The Gospel News

travelled over it to establish God?s visible Kingdom in Jerusalem. On one hand, the fact the sower sowed even on the ?way? is an element of unreality in the parable which simply points to the extreme enthusiasm of this sower, casting the seed on to all types of human personality, including those who appear hopeless cases. We note the usage of the same word to describe how some despised individuals sitting in ?the way? were in fact persuaded to respond to the Kingdom invitation (Mt. 22:9,10); Bartimaeus was likewise sitting in the way [s.w.] and responded, following Jesus "the way" (Mk.10:46,52). The ?way [side]? could have responded to the seed- but it didn?t. Because men came and trampled it under foot, and the birds came and took it away. It wasn?t as if there was no chance at all that it could have responded.

Devoured it - The same word is used of how

the Pharisees "devour[ed] widows houses" (Mt. 23:14) and of how the Judaist fifth column within the fledgling church

?devoured? some (Gal. 5:15).

Understands it not - The Lord has just made

clear that not understanding Him is a conscious, wilful intellectual act; and people shut their eyes so that they will not understand, lest it demand too much from them personally (:15). The wayside category are not, therefore, merely predestined not to understand. It?s not that they were just in the wrong place, exposed to the wrong teachings and religious culture, and therefore they did not understand. For anyone who hears the word or seed of Christ, refusal to understand it is a conscious choice. It may not appear like that, but the Lord has said in v15 that it is. By "understanding", the Lord means the understanding which brings forth fruit. He is here redefining "understanding the word", making it refer to something fruitful in practice. He spoke against a religious culture in which spirituality was seen in terms of being a microscopic student of the Old Testament and word by word, verse by verse, coming to the right theological

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interpretation. Many of us were raised in a similar environment. And the Lord here is redefining "understanding the word" away from the sense of ?correct exposition? towards ?responding faithfully in practice, bringing forth fruit?. The bad ground, therefore, involved an element of choice to be like that. We showed on v4 that there were ?wayside? persons who did respond; our location in terms of culture, environment, psychology etc. is not an inevitable barrier to responding to the word which we hear.

Stony places - The Greek petrodes is a form

of petra. The Lord had taught that the wise man who heard and did His sayings developed his spiritual house upon a petra, a rock (Mt. 7:24). And of course Peter was the petra upon which the church would be built (Mt. 16:18). So again we see that it was not impossible for the seed on the rock to prosper. The problem was that some who began their growth upon rocks stopped growing because of persecution and tribulation (:21) - which in the first instance was from the Jews.

Care of this world - In our age as never

before, given more possibilities and knowledge of possible futures and what could go wrong, we have the strong temptation to be full of such care. The same word is used in Lk. 21:34 about the "cares" which will be a feature of the last days - both of AD70 and today. But in the first instance, the ?world? in view was the Jewish world.

This of itself didn?t mean that growth was impossible. The Lord?s next parable makes that clear - the good seed brings forth fruit, clearly alluding to the ?good ground? of the sower parable, despite being surrounded by

"tares", weeds, within which category are

thorns (13:26). Both good and bad seed

?spring up? (:26); the point is that the good

seed continues to bear fruit despite this. Fruit can be brought forth despite a