The Parable of the Sower reveals how cultivating a Christoform heart in God’s Word leads to spiritual growth and fruitful faith.
When a large crowd gathered, with people from one town after another journeying to him, he spoke in a parable. “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path and was trampled, and the birds of the sky ate it up. Some seed fell on rocky ground, and when it grew, it withered for lack of moisture. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. And some seed fell on good soil, and when it grew, it produced fruit a hundredfold.” After saying this, he called out, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
Luke 8:4-15
Then his disciples asked him what the meaning of this parable might be. He answered, “Knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God has been granted to you; but to the rest, they are made known through parables so that ‘they may look but not see, and hear but not understand.’
“This is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. Those on the path are the ones who have heard, but the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts that they may not believe and be saved. Those on rocky ground are the ones who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, but they have no root; they believe only for a time and fall away in time of trial. As for the seed that fell among thorns, they are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the anxieties and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. But as for the seed that fell on rich soil, they are the ones who, when they have heard the word, embrace it with a generous and good heart, and bear fruit through perseverance.
The Four Soils in the Parable of the Sower
In the Parable of the Sower, Jesus connects our earthly experience of planting and harvesting to our spiritual life. The four types of soil represent the heart conditions of hearers receiving the word of God, the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. On the literal interpretive level, the various soils symbolize individual recipients of Christ’s teachings. But if we contemplate the four conditions on a cosmic scale, we may ponder their significance for society as a whole. What kind of culture and civilization are we cultivating as a community? Are we a people receptive to the word of God, or have we polluted our world of image and discourse, leaving our cultural consciousness rocky and barren, deaf to the voice of Christ?
In the last stanza of the poem, “tree” evokes the Cross of Christ, which matures and fructifies upon the earth made in his image. Through the Cross, Christ, the Logos, suffers, dies, and descends into the womb of the earth in humility (from humus, Latin for “earth”). Like a grain of wheat that falls into the earth and dies (John 12:24), Jesus calls all creation to cultivate a fruitful, Christoform heart.
All creatures, as logoi in the Logos (words in the Word, divine principles for every being), long for completion in Christ, the Logos who personally and dynamically orders all creation to himself. The term “Christoform,” used in the final verse, has a twofold meaning: (1) As pattern of life, it describes Christ’s life, death, and resurrection as an exemplar to follow; (2) As cosmic Logos, it refers to Christ’s role as shaping the cosmos. In meditating upon the Parable of the Sower, may we cultivate a Christoform heart personally and communally in word and action.
Sowing God’s Word in Verse
A sower went out to sow his seed,
Strewing along the road.
Swooping fowl devoured the feed,
Swallowing what was sowed.
Some seed scattered and skipped upon rocks,
Sprouting under the sun,
But withered and waned to shriveled stalks
In a rainless oven.
Other seed fell in a thorny field,
Finding no way to thrive.
Upward and outward, barbs pricked their yield;
Their buds could not survive.
Some seed nestled in fertile soil,
Rooting and taking hold.
Blooming princely in pastures royal,
They bore a hundredfold.
God’s word, like seed, scatters far and wide,
Longing for ears that hear.
But the serpentine foe, in his pride,
Substitutes faith with fear.
Rocky hearts hear the word with delight
Fleetingly for a spell.
But the rootless blow away with fright;
In them, Christ cannot dwell.
Thorn-entangled hearers are strangled,
Choked by the world’s allure.
By greed for riches, hearts are mangled,
Spoiled by power and pleasure.
Wholesome hearts, listening, root the word,
Anchored for every storm.
Fructifying like a tree matured,
Their earth is Christoform.