Luke 8:9

Luke sets the scene in a single sentence. “Much people” joins polýs, much, with óchlos, a throng or multitude, the word for a large crowd of every kind of person. They “were gathered together”, from sýneimi, to come or gather together, and they had come “out of every city”, a way of saying that people arrived from town after town. Many of them travelled on foot, some hungry for God, some curious, and some hoping to be healed. Just before this, Luke has shown Jesus travelling from place to place, healing and working miracles, with the women who supported him (Luke 8:1–3). His ministry reached everyone. He had welcomed sinners and outcasts when he called Levi (Luke 5:27–32), and he had already taught a great multitude with authority in the Sermon on the Plain (Luke 6:17–49).

To all of them “he spake by a parable”. The word parabolḗ comes from a verb meaning to throw alongside, and it names a comparison: a story from common life set beside a spiritual truth so that one sheds light on the other. Teachers in Israel used such sayings, called mashal in Hebrew. Matthew sees in Jesus’ parables the fulfilment of the psalm that says “I will open my mouth in parables” (Matthew 13:34–35, quoting Psalm 78:2). Matthew and Mark both tell this parable with its explanation (Matthew 13:1–23, Mark 4:1–20), and Mark places the teaching by the sea.

The story came straight out of the fields the crowd knew. A farmer in Galilee sowed by hand, scattering seed broadly across the field, and fields often had paths running through them, beaten hard by feet. Some farmers sowed before ploughing, which is how seed came to land on every kind of ground. Birds were always about. In hilly country a thin layer of soil often lay over a shelf of rock, and ground that had once been cleared was quickly overrun again by thistles and briers. Every hearer had seen what Jesus described.

It is usually called the Parable of the Sower, and it is also called the Parable of the Soils, because the story turns on the ground. The sower is Jesus, and after him everyone who proclaims God’s word. He “went out to sow his seed”, and the verb speírō means to scatter, the wide throw of seed over the whole field, path, rock and thorns included. God’s word is offered to all. The crowd from every city points the same way, toward a gospel meant for every people, as God promised Abraham that in him all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3).

When the disciples ask what the parable means, Jesus gives its key in one line: “Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.” The word for seed, spóros, comes from the verb to sow and means the seed that is scattered, something that carries life and can grow and multiply. The word for word, lógos, means something said, a message. Here it is God’s message, the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus himself was preaching, and it carries God’s authority and his life.

Because Jesus names the seed, we know what the whole story is about. It is about how God’s word is received in human hearts. The seed is the same in every part of the field, and it is good seed wherever it falls, so the outcome turns on the ground. God takes the first step by sowing his word, and each hearer answers for how it is received.

Scripture speaks of the word in the same way elsewhere. Isaiah compares it to the rain and snow that water the earth and make it bring forth, and God says that his word will accomplish what he sends it to do (Isaiah 55:10–11). James tells believers to receive with meekness “the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). Peter says we are born again of incorruptible seed, by the word of God which lives and abides for ever (1 Peter 1:23), and Paul writes that the gospel was bringing forth fruit wherever it went (Colossians 1:5–6).

In the story some seed “fell by the way side”, beside the road (para ten hodon), onto the hard path through the field. It lay on top, where it “was trodden down”. The verb katapatéō is built from katá, down, and patéō, to tread, so the seed was crushed under passing feet as well as left in the open. Then “the fowls of the air devoured it”. The verb katesthíō means to eat down or devour, and the seed was gone.

Jesus explains: “Those by the way side are they that hear”. These people do hear the word. It reaches their ears and lies on the surface of a heart that has been beaten hard, where it cannot sink in. “Then cometh the devil”, and eîta, “then”, marks what comes next, as soon as the word is heard. The birds of the story are the devil. His name, diábolos, means a slanderer or false accuser, and as a title it names the Devil, the enemy of God and of people. He “taketh away the word out of their hearts”. The verb aírō means to lift up and so to take up or carry off, and the devil lifts the word away before it can take root. The heart, kardía, is the centre of the person, where thought, feeling and will meet, and so it is the place where belief must live.

His aim is in the last words: “lest they should believe and be saved”. Hína mḗ, “lest”, names the outcome he is working to prevent. To believe, pisteúō, can mean to take something as true and also to put one’s trust in a person. To be saved, sṓzō, takes in deliverance, healing and being made whole. The devil works hardest against the word at its beginning, because the word is the means God uses to bring people to faith and salvation, as Paul and Silas told the jailer to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved (Acts 16:31). Paul writes that the god of this world blinds the minds of unbelievers (2 Corinthians 4:4), and he calls believers to put on the whole armour of God against the wiles of the devil, since we wrestle against spiritual powers and must stand in the evil day (Ephesians 6:11–13).

The devil does this in many ways: by raising doubts, by distraction and misunderstanding, by a dull indifference, or by another story that clouds the word. A heart grows hard through indifference, cynicism, distraction and the press of the world, the way a path is beaten hard by feet. So Scripture pleads, “To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts” (Hebrews 4:7).

