Matthew tells us that Jesus used a very simple method of parables to teach those who came to listen and learn from him. These were short stories taken from everyday life. Like a skilful artist, Jesus painted evocative pictures with short and simple words.

Jesus would use ordinary and simple language referring to a more complicated order of reality; hidden, yet visible to those who had "eyes to see” and "ears to hear”.

From a boat beside the sea, Jesus told of the sower and the sea. A sower went out to sow; as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them.

Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had no much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched; and since they had no root they withered away.

Other seeds fell upon thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Jesus concluded saying: He who has ears, let him hear. Jesus chose this parable of the sower because he knew the people who were listening to him.

It was a community that lived off the land and sowing was absolutely necessary for survival. By talking of the sower and the seed, he was certainly using a language that they all understood very well.

In their daily life, the mere act of sowing brought great hope in the anticipation of a fruitful harvest. It is in this very context, that Jesus used this story in order to warn them that for any seed to mature into fruit there must be proper conditions for growth.

By the seed he meant his own word, his message, and by the proper conditions he meant the receptive state of their heart.

This was of course the point of this story for Jesus’ audience then, but what does it mean for you in particular and in your own experience today? What if Jesus were talking to us in our own present situation? What story would he use for us?

One thing becomes clear as we meditate on the parable of the sower; his word is both timeless and for all seasons. The same parable has a lesson for us. It still aims at those who would like to hear his word. There are still different ways of accepting God’s word and they produce different kinds of fruit accordingly.

There is the prejudiced hearer who has a shut mind. Such a person is unteachable and blind to the things of God. Then, there is the shallow hearer who fails to think things out or think them through; such a person lacks spiritual depth.

They may initially respond with an emotional fervour, but when it wears off, their mind wanders to something else. Another type of hearer is the person who has many interests or cares, but who lacks the ability to hear or comprehend what is truly important.

Such a person is for ever too busy to care or too busy to pray, or too preoccupied to meditate on God’s word. Such people may work so hard that in the end they are too tired to even think of anything else but their work.

Then there are the ones whose minds are open. These are certainly the seeds which fell on good soil and brought forth grain; some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Such people are all times willing to listen and to learn.

They are never too proud or too busy to learn. They listen in order to understand. God’s word has power to change and transform them into the likeness of Christ. 

It is possible that at this stage one may ask himself or herself if Jesus would still have to use parables in order to speak to us today! Well, perhaps a better question would be why did Jesus use parables in the first place?

It is possible that half way through his public life he realised that very few people had accepted his message. Jesus was not surprised: the prophets of the Old Testament were not listened to.

In Isaiah’s time for instance, people blocked their ears so as not to hear the word of God and hardened their hearts and refused to convert. He therefore spoke in parables in an attempt to break through this unbelief.

This is the very reason why he still speaks to us in his parables as we read them in the Gospel. In our meditations, these parables force us to seek out the hidden message that Jesus has for us personally.

The same parables invite us to look at ourselves with courage, and so lead us to conversion, because in them we discover that the scarcity of fruit does not depend either on the seed or on the sower, but on the soil that receives it. That is our human heart.  

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