The Sower
A farmer scatters seed everywhere, on paths, rocks and thorns as well as good soil. The question is not the seed, but the ground: what kind of heart receives the word?
Read Matthew 13:1–23 in the reader
Awaiting theological review
Before you read
Who Jesus was speaking to
Scripture
Great crowds gather by the Sea of Galilee, so many that Jesus sits in a boat and speaks to them on the shore. Afterwards the disciples ask him: “Why speakest thou to them in parables?”
Interpretation
The sower is the first parable in Matthew 13, and Jesus explains it himself. It works like a key to the others: the same word falls on everyone, and each hearer decides what to do with it.
Matthew 13:1–23
Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition · Public Domain
By the sea1The same day Jesus going out of the house, sat by the sea side. 2And great multitudes were gathered unto him, so that he went up into a boat and sat: and all the multitude stood on the shore. 3And he spoke to them many things in parables, saying: Behold the sower went forth to sow. 4And whilst he soweth some fell by the way side, and the birds of the air came and ate them up. 5And other some fell upon stony ground, where they had not much earth: and they sprung up immediately, because they had no deepness of earth. 6And when the sun was up they were scorched: and because they had not root, they withered away. 7And others fell among thorns: and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8And others fell upon good ground: and they brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, and some thirtyfold. 9He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Why do you speak in parables?10And his disciples came and said to him: Why speakest thou to them in parables? 11Who answered and said to them: Because to you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven: but to them it is not given. 12For he that hath, to him shall be given, and he shall abound: but he that hath not, from him shall be taken away that also which he hath. 13Therefore do I speak to them in parables: because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14And the prophecy of Isaias is fulfilled in them, who saith: By hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand: and seeing you shall see, and shall not perceive. 15For the heart of this people is grown gross, and with their ears they have been dull of hearing, and their eyes they have shut: lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 16But blessed are your eyes, because they see, and your ears, because they hear. 17For, amen, I say to you, many prophets and just men have desired to see the things that you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things that you hear and have not heard them. The parable explained18Hear you therefore the parable of the sower. 19When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, there cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart: this is he that received the seed by the way side. 20And he that received the seed upon stony ground, is he that heareth the word, and immediately receiveth it with joy. 21Yet hath he not root in himself, but is only for a time: and when there ariseth tribulation and persecution because of the word, he is presently scandalized. 22And he that received the seed among thorns, is he that heareth the word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choketh up the word, and he becometh fruitless. 23But he that received the seed upon good ground, is he that heareth the word, and understandeth, and beareth fruit, and yieldeth the one an hundredfold, and another sixty, and another thirty.
One sower, four kinds of ground
The sower, the seed and the soil
Went forth to sow
The sower
He scatters seed without calculating where it will land.
Interpretation
Jesus does not say who the sower is, but Christians have long seen in him Christ himself, and every person who passes on the word of God. The sower's generosity is a sign of God's: the word is offered to everyone.
Think about it
Who sowed the word of God in your life?
The word of the kingdom
The seed
The same seed falls everywhere; what differs is the soil.
Scripture
Jesus explains that the seed is the word of the kingdom, and the four soils are four ways of hearing it.
Think about it
What word of God has stayed with you, and what has been lost?
Four ways of hearing
The four soils
The path, where the birds take the seed; rocky ground, where it springs up and withers; thorns, which choke it; and good ground, which bears fruit.
- 13:19 — The wicked one catcheth away that which was sown
- 13:21 — When there ariseth tribulation… he is presently scandalized
- 13:22 — The care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches
- 13:23 — Heareth the word, and understandeth, and beareth fruit
Interpretation
The four soils are not four kinds of people fixed for ever: the same heart can be a path one day and good ground another. The parable is an invitation to clear the stones and pull the thorns.
Think about it
Which soil looks most like your heart this week?
What first hearers would have noticed
Context
Sowing in Galilee
History & scholarship
Seed was sown by hand, scattered broadly from a bag. Paths crossed the fields, limestone lay just under thin soil, and thorns grew at the edges. Some scholars think the field was ploughed after sowing, which would explain why seed falls on the path; others question this. Either way, the sower is generous rather than careful.
A hundredfold
History & scholarship
Ordinary harvests in the ancient world yielded far less than thirty, sixty or a hundredfold. Whatever the exact figures, Jesus' listeners would have heard the ending as astonishing: the good soil produces beyond all expectation.
Why parables?
Scripture
Jesus answers the disciples with words of Isaiah about a people who hear but do not understand (Isaiah 6:9–10). The parables reveal to those who are open and stay closed to those who will not listen.
Look closer
Symbols
- The birdsMatthew 13:19
Scripture
Jesus identifies them with the wicked one, who takes away the word before it can take root.- ThornsMatthew 13:22
Interpretation
Not dramatic sins but worries and the deceitfulness of riches: ordinary concerns that slowly take all the space and choke the word.- FruitMatthew 13:23
Interpretation
The good ground does not produce the same amount everywhere — a hundred, sixty, thirty — but it bears fruit. God asks for fruit, not for equal results.
Remember
Quiz me
Question 1 of 4beginner
Where was Jesus when he told this parable?