Parable of the Sorry, Slothful Sower

[afterdeathwhat]

Matthew 13:3-30 ( revised by Jeff Schuldt)

Parable of the Sorry, Slothful Sower


A sower went forth to sow; and it came to pass as the sower went forth that he came upon a wayside. He thought to himself that if he sowed seeds there the fowls of the air would just devour the seeds anyway so he continued on, not "wasting" any seed. Next he came to some Stony ground. Seeing that there was not much earth, he reasoned within himself that even if the seed did spring up (which he doubted), the sun would immediately scorch the tender plants and they would wither away. So he went on annoyed, still not having sown any seed. The sower subsequently came across a thorn patch. By now the frustration was beginning to gnaw at him. He knew that if he sowed there, the thorns would choke the plants before they could bring forth any fruit. Thoroughly thwarted, the sower closed his seed bag and walked home, passing good furtile ground the whole way back. That year there was no fruit. Not thirty fold, not sixty fold. Not an hundred fold. That good ground, having been exposed to the elements all year had become hard and sun baked.
The sower so happened to live in a kingdom that had just elected a new evil queen. The sower was able to eat from all his neighbors stored food because of a new decreepassed by the queen. Since he had his pick of the food, he snagged all of the Ho-ho's Ding-dongs, and Pop Tarts and lived on these all winter long. When sowing time came again in the spring, the sower, now many pounds over weight went out to sow his seed. All he could see as he stepped outside was stony ground and thorny ground, so he went right back inside. After all, he figured, with the Queens policies he could eat his neighbors food from now on. Actually he would never have to sow again.
The sower was not the only one with this attitude. Many began to have this outlook and the land soon became nothing but hard stony ground full of thorns and thistles. Over the yearsthe once furtile ground became so hard and windswept that eventually thorns could hardly take root, let alone good seed, ever again! It was now a barren wasteland. It would take so much effort, and so much toil to bring the land back, to make the land furtile once more, that not one single sower sowed any good seed, ever again! Each sower was now so out of shape, from living on Ding-dongs and Ho-ho's, that they couldn't do any sowing, even if they had wanted to.

Now the evil Queen had plenty. Her husband, the ex-rulermade millions on the lecture circuit. He didn't really love the Queen. He just liked to live in the palace.
A new type of sower came along. He brought with him a new improved type of seed. Well, that's what he called it anyway. He called the seed that the sower had been using "old fashioned". He said that that old seed was hard to sow and that it took to much work to clean out all the bad ground beforethe sowing. This new international version of seed was to be sown right in with the thorns and thistles. Good for the thistles he said. No, bad for the fruit the sower thought.
The new sower, Mr. Hireling, was so confident that the harvest would be plentiful that he began to build MEGA storage facilities all over the land. Harvest time came and the storage facilities were full to overflowing, but not with fruit (just alot of rocks, dirt, dust, thorns and thistles). If you could find a piece of fruit it was stunted and shriveled. The new sower did not realize that seed sown without first separating out the thorns and thistles would not grow to become a great fruit bearing plant, but rather a little dried up stem with seedless, whithered fruit. This fruit could never bring forth more fruit after it's own kind. He that hath an ear, let him hear the parable of the slothful sower.



Now let me say, we need to be good, faithful sowers of the seed! We have the right seed for the job! Let me end this with Ecclesiastes 12:13;
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.