week 16 in
ordinary time we get to hear theparable verses 1 to 9 and then
(00:57):
the parable is actually explained by Jesus later in the
chapter. So in verses, In 223 which we
here on Friday of week, 16, we get to hear Jesus own
explanation of the parable. So, I've combined both of those
together and we'll look at both of those at the same time which
means this episode is going to be exactly the same on Wednesday
(01:17):
of week 16 in ordinary time and also Friday of week 16.
So you might have already heard this episode depending on when
you what day you're listening. So here's today's text Matthew
chapter 13. Verses 1 to 9.
And verses 18 to 23. Jesus left the house and sat by
the Lakeside, but such large crowds gathered around him, that
(01:41):
he got into a boat and sat there, the people all stood on
the beach, and he told them manythings in Parables.
He said, imagine a Cellar going out to.
So as he sowed some seeds fell on the edge of the path, and the
birds came and ate them up. Others fell on patches of rock,
where they found little soil andsprang up straight away.
(02:05):
Because there was no depth of Earth.
But as soon as the sun came up, they were scorched and not
having any Roots, they withered away.
Others fell among thorns and theThorns grew up and choked them.
Others fell on rich soil and produced their crop, some, a
hundredfold. Some sixty, some Thirty.
(02:28):
Listen, anyone who has ears? Jesus said, to his disciples,
you are to hear the parable of the sower.
When anyone hears, the word of the Kingdom.
Without understanding the evil, one comes and Carries off what
was sown in his heart. This is the man who received the
seed on the edge of the path. The one who received it on
(02:50):
patches of rock, is the man who hears the word and welcomes it
at once with joy. But he has no root in him.
He does not last. Let some trial come or some
persecution on account of the word and he falls away at once.
The one who received the seed inThorns, is the man who hears the
word, but the worries of this world and the lure of riches
(03:13):
choke the word. And so he produces nothing.
And the one who received the seed in rich soil, is the man
who hears the word and understands it, he is the one
who yields a harvest and produces now a hundredfold Now,
60 now 30. So, here we are, at the start of
Matthew, Chapter 13, and that's often called The Parables
(03:36):
chapter of Matthew. So here, Matthew has assembled
7, Kingdom parables. It's possible that Jesus spoke
them all on the one day as Matthew presented here.
Or they could have been ones that he spoke a different times,
but Matthew has assembled them and put them all in one chapter.
Some of the Parables will see inthe coming days.
As we look at Matthew 13, they only appear in the gospel of
(03:58):
Matthew, so there's going to be someone's in here that you won't
hear all that often. But of course, today we have one
that's very well known in the parable of the sower.
Some Scholars call Matthew Chapter 13.
The parable of the sermon on theSI senor.
As the sermon on the plain and The Sermon on the Mount.
This is kind of like sermon on the see.
Now we're going to look at Parables and this is where I
(04:20):
think the science of exegesis becomes really focused and
really useful. We need to do proper solid,
exegesis on The Parables. Many would say that Parables
have lots of hidden meanings andyou can make of Parables, you
know, draw, lots of different meanings that are Parables and
that is true to an extent. Jesus probably did deliberately
(04:40):
choose Parables that had Multiple spiritual meanings but
still it's generally the case. In fact, almost always the case
that when Jesus picks a parable,he has one specific literal.
Meaning in mind, he means one specific thing.
There's one thing he's trying tosay about the kingdom of God, to
his audience, and that's what wewant to get out in this podcast.
(05:01):
We want to look at what is probably the literal sense of
the text. What did Jesus mean?
Now, we're lucky, because for this, Parable, Jesus actually
gives us the interpretation here.
Tells us what he means, though. Most of the time we don't get to
hear that. So in verses 1 to 9, Jesus gives
the parable of the sower and that's red on Wednesday a week
(05:22):
16 in ordinary time. And then there's a gap where he
talks about something else for verses 10 to 17.
The disciples asked him about parables in general and that
discussion about Parables is we hear that in the lectionary on
Thursday of week 16 in ordinary time and then he comes back to
interpreting the parable of the sower in verses 18 to 23.
(05:43):
And we hear that on Friday of week 16 in ordinary On.
So today's episode is going to look at the Wednesday and the
Friday and there will be a separate one for Thursday of
week. 16. This podcast is all about
getting at the literal sense andfor Parables that means what did
Jesus intend when he gave that Parable and as I said, we're
(06:05):
going to see that Jesus actuallygave us the interpretation.
So that's why we want to read the Parable, with the
interpretation rather than trying to just read the parable
and then coming up with your owninterpretation.
