Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, Luke 8:4-15

For N.T. Wright (Jesus and the Victory of God), this parable ‘tells the story of Israel, particularly the return from exile, with a paradoxical conclusion, and it tells the story of Jesus’ ministry, as the fulfilment of that larger story, with a paradoxical outcome.’  Wright notes

(a) the similarity in form to Dan 2:31-45, where the different parts of a statue represent the various stages of earthly kingdoms.  In the parable, the four soils represent contemporaneous, rather than successive, features.  Then

(b) there is a fairly close parallel between this parable and that of the wicked tenants (Mk 12:1-12 and parallels): if that parable tells the story of Israel, then we can be confident that this one also does so.  And

(c) the ‘seed’ is a clear metaphor for the true Israel, now being sown again in her own land, her exile over.  The parable shows that the responses to this will be varied: the opportunity will be wasted for some, fruitful for others.

Seeing a link between Isa 55:10-13 and Jesus’ teaching here, Wright says: ‘The sowing of seed, resulting in a crop that defies the thorns and briers, is a picture of YHWH’s sowing of his word, and the result is the return from exile and, indeed, the consequent renewal of all creation. At the heart of the story is the cryptic announcement that the time foretold by the prophets is at last coming to birth…Israel’s God is acting, sowing his prophetic word with a view to restoring his people, but much of the seed will go to waste, will remain in the ‘exilic’ condition, being eaten by the birds, or lost among the rocks and thorns of the exilic wilderness. The eventual harvest, though, will be great. We are here not far from Jesus’ story about the great banquet. The party will go ahead and the house will be full, but the original guests will not be there. Judgement and mercy are taking place simultaneously.’

In his popular work, Mark for Everyone, Wright says: ‘People were expecting a great moment of renewal. They believed that Israel would be rescued lock, stock and barrel; God’s kingdom would explode onto the world stage in a blaze of glory. No, declares Jesus: it’s more like a farmer sowing seed, much of which apparently goes to waste because the soil isn’t fit for it, can’t sustain it.’

The parable, then, is not merely a message about the different responses that preachers may expect when they proclaim God’s word.  It is, rather, a comment ‘on what was happening as Jesus himself was announcing and inaugurating God’s kingdom…Jesus is giving a coded warning that belonging to the kingdom isn’t automatic. The kingdom is coming all right, but not in the way they have imagined.’

Wright concludes: ‘For us today, the parable says a lot about how the message of Jesus worked among his hearers, and about what that message was (the dramatic and subversive renewal of Israel and the world). But it also challenges our own preaching of the kingdom. Is what we’re saying so subversive, so unexpected, that we would be well advised to clothe it in dream language, or in code? If you were to draw a cartoon instead of preaching a sermon, what would it look like? Who would you expect to be offended if they cracked the code?’

Snodgrass (Jesus and the Restoration of Israel) agrees that some of Jesus’ parables – most notably, that of the wicked tenants (Mt 21:33–46/Mk 12:1–12/Lk 20:9–19) – do tell the story of Israel.  That the present parable, in the view of Snodgrass, also does so receives confirmation from texts such as Isa 6:9-13, where the Lord is depicted as sowing his seed and the return from exile ensures, and Isa 55:10-13, in which ‘the holy seed’ describes Israel’s remnant.

We appreciate Wright’s insistence that this teaching must be interpreted in the light of its original setting, and therefore agree that it is first of all about the in-breaking of God’s kingdom through the ministry of Jesus.  However, he has not persuaded us that the return-from-exile motif is as pervasive is he thinks it is.