NOTES for Luk 8:5-15

The parable of the sower is one of Christ's best-known parables. All three authors of the Synoptic Gospels recount it, so it recurs in the cycle of liturgical readings. As in every parable, the Lord uses images here to reveal something essential about God and humanity to His disciples. Clearly, the sower himself is the image of God in this parable, and the seed is God's word, as Christ Himself explains to the disciples. He does not dwell on this at length, but it is important for us to consider every aspect of His comparison of Himself to a sower sowing the word. The sower has no guarantee that his labor will bear the desired fruit. He seems to surrender the seed to the earth's power so that it may have the opportunity to bear fruit. The Lord speaks of this in John's Gospel too: unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. This is a humble and tragic image, a kind of verbal icon of the crucified Lamb of God.

Explaining this parable to the disciples, the Lord says that the fruit we bear is ultimately determined by our own qualities as the poor or fertile soil into which God's word falls. We ourselves, not God, are responsible for ensuring that our hearts are not stone and that the thorns do not overgrow... From the Sower's perspective, the outcome of His labor on the Cross depends on us. This is the highest measure of responsibility, at once beyond our strength and incredibly ennobling. The fruit the Almighty, the Creator of heaven and earth, receives depends on us! For centuries, people have feared this responsibility, and still do. One of the most widespread ideas in religious systems from antiquity to the present is predestination. People try to shift responsibility for the fruit onto the Sower Himself, thinking that some are granted the ability to be good soil while others are not. Only God speaks the truth that defines both the measure of human responsibility and the measure of human dignity in the world.

Sowing is one of the most important images not only in the New Testament but in the Bible as a whole. Indeed, its meanings are so abundant that we cannot even glance over them all now. From Genesis to Revelation, we see in sowing a foreshadowing of God's cooperation with humanity, of His love for humanity, and of human beings' conscious and responsible labour, not only for food but also to ‘sow seed’ (Gen 1:11), which God saw as ‘good’ even before humanity was created (Gen 1:12). And here we have mentioned only a small part of sowing's meanings in the Bible. But let us now turn to the meaning that seems closest to today's Gospel passage, closest to the words Jesus speaks to us today. It is the meaning given to sowing by the prophets who prepared for Christ's coming. ‘Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of human beings and the seed of livestock’ (Jer 31:27). Another prophet, Hosea, says, ‘I will sow her for Myself in the land, and I will have mercy on Unpitied, and I will say to Not-My-People, “You are My people”, and they will say, “You are my God!”’ (Hos 2:23). Here the Lord Himself appears as the Sower, so that ‘holy seed’ may grow from the root of the felled ‘tree of Jesse’ (Isa 6:13). But has this seed grown? And what kind of seed is it? Let us listen to another prophet, Zechariah: ‘…and say to him: thus says the Lord of hosts: behold the Man whose name is the BRANCH; He will grow from His own root and build the Lord's temple. He will build the Lord's temple and receive glory, and sit and rule upon His throne; He will also be a priest upon His throne, and a counsel of peace will be between the two’ (Zec 6:12–13). In other words, the Branch is the Messiah. A qualification is needed here, however. We have not found the origins of the word ‘Branch’ in either the Vulgate or the Septuagint, where the word is ‘Rising’ or ‘East’—Oriens and Ἀνατολή. Yet translations into modern European languages do have words meaning a shoot or a branch, including the English ‘branch’. How this happened is another question; it is already a fact of our spiritual history that this ‘holy seed’ is associated with Jesus and with what will grow from This root. That is why Zechariah's words are so important to us and so often recalled. The history of God's Word is so complex, so difficult to make sense of… But let us trust not our head, but our heart.

The parable of the sower is one of the few Gospel parables accompanied by comments from the Saviour Himself. Jesus tells a story in images to a large audience, but later, alone with His disciples, He explains it, because only to them ‘has it been given to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of God’. Reading these lines, we cannot help wondering why some are more prepared, and others less prepared, to receive these mysteries; why some, ‘seeing, do not see’, while for others everything is transparent and clear. The parable itself answers this question. Each seed falls on a particular kind of soil, where it encounters the corresponding obstacles that cause it to perish. But these obstacles could have been overcome; otherwise the Sower would not have sown in such places. Sometimes it seems to us that, ‘hearing, we do not hear’, that our heart has grown dull and hard as stone, that the divine seeds will never sprout in it. Only faith that the Lord is merciful, and that His love overcomes every weakness of ours, enables us to listen to His Word again and again. For it makes no difference to His love whether it transforms rocky ground, a road, or a field full of weeds. God has revealed Himself to some from infancy; others come to Him before they die. But does this matter so much on the scale of the eternity that will open up in His Kingdom...

