UNWISE SOWER

Recently in contemplation I kept hearing the Parable of the Sower in my mind. The well known parable concerns a sower who went out to sow his seed and as he sowed some fell beside the road, some fell on rocky soil and some on thorny soil and none of these grew well if at all. He also sowed some seed on good soil and it grew up and produced a hundred-fold crop.

What I heard (maybe for the first time) was that the sower was as contrary as the soils. The first three soils are obviously unfit for good growth. But what sower would sow on rocky ground, thorny ground or a roadway? An unwise sower is what I heard. Or, perhaps a very inexperienced sower. We must ask how much of our sowing is in soil that is not apt to grow a blasted thing. Are we just sowing to sow… maybe not even expecting something to grow but out of a legal heart we assume ‘we have done our duty’ by ‘sowing the seed.’

The last thing I heard was that the only thing in the parable that is without variable is the Seed, which is The Word of God. The sower is not very careful, the soil is not very good… but the Seed is the same and unchanging.

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.” Jesus