Luke's account of Jesus' parables by the sea is the shortest of the three, and Matthew's is the longest. Luke limited himself to recording only two parables, namely the parable of the soils and the parable of the lamp. He thereby stressed the importance of hearing, obeying, and proclaiming the Word of God.
"Unlike Mark 4 and Matthew 13, where entire chapters are devoted to kingdom teaching via parables, Luke concentrates on the one theme of faith both here and in the two short passages that follow (8:16-21)."234
As in the other Synoptics, Jesus gave the first parable to the crowds and then interpreted it for His disciples.
8:4 Luke omitted reference to the setting for this teaching. It was the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Instead he stressed the large and diverse crowd that Jesus addressed. Perhaps he wanted to picture the crowd as the various types of soil Jesus referred to in this parable.
8:5-8 The main focus of this parable in all the Synoptics is not on the sower (Jesus and His disciples) or the seed (the Word of God), as important as these are. It is the soils on which the seed falls. It is unclear whether in Jesus' day plowing followed sowing rather than the other way around, as some commentators claim.235Consequently it is not unusual that the sower scattered his seed where he did. The presence of thorn seeds would not discourage the sower from sowing seed among them if he knew they were there. Rocks under the surface would only become visible when the farmer plowed the seed under.
Luke probably omitted the lesser harvests and mentioned the largest yield to encourage his disciples with the ultimate result of His and their work. Only Luke mentioned that people trampled the seed under foot (v. 5) perhaps to indicate people's contempt for God's Word (cf. Heb. 10:29). His unique reference to lack of moisture (v. 6, cf. Jer. 17:8) explains why those plants had "no root"(Matt. 13:6; Mark 4:6). Jesus' final appeal urged careful listening.
Luke focused the disciples' question on the one parable he recorded so far. Matthew and Mark had them asking Jesus why He was speaking to the people in parables (plural). "Mysteries"were revelations previously unknown about the kingdom (cf. Dan. 2:20-23, 28-30). The Greeks had their mystery religions the secrets of which only the initiated knew. Consequently Luke's original readers would have had no trouble understanding Jesus' meaning. The parables intentionally revealed some truth to everyone who heard them, but only Jesus' disciples could understand the deeper significance of what they taught. One of the principles of spiritual growth is that when a person responds positively to revelation, God gives him or her the ability to understand more truth. However when one does not respond positively, God hides further truth from him or her (v. 18; Isa. 6:9; cf. Exod. 8:32; 9:12; Rom. 9:17-18). "That"indicates purpose more than result (v. 10).
Jesus now gave His disciples information that enabled them to understand the deeper teaching of the parable. The proclaimed Word of God does not in itself yield a uniform response of faith. Response to it is all important.
8:11-12 Luke alone wrote, "So that they may not believe and be saved."This inclusion reflects his intense interest in salvation. Luke viewed the preaching mission of Jesus and His disciples as essentially calling people to salvation. Satan's purpose is the exact opposite of God's purpose (cf. 2 Pet. 3:9). In Jesus' ministry the Word of God that saved people was the message that Jesus was the divine Messiah. When people believed this, they experienced salvation.
8:13-14 In both of these cases there was some initial faith in Jesus and later a turning away from Him in unbelief. Notice that Jesus did not mention if they were saved or lost. That was not His point. The point is how they responded to the Word of God. Some of them may have been saved and others lost. Jesus did not say they lost their salvation. That is impossible (cf. Rom. 8:31-39). He said they turned away in unbelief.
In Jesus' day some of His hearers believed on Him (John 8:31) yet were still unsaved (John 8:44). Similarly today some people respond to the gospel superficially by accepting it, but then turn from it in unbelief. In Jesus' day others genuinely believed on Him and then stopped believing (e.g., John the Baptist).236Today true believers sometimes stop believing because of information they receive that convinces them their former faith was wrong (e.g., youths who abandon their faith in college). Luke's treatment of this passage shows his concern for apostasy (i.e., departure from the truth) under persecution.237
Those of us who have grown up in "Christian"countries sometimes fail to appreciate the fact that genuine Christians have renounced their faith in Jesus under severe persecution (e.g., Peter). We may tend to think that people who do this were never genuine believers. That may be true in some cases. However we need to remember that for every Christian martyr who died refusing to renounce his faith there were other believers who escaped death by renouncing it. To say that their behavior showed that they never truly believed is naive and unbiblical (cf. 19:11-27; 2 Tim. 2:12; 4:10a).
The people in view in verse 13 stop believing because of adversity, but those in verse 14 do so because of distractions (cf. Matt. 6:19-34; Luke 11:34-36; 12:22-32; 16:13). Notice that Jesus said that these "believers"(v. 13) produce no mature fruit (cf. John 15:2). In the light of this statement we need to examine the idea that every true believer produces fruit and that if there is no fruit the person must be lost. Fruit is what appears on the outside that other people see. It is what normally, but not always, manifests life on the inside. It is possible for a fruit tree to produce no fruit and still be a fruit tree.238Today the testimony of many Christians would lead onlookers to conclude that they are not believers because they do not produce much external evidence of the divine life within them. However, Jesus allowed for the possibility of true believers bearing no mature fruit because they allow the distractions of the world to divert them from God's Word (cf. John 15:2). Luke alone mentioned the pleasures of this life, which were a special problem for his Greek readers.
8:15 Luke described this believer as having an honest (or noble) and good heart thereby stressing the character of the individual. He adapted an ancient Greek phrase denoting singleness of purpose.239Matthew described him as understanding in keeping with his emphasis on comprehending the mysteries of the kingdom (cf. Matt. 13:11, 14-15, 19, 23, 25). The kind of person Luke describes will follow Jesus faithfully and bear fruit.
"Jesus' emphasis here is not so much on whether a person perseveres but on the kind of person who does persevere."240
In summary, verse 12 seems to view the lost, verses 13 and 14 both the lost and the saved, and verse 15 the saved. However in each case the emphasis is on their present response to the Word of God be it belief or unbelief, not the ultimate outcome of their response, namely their salvation. Jesus encountered all four types of responses during His ministry, and so do modern disciples. Some people refuse to believe at all (cf. most of the Pharisees). Others follow Jesus temporarily but because of persecution or love for other things stop following Him (cf. John 6:66; Luke 18:18-30). The salvation of these people is the most difficult to evaluate. Still others believe and continue following faithfully (cf. vv. 1-3).