Why does Christ set the apostles apart so sharply from "the others," to whom it is given to know only in parables? These words often surprise us deeply. After all, we read this interpretation, given only to the apostles, but are we really better than those who heard only the parable? No, we are not better. But Scripture was given to the Church. The "mysteries of the Kingdom of God" can be known only by those who are already together, who follow Christ not alone, who are ready to share life, joys, and sorrows with the neighbors given to them by God. The 12 apostles were not sinless, but they were gathered together around Christ, just as we are gathered in the Church, the Body of Christ. And together we can receive the Word; in the Church the Holy Spirit grants us the ability to hear and understand the Word of God.

And God has also given us freedom. This may be why He spoke in parables to those who had not yet decided, as the apostles had, to follow Him. The interpretation of the parable of the Sower is so simple and clear that the choice becomes painfully sharp; not everyone can bring himself to make it. The interpretation of this parable is so categorical that it can frighten an "outsider." In fact, it frightens us too, because we cannot fail to see how unlike fertile soil we are. But God protects our freedom, and therefore, by speaking in parables, He leaves us the freedom to choose: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear!" We can decide to hear, ask God for "hearing ears," and then we will hear, understand, and a very frightening and very simple choice will stand before us: with God, or without God.

This parable gives a remarkable account of the history of Christian preaching over the past twenty centuries. When Christians are reproached for unworthy conduct, many of the examples cited—not all of them, but that is not the subject now—can and even should be humbly accepted and acknowledged: yes, in some cases the seed fell on rock, and in others it was choked by weeds. That is why in many places no good harvest is visible, even though the seed was of the highest quality. Yet it is far more important to measure ourselves against this parable: what condition is my own soil in? Have I grown hard? Have I stopped pulling up my weeds?

If we answer these and similar questions honestly, we may encounter a trick of the evil one: “You are what you are and will not become better, so do not even try to receive the seed and bear fruit.” But this is not true, and we must not pronounce upon ourselves a final diagnosis dictated by the enemy, who is eager to snatch away the seed that has been sown. The soul of each one of us is capable of changing and at different times can be different kinds of soil. With God's help, stony ground can become fertile black earth.

Unlike Matthew, Luke places the parable of the sower in the context of words that Matthew records as part of other teachings of the Saviour (vv. 16–17; Matt. 5:15, 10:26–27). We can no longer say with certainty whether Luke quotes these words to remind the reader of what Jesus said on another occasion, or whether, after telling his disciples the parable, the Teacher really did remind them of something he had already spoken about. One thing is clear: for the evangelist, as for Jesus himself, the Kingdom is inseparable from witness. The parable of the sower can be read not only as a parable about what prevents a person from accepting and entering the Kingdom, but also as one about what prevents them from bearing witness to Christ and the Kingdom. Everyday cares, if we give them too much attention (v. 14), fear of persecution and harassment, if we give in to it (v. 13), and simple frivolity towards the revelation received from God (v. 12) can all hinder a faithful witness. It is not merely that all these things distract a person from a particular activity by turning their heart, and therefore their attention, to something else.

It is also that a full witness is not merely an account but a visible demonstration of what life with Christ in his Kingdom is like. Everything listed in the parable of the sower destroys the spiritual wholeness that makes this demonstration possible. It is no accident that commentators interpreting verses 16–17 still disagree about what Jesus means by the secrets that will sooner or later be revealed. Some are certain he means carefully concealed evil deeds or weaknesses that people do not usually speak of, and feel uncomfortable speaking of aloud. Others maintain that he was speaking of the Kingdom, which, though hidden for a time, will sooner or later be revealed in all its fullness and become visible to everyone.

Verse 18, meanwhile, may help settle the dispute: it calls those listening to a particular kind of spiritual attentiveness. The Gospels often mention situations in which people listen but do not hear. This does not mean that they simply let the words pass them by: Jewish culture is a culture of dialogue, not only dialogue between people but also between a person and God. It concerns what sometimes prevents someone from hearing the person speaking to them, the very thing described in the parable of the sower. The listener does not keep track of what is happening, because their attention is focused neither on the speaker nor on the words, but on something else. Without spiritual wholeness, however, a person may not even notice this, having neither the habit nor the skill of observing where their attention is directed.

