Parable of the Sower, Part 3 - Thorns

Author: Joseph

Date: August 23, 2020

The parable of the sower and the seed was used by Yeshua to describe how people react to the word of God and the good news of His kingdom. In this parable we find three major things that affect peoples’ reactions and consequentially corrupt or remove our trust in God’s word and in His kingdom. This week’s article will explore the third of those three things: thorns.

When the sower drops seeds among the thorns, the thorns grow up with the sprout that comes from the seed. The seed settles in the ground, takes root, but is accompanied by thorny plants that grow alongside it. As the thorny plants grow, they spend resources from the soil on creating their protective thorns that give the plant a way to self-preserve. Thorns are created to protect a plant from predators and from being eaten or destroyed. Yet, when these thorns are created from the stem, no fruit grows from them – they are wasted resources. Opposite these plants is the seed that the sower has dispersed on the ground, which would have produced good fruit and spent the resources of the soil well. As both the sprout and the thorns grow, however, the thorns overcome the sprout and choke it out, draining the resources of the soil and physically overbearing the sprout that grew from the sower’s seed.

What are the thorny plants? When a person is filled with the worries of the world or occupied with the pursuit of wealth and pleasures in life, they have thorny plants in their soil. Whether it is before or after they are aware of the word of God and His kingdom, the effect is still the same: these preoccupations choke out any fruitfulness of the word of God in their lives and people become just as empty as they were before the sower cast seeds among them.

The worries of the world and the pursuit of wealth and pleasures are like thorny plants because they try to self-preserve themselves while also placing such a high demand on our lives that they allow nothing else to occupy our time and resources. The worries of the world will always be a reality that will never be quenched because sin still exists and the world is dying from it (1 John 2:17). We cannot add even a single hour to our life by worrying (cf. Matthew 6:27). Wealth will always be a fleeting pursuit in which its owner never has enough and so anyone who occupies their life with pursuing such things will be enslaved by it (cf. Proverbs 23:4-5). Likewise, the pleasures of the world will never satisfy our longing need for relief from sin and redemption from evil. The pleasures of the world will, however, hasten the choking out of God’s word and ensure our life is wasted in temporary things rather than the eternal (cf. Ecclesiastes 2:1-11). Thorny plants never produce anything eternal in our lives and cause our life on earth to be strenuous and demanding with nothing truly good resulting from them.

Thorns are also anything that we desire apart from the word of God and the good news of His kingdom (Mark 4:19). If there is anything in your life that takes away from your desire and commitment to His word and His kingdom, then it is a thorny plant growing in your soil, ready to choke out the seed that was planted in you. When Yeshua was calling disciples to follow after Him, many were unwilling to do so because of these “other things” that choked out God’s word (Matthew 8:18-22; Mark 10:17-22). Thorns are common, which is why we must be careful to avoid them.

"Don’t feed them. Let the thorny plants die..."

Since thorny plants may sprout even after the word of God is preached and we hear the good news of God’s kingdom, we must be on defense against them. How do we do that? Don’t feed them. Let the thorny plants die if they appear. Let any temptation to seek something apart from God’s kingdom works and His plan for your life pass by without heeding them. But even more than not feeding the thorny plants, put all your resources and all that you are into growing the seed that the sower has placed in you. When we put our efforts into God’s word and His good news, we allow it to grow deeper into our lives and grow higher into maturity of our faith.

The best defense against worries and worldly desires is to keep away from them and to starve them when they do invade your life. You will see God’s word grow in your life as a result and you will bear the good fruit of His kingdom. What are you doing today that is causing you to heed the things of this world rather than God? Isn’t it about time that you start bearing fruit and rid yourself of useless thorns? Ask for God’s help in identifying the thorns that are choking out His word and keeping you from doing His kingdom work.

Matthew 13:1-23