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Many of our strategies for ministry & evangelism often fit within the growth pattern of addition. Addition attempts to solve problems passively, lacking a drive to a goal, ill-prepared to overcome obstacles, and lacking enthusiasm to attain a highly valued purpose.
Mathematician Steven Pither describes multiplication as having a desire to overcome obstacles, solve dilemmas, and achieve goals. This approach positions us to create multiplicative environments, where real cultural problems are met head on with the grace and love of Jesus.
This series of articles, entitled Finding “Fourth-Soil” People introduces Jesus’ modus operandi and intent for his work he used in Galilee, resulting in a large-scale movement occurring before Pentecost. Jesus’ strategy is clear in the Parable of the Sower and contains a clear multiplicative ingredient: The Fourth-Soil Person (see Luke 8:8).
If you listen to sermons on this parable, the majority show concern for the lost by encouraging listeners to live “fourth-soil” lives (they define the fruit of a Fourth-Soil Person as spiritual maturity) that will attract lost people and motivate them to become believers. Few, however, encourage listeners to sow the gospel broadly in order to find fourth-soil individuals living in their daily cultural context.
A few acknowledged the parable’s context of proclamation, but even fewer used the parable to persuade listeners to adopt the parable as a plan to discover the joy of working as Jesus did: To find Fourth-Soil People, and ignite movements as these people multiply Jesus movements, hundredfold.
Jesus’ Team
All three Synoptic Gospel writers place the Parable of the Sower next to the story of Jesus’ encounter with His mother and brothers (see Matt. 12:46–50; Mark 3:31–35; Luke 8:19–21). Luke’s narrative makes the clearest connection by referring to the seed in the parable as “the Word of God.” With this, Luke has done everything he can to connect the parable to the family encounter by citing Jesus as saying, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear and do the Word of God” (8:21).
“Doing the Word of God” functions as Luke’s code language for spreading the good news and good works of Jesus. Jesus’ true family (team) members are those who spread (sow) gospel ministry. Luke continues his use of the code in Acts, when he says that the Word of God went out and large results followed (“the Word of God continued to increase and the number of disciples multiplied” Acts 6:7; see also 12:24; 19:20). When we apply the Parable of the Sower and “do the Word of God,” we essentially join Jesus’ family team.
Jesus Used the Parable to Describe His Field Strategy
I cannot stress this point enough: the parable represents Jesus’ own model for working in Galilee. It points to the parable as a reflection of Jesus’ own ministry and his intention that the disciples would do the same. John Nolland in his commentary The Gospel of Matthew has said, “There can be little doubt that the sowing of the seed represents the ministry of Jesus (and ultimately its continuation through the disciples).”
Note, the parable contains no imperatives. The grammatical structure of the parable is passive (e.g., “A sower went out to sow his seed”) and asks the disciples to do nothing. The closest imperative appears when Jesus says, “Anyone who has ears to hear should listen!” (Luke 8:8). Jesus uses the parable to describe how He worked. Yet rarely, if ever, do our training programs promote and encourage us to adopt Jesus’ field strategy as presented in this parable.
Parable of the Sower? Soils? Or Seeds?
Ever wonder why some Bible translators label the Parable of the Sower the “Parable of the Soils” or the “Parable of the Seeds”? Although the sower appears in the initial verse of the parable, the remainder of the parable seems to focus on the soils and the seeds. But if we focus on these we move away from the overarching theme of proclamation in this parable. Assigning these alternative titles to the parable contradicts the obvious: Jesus told us the parable’s title: “You, then, listen to the Parable of the Sower” (Matt 13:18).
The parable’s title, ascribed by Jesus, positions the parable as a lesson for sowers. The context of the parable in Luke’s narrative shows that Jesus uses the parable to describe how He worked and then uses the parable to train His harvest force of sowers how they are to work. (chapters 1–3 the birth narrative; chapters 4–7 Jesus works alone while the disciples watch; chapter 8, Jesus trains the disciples along with a large crowd of followers using the Parable of the Sower; in Luke 9–10:24, Jesus deploys the Twelve and the seventy-two to sow.)
Fruit as Obedience to Jesus in Word and Deed
Numerous Bible scholars present the Parable of the Sower as Jesus’ attempt to prompt the faith-wavering, halfhearted crowd on the shore of Galilee to produce greater spiritual fruit than what they were espousing. But the crowd gathered around Jesus is anything but halfhearted. Simply to be near Jesus, they had spontaneously left their homes. Luke writes, “As a large crowd was gathering, and people were flocking to Him from every town, He said in a parable . . .” (8:4). With unfriendly crowds, Jesus preached repentance; with this crowd, He treated them as equals to the disciples by including them in the sower training.
One writer does not mince words when examining the nature of the fruit of the Fourth-Soil Person as related to the context of proclamation in word or deed.
In the context, it is most logical that the fruit in question is the Word of the gospel sown in the lives of others, in other words, multiplying believers; to see fruit in this context as anything else, such as merely the fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22–23), the fruit of one’s words (James 3:12), or the fruit of one’s teaching (Mt. 7:15–20), seems quite shallow and/or avoiding the obvious.
Remaining within the context of the parable, the seed AND the fruit of the Fourth-Soil Person is the fruit of witnessing and an obedient life of doing our Father's will in both word and deed.
Conclusion
Lurking in the shadows of many well intended church programs is the belief that this parable represents an outdated model. Simple proclamation and demonstration of the power of the gospel in our communities simply is seen as "not for today" amongst other modern ideas. The problem with this ideology is that you will not find it in the ministry of Jesus. Jesus’ approach appears in the parable where the climax of his sowing campaign points to the winning of a new believer who wins many others. Our task is to find Fourth-Soil People through large-scale seed sowing so that Fourth-Soil People will believe and then begin the process of launching Jesus movements in their communities.
Questions for discussion:
How have you understood this parable in the past? Can you agree that the emphasis of the parable is the sower and his/her fruitfulness through gospel ministry?
What implications would this have on how we should understand and do evangelism?
What do you like best about this idea?
What would be one application point for you?
Article written by Virgil Anderson and edited by Jeff Pankratz