The devil is real and active, and Christ is stronger. On the cross he spoiled principalities and powers and triumphed over them (Colossians 2:15). He is the Good Shepherd, who gives abundant life where the thief comes to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10), and he says that none can pluck his sheep out of his Father’s hand (John 10:27–29).

Some seed “fell upon a rock”. The word pétra means a mass of rock, bedrock, and the picture is a thin layer of earth over a shelf of stone, which was common in the hills of Galilee. The seed sprang up quickly, because shallow soil warms fast in the sun. Then “it withered away”, xēraínō, from a word for dry, “because it lacked moisture”, mḗ échō hikmás. Hikmás is moisture or damp, and the roots, stopped by the rock, could reach none of it.

Jesus explains: “They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy”. Their joy is real gladness at good news. Then he names the flaw: “these have no root”. The rhíza is the root of a plant, and in a person it is the hidden depth that draws on God and holds firm. Such people “for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away”. The word for temptation, peirasmós, means a putting to the proof. It covers trials, persecution, hardship, inward doubts and the pull of sin, anything that tests faith and shows what it is. Many of the first believers met this testing as persecution, rejection by their neighbours and loss of their living. To “fall away”, aphístēmi, is to withdraw or desert, to leave the faith once confessed. The quick start and the quick end belong together, since the plant that grew fast had rock beneath it.

Scripture answers this with a call to roots. Paul prays that believers would be rooted and grounded in love (Ephesians 3:17–19), and he tells them that as they have received Christ Jesus the Lord, they should walk in him, rooted and built up in him (Colossians 2:6–7). The moisture the rock lacked is what God gives his people: his Spirit dwelling in them, his word, prayer, the fellowship of believers and his sustaining grace. Hebrews warns against an evil heart of unbelief that departs from the living God, and says we are partakers of Christ if we hold our confidence steadfast to the end (Hebrews 3:12–14). Jesus says, “he that endureth to the end shall be saved” (Matthew 10:22). He himself was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin (Hebrews 4:15), and his endurance is the ground of ours.

Some seed “fell among thorns”. The word ákantha means any prickly plant, thistle, brier or bramble. “The thorns sprang up with it”, and the verb symphýō means to grow up together with, so the thorns were already in the ground and grew alongside the good seed from the start. As both grew, they “choked it”. The verb is apopnígō, to stifle or suffocate. Thorns take the light, water and nourishment a crop needs, and they overpower it slowly. Farmers fought them all the time, because cleared land soon filled with thorns again unless it was kept.

Jesus explains: “that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life”. These people hear the word and receive it. Then they “go forth” (poreúomai), carrying on with their lives, and as they go, other growth closes in around the word. They are “choked”, sympnígō, a word for strangling completely, used of drowning and of crowding.

Jesus names the thorns. The “cares” are mérimna, anxieties, and the word comes from merízō, to divide, through the idea of distraction, a mind pulled many ways at once. “Riches” are wealth (ploûtos), and “pleasures of this life” are delights (hēdonḗ) that belong to bíos, this present life and the living we make in it. So the thorns are the ordinary concerns of every day: worry over tomorrow’s needs, the pursuit of wealth and security, and the comforts and enjoyments of the world.

The result is that they “bring no fruit to perfection”. The verb telesphoréō means to carry through to completion, to ripen fruit. Something grows here, and there may be early signs of fruit, but it never ripens. The thorny ground is the quietest of the failures, a slow crowding out of a word that was truly received.

Jesus warns elsewhere that no servant can serve God and mammon (Luke 16:13), and he tells his hearers to “beware of covetousness” (Luke 12:15). John writes, “Love not the world” (1 John 2:15–17), Paul warns that those who will be rich fall into temptation and a snare (1 Timothy 6:9–10), and James calls the friendship of the world enmity with God (James 4:4). The law could show these thorns for what they are, but it was weak through the flesh to remove them (Romans 8:3). Christ gave himself for our sins to deliver us from this present evil world (Galatians 1:4), and he does what the law could not.

“And other fell on good ground”. The word for good here is agathós, good and beneficial, and the ground, gē, is earth, land or soil. This seed “sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold”. The word hekatontaplasíōn means a hundred times as much. An ordinary harvest in that land might return seven or ten times what was sown, so a hundredfold is an abundance that would astonish any farmer. Matthew records harvests of thirty, sixty and a hundredfold (Matthew 13:8). The yield speaks of God’s blessing, like the abundance he promised Israel for obedience (Deuteronomy 28:1–14).

Jesus explains: “that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.” The heart is “honest and good”, kalós and agathós, a heart that is good, upright and sincere, ready to receive the truth. The heart (kardía) is the whole inner person, so this describes someone whose thoughts, desires and will lie open to God. Such people hear the word and “keep it”. The verb is katéchō, to hold fast or retain, and so to keep and obey. The word stays with them and shapes what they think and do. Scripture says, “Keep thy heart with all diligence” (Proverbs 4:23), and the good ground is a heart God’s grace has made ready to receive his word.

