On another occasion he began to teach by the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land. 2 And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them, 3 “Hear this! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed 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 and it produced no grain. 8 And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” 9 He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
The crowd gathered around Jesus and was pressing on him, so he got into a boat on the sea of Galilee and taught the crowd on the shore using parables. The sloping shores would have provided a natural amphitheater so the crowds would be able to hear Jesus. Parables in OT times included comparisons, analogies, sayings, stories, and riddles, all of which would have been familiar to Jesus’ audience. Jesus used parables as teaching tools because of the impact they had on his audience. Jesus, “Spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it (Mk. 4:33).” Seeds that fell on the path had no soil to cover them to protect them from the birds. Much of the ground in Palestine was rocky and only had a light covering of soil over the rock so the seed which fell there grew quickly but lacked deep roots or moisture so the corn would wither and die in the sun. The roots of the thorns from the last harvest were not dug up when preparing the soil, so seeds that fell among the thorns were smothered when the new thorns grew. The seeds and the fields are important but the Sower plays a minor role.
Jesus preached about the Kingdom of God and the response was mixed even though Jesus promised that God’s Kingdom would come with abundance. The fact that the Sower threw seeds on the path, on rocky ground, and among the thorns indicated that Jesus was making a point. However, sowing in such places could have meant that the Kingdom was being expanded to include the Gentiles since Israel was God’s rich soil and they were rejecting Jesus’ teaching. The ‘rich soil’ could be those who listened to Jesus and followed him. They were the ones who would yield thirty, sixty and a hundredfold.
Almighty God, grant us ears to hear your Word so that we may ponder it in the depths of our hearts. May we be fertile soil yielding what is appropriate for our station, and may we place our hope in the glory of your kingdom that awaits us at the end of our journey. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
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