So we started first one, Jesus left the house.
What it actually says there is on that same day, Jesus went out
of the house, so it's on the same day that he finished up at
(06:27):
the end of chapter 12. So if we read the end of chapter
12, here was in the house in Capernaum speaking to the crowds
and that's when his relatives come and they want to speak to
him, this waiting outside the house in Capernaum.
Now, it's significant that Matthew mentions.
This he wants us as his readers to notice that this occurs On
(06:47):
the same day. What else happened in chapter 12
on the same day? Well, he had the confrontation
with the Pharisees in chapter 12and many of The Parables, as
will see. Continue this same theme of
division. It says he sat by the Lakeside,
so he's sitting down, which is acommon teaching position of a
rabbi verse to such large crowdsgathered around him, that he got
(07:10):
into a boat and sat there. So, there becomes so many people
by the Lakeside that he has to get out into A boat so that they
don't press into hard against him.
And this boat would have been like a large canoe, and they've
actually found a first century fishing boat in Israel that you
can look at online if you'd liketo which is very similar to
(07:31):
probably what, what he would have sat on.
And so he sitting in the boat and the people stood on the
beach, now, sound carries quite well over water.
So when Jesus is speaking here on the boat, it's not just to
get away from the crowd. It's also so that they can hear
him better as he speaks over thecrowd.
There would have been thousands on the slope going down to the
Sea and they could probably hearhim speaking from the boat.
(07:54):
Verse 3, he told them many things in Parables.
So what's a parable will, it's from the Greek Parabola.
And that basically means comparison.
And when we look at the Thursdayepisode, which is a discussion
about, why does Jesus speak in Parables, will look at this in
more detail. There were some parables in the
Old Testament but Jesus uses them and quite a specific way.
(08:17):
They're basically a short memorable story from daily life
that confounds profound conveys,profound spiritual All truth.
In most of Jesus Parables Jesus sets up some sort of familiar
situation that everyone in the crowd would be familiar with and
then he basically says the kingdom of God is like this.
So Jesus hope is that by settingthings up this way, people will
(08:41):
understand a bit more about how the kingdom of God works by
seeing kind of an analogy of howsomething similar Works in
everyday daily life. But of course, it's a bit more
complicated than that we can't just stop at saying.
It helps make the Move called clearer because Jesus actually
says that he chooses to speak inParables because he wants to
make things less clear, which isquite surprising.
(09:04):
And we'll see that when we look at the Thursday episode, which
is verses 10 to 17 will discuss more about the purpose of
Parables. Now, Jesus has done Parables
earlier in the gospel of Matthew.
But now Matthew here in verse 3 says, he begins to speak to them
at length in Parables, so he gives the crowd rapid Firepower.
(09:25):
Parables and that confuses the disciples.
They wonder why he starts talking in Parables as we'll
see. When we look at verse 10 there's
probably some Parables that Jesus spoke that we don't get to
hear but Matthew just gives his audience the ones that he feels
the most appropriate for his purpose which is to show that
Jesus is the messiah. So he starts by saying this,
(09:48):
imagine a solo going out to. So so we're talking here about a
farmer planting seed. Remember he's speaking to the
Jews in Galilee his by the Sea of Galilee and they probably
could have looked around and seen Fields And there probably
could have seen Farmers sowing seeds just as Jesus is speaking.
They live in quite an agricultural area.
(10:09):
Now, when a farmer was sowing seed, the general strategy was
to plant seed everywhere and then plow the ground When he
plants some on the path and thenthe rocky ground in the Thorns
as will see, he's not being careless.
He knows that some of his seed is not going to work, but his
strategy is to scatter it everywhere.
And then plowed into the ground he knows that some of it won't
(10:31):
work and some of it will miss the mark but he knows the
strategy is the widest, the space, you can cover with the
seeds. The more crop is able to produce
and that's an interesting metaphor for the kingdom, isn't
it? Also, this image of a sower
sowing seed would also have beenfamiliar from the Old Testament.
There's a few times in the Old Testament where God is depicted
(10:51):
As A sower CC that in Isaiah, 55and Jeremiah 31, and Hosea,
chapter 2, and in the Old Testament, the seed of the sower
represents God's word, the god hopes will produce an abundant
crop. Interestingly.
Now in this Parable the seed is Jesus own word, not God's word.
It's actually kind of Jesus word.
(11:13):
So this could be a subtle reference to Jesus claiming to
be God. Perhaps, because certainly
Matthews readers would have recognized the similarity to
what God says about sowing seedsin the Old Testament.
