Matthew 13:1-9 1And on that day, after he went out of the house, Jesus sat by the lake. 2And great crowds gathered to him, so that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3And he spoke to them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and ate them. 5Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly, since they had no depth of soil, 6but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9He who has ears, let him hear.”
Jesus continued his ministry along the Sea of Galilee. The house mentioned in verse 1 is not designated in the context but may have been where the end of chapter 12 takes place. The crowds were getting too large, and so Jesus chose to go to a place where he could communicate best to many people. By going out from the shore in a boat, his voice would be able to carry across the water to those gathered at the beach. What he was about to teach them was significant and would set the course for the rest of his ministry. As far as Matthew’s organization of this teaching section goes, he has clearly established the authority of Jesus as the Messiah and challenged his readers to recognize Jesus as Immanuel, God with us. The line of faith has been drawn.
The next section recounts parables of the kingdom. Jesus has already taught using parabolic speech, but this is the first time the word “parable” is used. Simply defined, a parable is a short story where one thing is compared with another. In Jesus’ parables, the primary comparison is between the kingdom of God and usually something from everyday, first-century life. His parables are windows into how people lived. They contain many cultural features, especially of the rural life of the people of Israel and the Galilee region. He connected challenging theological concepts to the situations of the people in a way that they could understand.
One of the main industries at that time was farming. Virtually everyone who had gathered along the lake shore could picture in their minds what Jesus was talking about. There are three primary “characters” in this story. The first is the sower, the farmer who planted his grain crop in the spring time. His part in the story is simply to sow the seed. The second are the seeds, which are passive characters in that they are simply scattered in various places. The third are the different places where the seeds are sown. Each of these types of soil have unique properties, which creates the plot of the short story.
Every story has a protagonist and antagonist. In this story, the soils are the protagonist. The antagonists are the birds, the sun, and the thorns that cause the seeds not to produce a harvest. This parable has four movements centered around the type of soil and what happens to the seeds. Each movement makes logical sense from the perspective of agriculture. The confusing part to modern people may be why the farmer planted seeds in places that would not grow. People have speculated that the ancient method of planting was to scatter seeds all over. We do not need to speculate about this part of the story in order to catch its message. One of the subtle points of the story is that the seeds were sown in many places, providing many possibilities for growth.
The seeds along the path had little chance to sprout because they birds saw them and ate them. The seeds the rocky ground had enough soil to get started but not to develop healthy roots to sustain growth. The seeds sown in thorns were choked out by the weeds that took all the nutrients and space. The only seeds that grew healthy and produced a crop where those sown on the good soil. One of the surprises of this parable is the extravagant harvest of up to one hundred seeds for every seed planted. This story is simple to picture in our minds, but we, like the disciples, are left wondering about its application and why Jesus told it. Jesus will explain it in the next passage.
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