On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood along the shore. 3 And he spoke to them at length in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, 6 and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. 7 Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. 8 But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold. 9 Whoever has ears ought to hear.”'
Jesus sat by the sea of Galilee and began to teach the crowds that came to him. The crowd was so large and pressing in on him that he got into a boat while the crowds remained on land. It could also be that in his teaching Jesus was moving from the Temple format to a community of disciples. Jesus taught the crowd in parables. Parables were comparisons, analogies, sayings, stories or riddles frequently used in the OT and NT as teaching tools. Scholars believe that some of the parables attributed to Jesus were composed by the evangelists to emphasize aspects of Jesus’ teaching, and some may have been modified based on the audience to whom they were speaking.
Jesus was speaking to a crowd of mainly rural workers hence a parable with God or Jesus as a Sower would have gotten their attention. The seed was the word about the Kingdom of God. There were four kinds of ground on which the seeds fell: the hard path, rocky ground, among thorns and on rich soil. This could be viewed as a progression from seeds not even given the chance to grow (the path) to abundant growth (rich soil). The crowd would have understood what would happen to the seeds in each circumstance. The birds could easily get the seeds that landed on the path because the path could not be plowed. There is little soil on rocky ground so the seeds could not sink deep roots and the hot Palestinian sun would scorch the plant. Weeds would choke the young plant. However, rich soil would be able to produce an abundant harvest. Jesus invited the crowd to ponder what he said and apply it to their lives. The parable reflected the mixed response to Jesus’ teaching.
Almighty God, sometimes when we hear your word we are like fertile soil and other times we are like the path. Grant us the grace to be constant in our faith and the desire to hear and receive your word with joy. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: New Testament Expanded Edition. Expanded Edition, Four Courts / Scepter, 2008.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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