So that's an interesting thing. We often miss here.
Now, as we go on Verses 4 to 8, Jesus tells the parable and
we're all pretty familiar with the parable.
(11:34):
So the sea gets spread into fourplaces so it falls on the edge
of the path and that's eaten by the birds because it's quite
visible so easily accessible to the birds.
Some of it falls on Rocky groundand Israel did have quite Rocky.
Volcanic rock, that was not goodfor growing soil.
And Jesus says the seed on Rockyground finds little soil and
(11:57):
sprang up. Right away.
It had no depth of Earth. And when the sun came up, it was
scorched and not having any Roots it withered away.
So, in other words, the seed wasn't properly grounded.
It wasn't in good soil. So it didn't last very long,
even though it did spring up quickly.
It doesn't last long in verse 7,there's another group of seeds
(12:19):
that are sown among Thorns. So the Thorns grow up and they
choke it and even though it has good soil and good roots, it
produces no fruit. Shoot.
And then in verse out, some seedfalls on the good rich soil, it
grows, tall and strong. And as the parable says yields
thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.
(12:40):
Now, for a farmer working in ancient Galilee thirtyfold is an
excellent Harvest, that's great.And then 60 fold is awesome.
You would only get that a coupleof times in your career, as a
farmer to get a hundredfold would be miraculous.
And that's kind of the point, isn't it?
When Jesus says yielding a hundredfold that's incredible.
That Done by man alone. So already, we have hints here
(13:02):
that we're dealing here with thework of God.
Now notice what the measure of success here is in this Parable.
How do we tell whether the seed was successful or not?
Well, it's how much grain or fruit it produces.
This is something people often miss in order of most
productive, C2 least productive,the most productive in the
(13:26):
parable is the rich soil, obviously.
Then, the next most productive, interestingly is the rocky
ground. The seed that falls on Rocky
ground because they produce fruit for a short time, which is
interesting. It's this, the fruit doesn't
last and then the next most productive would be the Thorns.
So in Way, we could say, it doesn't produce any fruit, even
(13:49):
though it looked promising as though, it was going to produce
fruit, it doesn't actually produce any.
And then lastly, those on the path, they don't even start the
process of producing fruit at all.
So that's interesting verse 9, Jesus finishes.
The parable by saying, listen, anyone who has ears or most part
translations here, say he who has ears.
(14:09):
Let him hear basically means, Absorb into one's heart.
That's what it means to hear. It means to really reflect on
and meditate on. So Jesus here is signaling that
what he's just said, is important.
He wants the crowd to go away and reflect on it to think about
their place in the kingdom and whether they really do
understand the kingdom or not. When the crowd heard this
(14:32):
Parable, they don't get to hear the interpretation that we get
to hear in a few verses time. So they would not have
necessarily known straight away.What he meant.
The point was, Jesus wants them to go away and think about the
parable and think about what it means and hopefully it will
force them to not be neutral. It will force them to be
challenged and to make a decisive response and commit to
(14:54):
the kingdom. So then we have the Gap verse 10
to 17, which we look at Thursdayin week 6.
In week, 16, where the disciplesasked Jesus about parables in
general and then we get to verse18.
So Jesus is still speaking to his disciples.
He says, Remember, he's just speaking to his twelve
(15:15):
disciples. The crowds are gone now.
You are to hear the parable of the sower.
So Jesus perceives that they don't understand the parable and
he wants to help them. He wants to make sure that they
do understand the parable, he gives them the inside scoop and
he tells them the meaning of theparable.
And we're very thankful that he does that because now thanks to
Matthew writing it down. What he says, we get to hear
(15:37):
what Jesus meant when he gave the parable, which we don't get
to hear from most of the parables.
So here's what he says, is the meaning of the parable of the
sower. Let's keep in mind, this is
Jesus our own interpretation. In marks version, we get a bit
more here. Jesus tells us a bit more about
what each of the specific elements represent.
So if you look at Mark, Chapter 4, verses 1 to 20, Jesus,
(16:00):
specifically, says, to the apostles here, the seed
represents the word and in fact,Matthew calls this, the message
of the Kingdom. So, Matthew tells us this is
specifically about the kingdom of God.
The information that Jesus is providing about the kingdom of
God. So that's the seed, the What
represents those spreading the message of the kingdom of God.
(16:23):
So that's what marks version tells us.
So we get the seed and the sower.
Now what might the roots mean? This is just my interpretation
because Jesus doesn't tell us exactly what the roots are.
But I think this is a decent interpretation Roots.
We can say, is something like intellectual understanding.