They “bring forth fruit”, karpophoréō, to bear fruit, “with patience”. Hypomonē is steadfast endurance under pressure, a hopeful staying power that remains faithful through trials, opposition and delay. Every farmer waits a long season between sowing and harvest, and the word bears its fruit in the same patient way. Jesus says, “In your patience possess ye your souls” (Luke 21:19), and Hebrews says we have need of patience, so that after doing the will of God we might receive the promise (Hebrews 10:36).

The fruit is the evidence of a life the word has changed: growth, a righteous character, obedience, the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22–23), and works that glorify God and serve others, including the spreading of the gospel. John the Baptist had called for “fruits worthy of repentance” (Luke 3:8). Jesus taught that a good tree brings forth good fruit and that by their fruits we know them (Matthew 7:17–20), and James calls us to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only” (James 1:22–25). Jesus also said that his Father is glorified when his disciples bear much fruit, and that they bear it by abiding in him, the true vine, “for without me ye can do nothing” (John 15:1–8).

When he had finished the story, Jesus “cried”, raising his voice so the whole crowd would take hold of what he said. The call “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” comes again and again in his teaching (Matthew 11:15, Mark 4:9). The verb akoúō covers hearing of every kind, from catching a sound to understanding and obeying it, and Jesus calls for the hearing that understands and responds. His parables carry truth that lies below the surface, and he urges his hearers to find it. Luke follows this parable with the saying about the lamp (Luke 8:16–18), which presses the same point about how we hear.

The disciples answered that call. “And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be?” A disciple, mathētḗs, from manthanō, to learn, is a learner, one who has committed himself to Jesus’ teaching and way of life. They “asked”, eperōtáō, to ask or inquire of someone. They knew the story was a parable, and with “What” (tís) they ask for its meaning. The crowd heard the story and went home with it. The disciples were still learning, and they came and asked, and Jesus explained it to them. Their question shows a teachable spirit. Proverbs promises that whoever seeks wisdom as silver will find the knowledge of God, for the LORD gives wisdom (Proverbs 2:1–6). Jesus later promised the Spirit of truth to guide his disciples into all truth (John 16:12–13), and after his resurrection he opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:45). He is the one who gives ears to hear.

Jesus spoke in parables so that the same story would open the truth to those God was teaching and veil it from those whose hearts were closed, and he said so in his answer to the disciples: “Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God”. “It is given” is dídōmi, to give, and the knowing is God’s gift to them. To “know”, ginṓskō, is to know, come to know, perceive or understand. A “mystery”, mystḗrion, is a secret once hidden and now made known by God, and it is given to some and withheld from others. These mysteries concern the kingdom of God, basileía, a word that comes from basileús, king, and theós, God: his rule and his saving plan, now being made known through Jesus. Paul speaks of such mysteries revealed in Christ, among them the Gentiles made fellow heirs (Ephesians 3:3–6), Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32), the change that will come to believers at the resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:51–52), and Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:26–27). This is God’s wisdom, hidden and now revealed by his Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:7–10).

“But to others in parables”. The “others”, loipoí, are the rest, those outside the circle of learners, and to them the truth comes “in parables” (en, in). Then come the hard words: “that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.” The word “that”, hína, usually marks purpose, and it can also mark result. They see (blépō) and hear (akoúō) the outward story, and its meaning stays hidden from their understanding (syníēmi).

Jesus is the sower in this parable, the one who went out from the Father to proclaim the kingdom, and the word he sows is about himself. John calls him the Word who was with God and was God, who became flesh, whom his own received not, and who gives those who receive him power to become the sons of God (John 1:1–14). The trampled seed on the path foreshadows the rejection he met from hardened hearts. He went on sowing all the way to the cross, so that the preaching of the cross goes out to all (1 Corinthians 1:18) and whoever believes in him has everlasting life (John 3:16).

The disciples went to him for the meaning, and rightly, for knowing the mysteries of the kingdom comes down to knowing him. The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, has declared the God whom no man has seen (John 1:18). He is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of his person (Hebrews 1:3), the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), the one in whom “are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Colossians 2:2–3). He is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), the light of the world (John 8:12), and the Good Shepherd who gathers his flock (John 10:11).

He spoke of himself as a seed as well, a corn of wheat that falls into the ground and dies, and so brings forth much fruit (John 12:24). He sends the Holy Spirit, who teaches his people all things (John 14:26), and so the good ground, in the end, is a heart that Christ has made new.

The parable shows us a generous God. The sower scatters seed on the path, the rock and the thorns as well as the good ground, and the word of God goes out to every kind of hearer. Some of it is lost, and Jesus tells us plainly why: the enemy who snatches, the testing that finds shallow roots, and the slow pull of the world.

It shows us that the word itself is good and full of life. Where it is held fast, it grows past all expectation, thirty, sixty and a hundredfold, and the harvest belongs to God.

And it shows us a Teacher who answers those who ask. The crowd went home with a story, and the disciples who came to him went home with its meaning. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” is an invitation as well as a warning, and the ears it calls for are his gift to all who come to him.