Sunday: The Parable of the Sower

Daily Lesson for Sunday 21st of July 2024

Read Mark 4:1-9. What are the different soils like, and what happens to the seed that falls on them?

When reading the parables of Jesus in the Gospels, people often want to jump quickly to the interpretation. After all, is that not the point of these stories—to teach some spiritual truth for Christian life? Yes, but sometimes, other than in brief comments such as “The kingdom of God is like,” or “He who has ears to hear, let him hear,” Jesus does not explain the parable.

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Consequently, it is good to slow down and simply analyze the story itself in order to catch the direction its various narrative characteristics point toward. Doing this with the parable of the sower yields a variety of ideas. The seed is the same in each case but falls on four different types of soil. The type of soil greatly influences the outcome for the seed. Instead of one continuous story, the parable is actually four individual stories told to completion in each setting. The length of time for completing the story lengthens with each successive story.

The seed that falls on the road is eaten immediately by the birds. “ ‘And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it’ ” (Mark 4:4, NKJV).

The seed that falls on the rocky ground takes a few days or weeks to reach its failed outcome, which included being scorched by the sun.

The seed that falls on the weedy soil takes longer still to reach its unproductive end, choked as it was by thorns.

The seed that falls on the good soil takes the longest of all, presumably an entire growing season, as is the normal pattern for a crop.

Three of the stories are about failure; only the last is about success, a good abundant crop. The length of the stories, the longer and longer period of time for each successive story, and the fact that only one story is about success, all point to the risk of failure but the abundant outcome of success.

The parable seems to point to the cost of discipleship and the risks involved, but it also highlights the abundant reward of following Jesus.

What are some other spiritual lessons that we can learn from nature?