The Parable of the Sower Explained

Jesus says the sower plants the word, then identifies the path, rocky ground, and their different failures. Satan removes the word from some hearers at once, while others welcome it quickly but fall away when trouble or persecution comes.

T¹³hen Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? ¹⁴The farmer sows the word. ¹⁵Some are like the seeds 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. ¹⁶Some are like the seeds sown on rocky ground. They hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷But they themselves have no root, and they remain for only a season. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

Jesus turns to the thorny ground and the good soil. Worries, wealth, and desire choke the word in one case, but in the other the word is received and yields a crop in measured abundance.

¹⁸Others are like the seeds sown among the thorns. They hear the word, ¹⁹but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. ²⁰Still others are like the seeds sown on good soil. They hear the word, receive it, and produce a crop — thirtyfold, sixtyfold, or a hundredfold.”