Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: 3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” 9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
Jesus is once again teaching from a boat because the crowd is so large. Here he tells the famous parable of the sower which draws on the experiences of farmers who were a majority of the population. Although most farmers wouldn’t have so many different types of soil, the parable still speaks to what they know and would understand. This parable talks about four different places in which seed is planted with different results.
Farmers, of course, need to reach their crops and so they put paths through their fields. Frequent walking on these paths hardens the earth which means that the roots of any seed that falls there cannot penetrate. Furthermore, the seeds are highly visible on a path and so birds can eat them.
In general in Galilee, the rock is near the surface so, not infrequently, what looks like good soil turns out to be too shallow for roots to take hold or for moisture to stay. Any seed planted there would start to grow but would soon wither away in such a hot climate.
But even in places where the soil was deep enough for plants to grow, there can still be problems, notably with weeds. In some areas they might be so strong that they would strangle any other plants.
So Jesus gives us three examples of places where the planting of seeds failed although, in the end, the fourth planting works and yields a bountiful harvest. Note that Mark does not simply want us to see three failures in contrast to one success. He also shows us a progression.
The first seeds had little chance of surviving since they could not put down roots and so they are quickly devoured by the birds. The second batch actually start to grow but then wither under the heat. The third nearly reaches the harvest before being choked by weeds. After all this, we expect the fourth to be a success but the size of the harvest is remarkable. As on scholar put it “the contrast between a 75% failure and such an exptraordinary harvest sugggests that there is no comparison between the expectation of the kingdom and its effect”. The advent of God’s kingdom will shatter how life normally operates and change it profoundly.
Jesus wants us to think about why the first three attempts failed. The parable is clear: there was nothing wrong with the seed but rather with the soil that receives it. In verses 14-20 we will get an official explanation of the parable’s meaning but right now it is clear that the parable concerns why the response to Jesus, and his preaching about God’s kingdom, has been so different.
One other thing to notice here: this parable does not necessarily apply to different groups of people. We should not think that some people receive the word and others close it out. It also applies to us. All too often in our lives, we allow the word to be choked for a variety of reasons. Before looking at other people, we need to look at ourselves
St. Joseph's Paris: Bible Study Website 