Alas, such an unreflective state is normal for fallen humanity. But this kind of spiritual slackness is unsuited to the Kingdom, for what matters most in the Kingdom is relationships, and here attention, and awareness of where it is directed, become essential. Without this spiritual collectedness, a person will not gain the Kingdom they hope to receive. This is not an examination for its own sake: a spiritually slack person simply lacks the organ needed for life in the Kingdom. Or they have it, but it is so weak that even after entering the Kingdom they cannot remain there: they lack the spiritual strength to keep God and their neighbours in the focus of their attention, and without them there is no Kingdom. Then contact with the Kingdom becomes a moment of truth: what was previously hidden, perhaps even from the seeker—for fallen human beings are prone to deceive themselves about themselves—becomes evident and known to all. Then it becomes clear whether a person is ready to enter the Kingdom.

Jesus' parables are something halfway between amusing stories from everyday life and riddles: in them He explains the inexpressible, the Message of His Kingdom, in simple human language. Many of them begin just this way: "The Kingdom of God is like someone who..." - and then He sketches a situation familiar to His listeners, revealing to them the essence of His Gospel.

So, the most famous parable is about how the Word of God, like a seed, must fall into fertile soil in order to bear fruit and not be lost in vain. The evangelist wonderfully completes the parable by giving, immediately after it, the account of Jesus' family, where He speaks to the disciples a new riddle that expresses the same Message in other words: "Whoever hears the Word and does it has entered My family".

The listeners only have to compare these parable-riddles to understand what the Kingdom consists in that their Teacher brought to earth. Through his book, the evangelist offers this task not just to the small circle of disciples, but to all readers of the Gospel.

The word, the seed sown by the sower, contains within itself the germ of the Kingdom of Heaven. Falling into our hearts, it begins to sprout into an ear of new life. But in this parable the sower does not act alone. Without soil—that is, without us—the seed cannot sprout. As Jesus observes, the more we participate in this process, the more fruit we bear. This produces an apparent injustice: the richer we are, the richer we become. Yet the issue here is probably not spiritual wealth, but how much of our capital—our time, attention, strength, and finally our whole life—we are willing to invest in this shared process of cultivating the Kingdom.

Among the Savior's parables about the Kingdom, the parable of the sower, the parable of the word that God sows in the human heart, occupies a special place. The Kingdom and the word: how are they connected? How is the word entering the human heart connected with the Word? The Word with a capital letter is incarnate in Christ. But what about the word of God with a lowercase letter? How does it enter a person's heart? What is this word like? The word by which God creates the world. The word that the prophets hear. The word that, as the hymn writer says, does not return to God unfulfilled. It turns out to be given to everyone. It is sown like seed in a field, with a generous hand. Only it is far from always received as seed is received by well-prepared soil.

This is understandable: the word is not simply a revelation given once. It is the instrument of God's action, which God uses in order to change a person. To prepare him for the fullness of communion with God. For life in the Kingdom. And a person does not always want this. For all sorts of reasons. Sometimes simply because he has no time. If God's word is not the main thing for a person, if God for him is somewhere beside the road along which the person is walking, the word of God will never become in his heart the instrument of God's action. But even if it does become that, this is still not everything.

After all, spiritual life is not for a day, not for a month, not for a year. It is forever. And if a person has time for "spirituality" today but not tomorrow, then his "spirituality" really does belong in quotation marks. And, of course, there is steadfastness during trials. A person who desires a righteous life, life with God, has always been an enemy of the evil in which the fallen world lies. And a Christian is doubly its enemy: he not only does not accept this evil himself, he also brings into the world the Kingdom that destroys evil without mercy, leaving it no place in creation.

It is not surprising that if this world generally hates the righteous, it hates Christian righteous people twice as much. And yet persecutions themselves are not as frightening as the everyday, organic rejection of spiritual life that marks the fallen world. Persecutions spiritually mobilize; their absence relaxes. And only after overcoming both can one begin a normal spiritual life. With the word in the heart, reflecting that very Word that became incarnate in Christ, and which, if one allows it to change one's heart, will make it capable of containing the life of the Kingdom in all the fullness available to a human being.