So it's understanding the basicsof the kingdom of God and what
(16:44):
it costs. I think that's a decent.
Understanding of what the roots would be understanding, what the
kingdom of God is about, and what it requires, and then
fruit, I think we can reasonablysay that means acting on the
message of the kingdom. And Good works.
Fruit is often a metaphor that Jesus uses for good works, so I
think we can safely assume. That's what fruit is here.
(17:06):
Producing good works in responseto the kingdom.
So I'll say those four elements again and then we'll try them on
for size here. So, seed represents the word,
the message of the kingdom of God, the seller represents those
spreading the message of the Kingdom.
Roots is understanding the kingdom of God, and what it
costs and fruit is acting on themessage of the kingdom.
(17:28):
And Producing good works. So Jesus now tells the disciples
what that means in terms of eachof the four kinds of seed, who
do the four types of seeds represent.
So firstly the seed that fell onpath basically represents and
this is what Jesus says here. It's the people who hear the
word the message of the Kingdom without understanding.
(17:52):
And Marx version actually says that Satan is involved here that
Satan immediately takes away theword from their heart.
So they don't perceive it at all.
What does that mean for Satan totake away the word from their
heart and Matthews version is calls it.
The evil one, as well. It probably means something like
they hear the message of the Kingdom, but through fear, or
(18:14):
faulty human reasoning, they don't actually absorb the
message of the Kingdom at all. Now, that would certainly apply
to the Pharisees who so misunderstand him that they
think his message is not from God at all.
So they dismiss his message and it could also apply to the towns
that Jesus has been condemning in earlier chapters.
Remember, he's been condemning these local Galilee towns
(18:35):
because they see his works, but they do not repent.
So that would be a reasonable approximation of the seed that
falls on the path. You could also possibly think
about who this might apply to insociety today, certainly That
would apply to people who hear the message of the Gospel that,
but then dismiss it straight away, that would be the seed
(18:56):
falling on the path, verse 20. This is those on Rocky ground
and this is a really interestinggroup.
Jesus says the rocky ground. Soil are people who welcomed the
kingdom with joy but they have no root.
So when the persecution arises because of the word, they fall
away. Now, the Greek word therefore
(19:17):
fall away is Scandal. Oh scandalize am I?
So it has this idea of completely getting rid of the
Faith, Falling away from it, andcausing scandal.
So notice what it says about thepeople in the Rocky ground, it's
people who do well at the start.They receive the message of the
Kingdom with joy, but they leavethe kingdom when they're
persecuted for it. Notice, it's been persecuted on
(19:40):
account of the word, not just tough times in life.
In general, you'll often hear sermons that make it sound.
Like the rocky ground is people who struggle with life, so they
give up on Christianity, it's not quite right.
It's people who give up because they're persecuted for being a
Christian or for A part of the kingdom and we know that there
were many Christians in the timeof Jesus, who did this in the
(20:02):
early years of the Jewish and Christian persecution, many
people did give up the faith when they were at the point of
death so that they could survive.
And many were persecuted for their own families and they gave
in. So that would be people in the
Rocky ground notice. They did produce some good
fruit, but then they fall away verse 22.
(20:24):
This is the thorny soil. It's people who hear the word
but the cares of the world Delight in riches and desire for
other things, enter in and chokethe word.
And it proves unfruitful what itactually says here in Greek, is
the deceit of riches. So they strong Echo, is here of
basically the World, the Flesh. And the devil is, what gets to
(20:45):
this group. So, I think we can say, these
are people who understand the message of the Kingdom.
Notice they specifically said tohave Roots here, They do sort of
take root in the soil but other things, choke them out.
So they probably understand the kingdom, but they're more
interested in other Earthly things.
So in the end, they produce no fruit.
(21:07):
Who would this apply to? While we know that it probably
applies very well to the rich young man will see him later in
the gospel of Matthew in chapter19.
Remember the rich young man comes and says, what else do I
have to do to get into the kingdom?
Jesus says, give up your riches and he won't do it.
That would probably apply to a lot of society today, as well.
Who perhaps have a basic understanding of what
(21:29):
Christianity is on about. Although certainly not everyone
has this, but they're more interested in other things.
And then, lastly, verse 23 is the seed that falls on rich
soil. So that's those who receive the
word and understand it. He is the one who yields a
harvest and producers 30 fold and 60 fold and a hundredfold.
(21:51):
So those who meditate on the message of the Kingdom?
Mm, and cooperate with God's grace.
In other words, they act on Jesus Commandments.
