The Parable of the Sower Explained (4:13-20)

¹³ Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? ¹⁴ The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵ Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶ Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷ But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸ Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰ Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

Jesus, realizing that the disciples have not really understood the parable, decides to explain it to them in detail. Furthermore, in the first verse here he seems to suggest that understanding the story of the sower is the key to understanding all the other parables too.

Jesus explains that the sower is really about the different ways one can respond to the gospel and, in particular, it describes three types of unproductiveness. Some pay no attention to the word at all; others listen for a while but fall away when trouble comes; and the third group listens as well but the cares and preoccupations of the world strangle the message. This reinforces the idea that the effect of the gospel on people depends not only on the quality of the message (the seed) but also on the hearers (the soil).

But we should not just see this parable as describing different types of people because the same person can have each of these responses at different times in their life. Mark’s gospel repeatedly show us how often the disciples fail: they mostly run away after Jesus’ arrest; Peter fails over and over and insiders become outsiders and vice versa.

We must never forget too that the parable of the sower is essentially a message of hope. Mark portrays this world as a battleground between Jesus and Satan but the latter really has no chance of victory. This parable tells us that, in spite of Satan’s continual attacks and our own human weakness, those who do hear the word and try to follow it, will bear immense fruit. The kingdom of God will come and will have the ultimate victory.