NOTES for Luk 8:5-15
Sowing is one of the most important images not only in the New Testament, but in the Bible as a whole. This image is so rich that we cannot now take even a fleeting look at all its many meanings. From Genesis to Revelation, we see in sowing a foreshadowing of cooperation between God and humanity, an expression of God's love for humanity, and an image of people's conscious and responsible labour, not only to feed themselves, but also to “sow seed” (Gen 1:11)—something God saw as “good” even before humanity was created (Gen 1:12). And this is only a small fraction of the biblical meanings of sowing.
Let us turn, then, to the meaning closest to today's Gospel passage and to the words Jesus speaks to us today. This was the meaning that the prophets who prepared the way for Christ's coming gave to the image of sowing. “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 man and the seed of beasts” (Jer 31:27). And the prophet Hosea adds: “And I will sow her for Myself in the land, and I will have mercy on her who had not received mercy, and I will say to those who were 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 a “holy seed” may grow from the root of the felled “tree of Jesse” (Isa 6:13).
But has this seed grown? And what is this seed? 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 shall grow from His own root and build the temple of the Lord. He shall build the temple of the Lord and receive glory, and shall sit and rule upon His throne; He shall also be a priest upon His throne, and the counsel of peace shall be between the two” (Zech 6:12–13). In other words, the Branch is the Messiah.
A qualification is needed here, however: the origins of the word “Branch” are found neither in the Vulgate nor in the Septuagint, which use the terms “Dawn” or “East” (Oriens and Ἀνατολή). Yet it is precisely “branch” that has become established in translations into modern European languages. It is not entirely clear how this happened, but it has already become a fact of our spiritual history: the “holy seed” is inseparably associated with Jesus and with what grows from Him as its root. That is why these words of Zechariah are so important to us and so often recalled.
The history of the Word of God is complex, and at times it is not easy to make sense of it… But let us trust not only our minds, but our hearts as well.