That's who the richest oil is. These are the ones who advancing
the Kingdom, and who understand the meaning of The Parables,
which hopefully would be Jesus, Apostles, and other people in
the crowd as well, who go away and meditate on the mysteries of
(22:12):
the kingdom of God, through God's grace.
He helps them produce fruit and progress further in the Kingdom.
Notice though that not everyone in the category produces the
same amount of yield. So there's thirtyfold sixtyfold
and a hundredfold. So the expectation is not that
everyone in the Kingdom producesexactly the same kind of fruit,
or even the same amount of fruit.
(22:33):
And that's an important teachingfor the kingdom of God.
It's possible to be in the Kingdom, but not to produce as
much fruit as someone else and therefore, those different
levels of reward as well. And that's certainly part of
Catholic teaching about cooperating with It's great.
So it's not the Perfection is required to get into the kingdom
(22:54):
but Perfection is an element that helps people progress
further once they're already in the Kingdom.
We need to keep that in mind when we deal with Matthew's
gospel. Notice that Jesus has only told
this interpretation to his Apostles, the crowd does not get
to hear these last few verses where he's interpreted the
parable for them. So, the crowd if they're to
understand the meaning of the parable, they have to go away
(23:16):
and meditate on it. Now, we're lucky because we're
not in the crowd. We can we have access to the
interpretation that Jesus meant we should still meditate on it.
But we don't have to guess aboutthe meaning of the
interpretation and we're quite privileged in that sense.
But in the original context, those in the crowd who do
(23:37):
meditate on, it would be guided by God, through his grace, to
find the meaning of the parable.But those in the crowd who
couldn't be bothered going away and thinking about it would not
have received any extra Grace from God.
They wouldn't Find the meaning. And in that sense, they wouldn't
progress further in the Kingdom.It's interesting, isn't it?
The Dynamics of the parable and what Jesus expects them to do
with it. We often don't hear it.
(23:59):
Praise in those terms. So in this sense, Jesus is able
to impart information about the kingdom of God only to those who
are worthy of it and who really think about it and cooperate
with God not to everyone. We're in a different position
because the apostles and the gospel writers, tell us directly
what the meaning of many of the parables are not all of them and
(24:21):
that's why we still need to do exegesis because there's some
Parables that we can't get the full interpretation of there.
We can get close, but for the crowd, it's different.
So overall from the parable of the sower, Jesus message to his
original audience, the crowd wasfor them to examine their
response to the call of the kingdom of God and honestly
(24:42):
evaluate Your white? What obstacles might be
hindering them from bearing the Abundant Harvest that God
desires of them. Now, let's turn to the
catechism. Where do we see the parable of
the sower reference? Well, it's referenced in a
couple of places paragraph 5 4, 6 is about parables in general
and we're look at this paragraphspecifically when we look at the
(25:03):
Thursday of week 16, but in thatparagraph it does mention good
soil, bad soil, as a metaphor, the Jesus uses Paragraph 29.
There's a really interesting reference to it here early in
the catechism and this is in thesection about desire for God.
It says the intimate and vital Bond of man to God can be
(25:25):
forgotten or overlooked or even explicitly rejected by man.
Such attitudes, can have different causes revolt against
evil in the world, religious ignorance, or indifference the
cares and Riches of this world, the scandal of bad example, on
the part of Believers currents of thought, Hostile to religion,
finally, that attitude of sinfulman, which makes him hide from
(25:48):
God out of fear and flee his call really important paragraph.
And I actually think this early,part of the catechism is one of
the most important, but and it needs more attention, we should
learn the early part of the catechism because it tells us
how we can come to know God. And why some people don't come
to know God. This paragraph in particular
lists several reasons why peopledon't ever come to know God,
(26:10):
even though they could, if they thought about About it.
And that lists one of the reasons as the cares and Riches
of this world, which is referenced directly in the
parable of the sower. So we'll leave it there for
today. One of the most commonly known
Parables is the parable of the sower that we've looked at
today. But I'll, I'm sure you agree
that when you look at it with a bit more depth, there's a bit
(26:32):
more going on here if you think others would benefit from
hearing this podcast. So this episode where we dive
into the parable of the sower, please share it with them.
Subscribe on YouTube. And If you believe the ministry
is worth supporting, then pleasetake a look at the patreon page,
which is in the show notes, helpus do more things with this
podcast. Help us spread the word more.
(26:53):
Get more resources into people'shands and you can get access to
exclusive bonus episodes as wellthrough the patreon page.
So please check it out. If you haven't already, thanks
will continue in the gospel of Matthew tomorrow.
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