The Parable of the Sower is one of the most important parables Jesus gave about the kingdom of God because it answered the question, “Why doesn’t the Word — the logos — have the effect on people we might hope for?” It moves us to ask again why God doesn’t just change people.
This does not reflect a lack of power on God’s part. In fact, if God wanted to turn me into a helicopter and fly me out the window, he could do it. Please understand that if God wanted to, he could have rewired every one of us to be faithful followers like Job, Hannah, and Daniel.
This is not a question about what God can do; it is a question about what God will do.
The Power of the Word
With this in mind, let’s look at Jesus’ explanation of the Parable of the Sower and how it addressed the receptivity of people’s hearts. Remember that this parable caused the disciples to come to him and question, “What does this parable mean?” (Luke 8:9). It is the key to understanding all the parables (Mark 4:13). Jesus was teaching to those who “had ears to hear,” but also in a way that would hopefully penetrate the other soils.
Jesus began his explanation with these words: “When anyone hears the word” (Matthew 13:19). The Greek word for word here is logos.1 Logos is derived from the Greek word lego, which is a powerful term referring to the structuring and forming of things. Logos conveys that this formation is being done now — present tense.
When Jesus said “the word,” he used the word logos because he was talking about a personal power that was going forth. Jesus was referring to himself as “the logos.” “In the beginning was the Word,” the Logos, that was Jesus (John 1:1).
Deciding to Listen
“When anyone hears the logos and does not understand it . . .” (Matthew 13:19, paraphrased, emphasis added)
Hearing and understanding the message involves the mind, but also the will. The will has very little power in and of itself, and many people overestimate the power of their will and their mind. They think they can accomplish much more with them than they actually can. Even the brightest mind and most steadfast will are tremendously limited.
When the Word of God comes into our minds, we decide how important it is to hold on to it. That is why the first important question is, “What am I choosing to do with the Word that has come into my mind?” If your will is set against the Word of God, you will get nowhere in understanding it. This parable is about how the will responds to God.
Conditioning the Mind to Empower the Will
The primary function of the will is to trust God. The set of a person’s will is key for how the Word of God affects the mind because the will and mind are deeply integrated. On the one hand, what the mind dwells on determines what the will chooses to act on; on the other hand, the orientation of the will may determine what stays in the mind. It’s important to ask ourselves, What is my mind dwelling on and why is it dwelling there?
As we mature, we get a deeper sense of the mind’s limitations and our reliance on habit. The mind gets clogged with thoughts, ideas, opinions, and notions that are sometimes misleading, false, or wrong. In our fallen condition, our minds are often turned toward the wrong things, and we can’t even think the thoughts we need to think, disabling our will from turning to God.
An essential investment of our life with God is to take care of our minds by cultivating our thoughts. The unkempt mind becomes obsessive, and then the will works from those frenzied thoughts.2 So you can’t let just anything run through your mind. When tempted, you have to say to yourself, There are some thoughts I will not think!
Remember that a parable (parabola) is characterized by throwing one thing down beside another. Looking at one of the things helps us better understand the thing next to it. So when we look at how seeds grow or don’t grow in the Parable of the Sower, we can see why people react the way they do to the Word of the kingdom. Those living like the soils on the wayside, the stony ground, and thorny ground are not able to let the Word work at a deep level in their soul. God puts forth the Word of his kingdom in such a way that those who have ears for the purpose of hearing can hear it. They have the privilege and responsibility of receiving it.
If someone’s desire for God resembles any of the first three soils in the parable, that doesn’t mean they’ll stay there forever. Jesus didn’t say the heart never changes. There is good reason to have hope for ourselves and others. What a person couldn’t hear yesterday, they may be very open to hear today.
How to Hear
Sometimes this parable is read fatalistically, as if what happens with the seed can’t be helped. But that was not Jesus’ intent. His next words were, “No one lights a lamp and covers it over with a container” (Luke 8:16 NASB). This shows that the initiative of God comes into play. The sower (God) who comes out to sow the Word of the kingdom of God does not intend for the lamp of the Word to be covered up. It’s his intention that it should be lifted up (i.e., set on a lampstand) to give light to everyone in the house.
We are to be the light of the world wherever we are. God has appointed each of us a time and place when and where we are the light of the world. That happens as we receive the Word of the kingdom into our lives and live in that reality.
Notice how Jesus continued with this wording about taking responsibility: “Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him” (Luke 8:18). This teaching tells us to pay close attention to how we hear. True repentance (“repent, for the kingdom of the heavens is at hand”) expresses itself in the humble act of listening. This is how we position ourselves in a place where Jesus can reveal things to us.
I used to listen to an old preacher who once said, “If a dog came to town preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, I would listen to that dog.” He was emphasizing that we cannot be humble before God unless we can be humble before the lowest creature on earth that might speak to us of the kingdom. We could, in fact, be wrong about some things, so we had better listen. Others have been wrong; so yes, we could be wrong. Our obsessions may be driving us in the wrong direction. So we must stop, be reflective, and think about it. And above all, we must listen to the Word of God’s kingdom, and ask ourselves where our hearts and minds are before him.
A Hearing Kind of Life
As disciples, we need to understand that the Parable of the Sower applies to each of us all the time. The sower is Jesus. And he works with people, of course, speaking through them to sow the Word of the kingdom. What we have been given by others who have sowed in us will be added to greatly as we pursue life in the kingdom of God. But if we don’t listen with care, even what we’ve heard may be lost.
The Word of God comes to us in a hearing kind of life, a life lived in the Spirit with a mind attuned to the Trinity. The Word of God comes and fills our lives if we want it, but we have to want it and seek it. And if we don’t want it, God will allow us to live the “with me” life — the source of all our troubles — instead of the “with God” life, which is a life of growth and abundance.
Adapted from The Scandal of the Kingdom: How the Parables of Jesus Revolutionize Life with God by Dallas Willard.
The parables are some of Jesus’s best-known teachings, but they are also some of the least understood. Even the disciples weren’t always sure what they meant. Drawing from his extensive teachings on spiritual formation, Dallas illuminates the timeless wisdom contained within each parable, revealing their profound relevance to contemporary life. With clarity and depth, he guides readers through the subversive messages embedded within these seemingly simple stories, urging us to break free from the grip of worldly values and embrace the radical teachings of Jesus.
The Scandal of the Kingdom is published by Zondervan, the parent company of Bible Gateway.
- This is very different from the Greek word semeion, which stands for a mark or sign, like a chalk mark, an ink mark, or even a sound. When people came to Jesus and said, “Master, show us a sign,” they were asking for a semeion. Instead of talking about a sign (semeion) here, Jesus spoke of the logos. ↩︎
- For a deeper understanding of the will and the way it works with our thoughts, you may want to read “Larger Psychology on the Will,” in William James, The Principles of Psychology (New York: Holt, 1890). ↩︎
Dallas Willard(1935–2013) was a professor at the University of Southern California’s School of Philosophy from 1965 until his retirement in 2012. His groundbreaking books The Divine Conspiracy, The Great Omission, Knowing Christ Today, The Spirit of the Disciplines,Renovation of the Heart,and Hearing God forever changed the way thousands of Christians experience their faith.
