“The Sower Went Forth to Sow”
13
(R.V.); “some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth;
and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth:
and when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had
no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the
thorns sprung up, and choked them: but other fell into good ground,
and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some
thirtyfold.”
Christ’s mission was not understood by the people of His time. The
manner of His coming was not in accordance with their expectations.
The Lord Jesus was the foundation of the whole Jewish economy. Its
imposing services were of divine appointment. They were designed to
teach the people that at the time appointed One would come to whom
those ceremonies pointed. But the Jews had exalted the forms and
ceremonies and had lost sight of their object. The traditions, maxims,
and enactments of men hid from them the lessons which God intended
to convey. These maxims and traditions became an obstacle to their
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understanding and practice of true religion. And when the Reality
came, in the person of Christ, they did not recognize in Him the
fulfillment of all their types, the substance of all their shadows. They
rejected the antitype, and clung to their types and useless ceremonies.
The Son of God had come, but they continued to ask for a sign. The
message, “Repent ye; for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” they
answered by demands for a miracle.
Matthew 3:2
. The gospel of
Christ was a stumbling block to them because they demanded signs
instead of a Saviour. They expected the Messiah to prove His claims
by mighty deeds of conquest, to establish His empire on the ruins of
earthly kingdoms. This expectation Christ answered in the parable of
the sower. Not by force of arms, not by violent interpositions, was the
kingdom of God to prevail, but by the implanting of a new principle in
the hearts of men.
“He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.”
Matthew 13:37
.
Christ had come, not as a king, but as a sower; not for the overthrow of
kingdoms, but for the scattering of seed; not to point His followers to
earthly triumphs and national greatness, but to a harvest to be gathered
after patient toil and through losses and disappointments.
The Pharisees perceived the meaning of Christ’s parable, but to
them its lesson was unwelcome. They affected not to understand it.
To the multitude it involved in still greater mystery the purpose of the