And again he began to teach by the sea. And a great crowd was gathered together to him, so that going on board ship he sat in the sea, and all the crowd were close to the sea on the land.
Mark 4 opens with a change in how Jesus teaches. He sits in a boat, the crowd stands on the shore, and He speaks in parables — a setting commentators read as a turning point in His ministry.
The scene follows the hostility of chapter 3, where the religious leaders set themselves against Him. One writer explains what that break makes room for.
The Jewish leaders rejected Christ, and Christ then broke all links with Israel according to the flesh, as Mark 3 sets out. This gives occasion to reveal the true character of the Lord's service. Up to this moment, in His ministry of grace, it might appear that He was seeking fruit from Israel. The parable of the Sower now makes it clear that He was really doing a work to produce fruit.
Another writer looks back over chapters 2 and 3, and notes what the Lord could already see coming.
These two chapters (2 and 3) give a complete outline of the unrelenting hatred of the chosen nation toward our Lord, which ended in His death. The hour for His crucifixion had not come, but He already saw the spirit that would in the end condemn Him to be crucified.
The layout of the scene was practical first. The crowd had to hear Him, and He had used a boat this way before.
Now again a very large crowd from the nearby towns gathered by the sea, and He taught them the precious truths of God. But so that they could hear, and so He could speak more easily, He got into a boat, as He had done before (Mark 3:9). Sitting there on the edge of Lake Tiberias, He spoke to the crowd standing on the shore, and taught them many things in parables. Because of this the series is sometimes called the "boat-parables."
The change was not only in where He taught, but in how and in what He said. His earlier message was plain and direct.
At first Jesus announced with authority that the kingdom of heaven was at hand and the appointed time was fulfilled. He invited people of every class to repent and believe this good news. But now the Lord started to teach that only some would accept the gospel, and that it would stir up much hostility, so that the outward form of the kingdom would change as a result. He set this change before His audience in a series of parables — a method of teaching in strong contrast to the plain statements of the Sermon on the Mount.
The same form of words worked in two opposite directions at once, depending on who was listening.
From that point the Saviour started to use this puzzling form of speech. It was clear enough to the devout minority, but it left the godless crowd in the dark. Like the cloud in Moses' day, which stood between Israel and the Egyptians, the parables were light to the one and darkness to the other.
The first parable He tells from the boat marks a reversal in God's dealings with man.
Seated in a boat at the lakeside, the Lord presents the parable of the sower. The sower went out to sow that which, if received in the heart, should bring forth by grace the fruit God desires. That fruit was not to be found in the vineyard, where man was tested just as he was in the flesh, under the old covenant, with the law written on tablets of stone… He no longer seeks fruit from man on the earth, nor in His people, but sows that which ought to bring forth fruit.
If fruit comes only from God's own work, no one nation can claim it for itself. The place where He taught points the same way.
If a work of God is necessary, it cannot be confined to one nation. It proves that the Jew is as needy as the Gentile, and that both alike are helpless to secure their own blessing. So the Lord's service of grace has all the world in view. This truth may be shown by the Lord's own action: He "began to teach beside the sea."
- Rejection — the settled hostility of Mark 3 is the hinge. Chapter 4 is the Lord's answer to a nation that has already refused Him.
- Relocation — He moves out to the water and sits in a boat, while the crowd stands on the shore. That setting gave the series its name: the "boat-parables."
- Reversal — He stops looking for fruit from a people already planted. He sows seed that can produce fruit where there was none.
- Reach — fruit now depends on God's work, not on a nation's advantage. So the service in view takes in the whole world.
- Result — the parables divide the hearers. They are light to those who want to learn and darkness to those who do not, like the cloud between Israel and Egypt.
And he taught them many things in parables. And he said to them in his doctrine,
Mark's fourth chapter marks a shift in how Jesus teaches: the crowd stands on the shore, He speaks from a boat, and plain statements give way to stories. Why the change, what does a parable do, and what was the "teaching" — some versions say "doctrine" — that He now gave in this form?
Commentators read this verse as a turning point. Two things changed at once: how Jesus spoke, and what He said.
In the fourth chapter we see a marked change in the ministry of the Servant of Jehovah. At this point the Lord changed His teaching, both in what He taught and in how He gave His message. At first Jesus announced with authority that the kingdom of heaven was near and the appointed time had come. He invited people of every class to repent and believe this good news. But now the Lord began to teach that only some would accept the gospel, and that it would stir up much hostility. So the outward form of the kingdom would change as a result.
Hamilton Smith traces the change back to what happened in Mark 3.
The Jewish leaders rejected Christ, and Christ then broke every link with Israel as a nation on natural ground, as Mark 3 shows. This opens the way to reveal the true character of the Lord's service. Until now, in His ministry of grace, it might look as if He was seeking fruit from Israel. The parable of the Sower now makes it clear that He was doing a work to produce fruit. His ministry was indeed a test for Israel. It proved that fallen man, left as he is, bears no fruit for God. If there is to be any fruit, it can only come through God's own work in the souls of men, pictured by the sowing of the seed.
Kelly names what was being sown.
This was His work now: scattering the seed of the Word far and wide. There was nothing in man that God could accept. It was a matter of something new and Divine, the fruit of the working of grace.
The word itself carries the idea of setting two things side by side.
The word "parable" means the act of placing things together, and so it means a comparison or likeness. A parable is to its subject what a portrait is to the person. It is a likeness given in a puzzling form, yet clear enough to show an attentive mind what is meant. So it can be used without causing offence, and it can carry truth gently and with power. But it is understood only if the senses are awake and in use. Otherwise it falls on ears that do not value it and do not hear.
The physical setting shaped the delivery, and it gave this group of stories a nickname.
Now again a very great crowd from the neighbouring towns assembled by the sea, and He whose voice was "as the voice of many waters" ministered to them the precious truths of God. But that they might hear, and that He might speak the more conveniently, He boarded a boat, as He had done before (Mark 3:9), and sitting like this on the edge of Lake Tiberias, He addressed the standing multitude gathered on the shore, teaching them many things in parables. From this circumstance the series of them is sometimes called the "boat-parables."
Turpin points to the first word of the teaching that follows.
He begins it with this: "Listen." That word belongs to Mark alone; you will not find it in the other Gospels: "Listen." I believe He had a reason for using this word. First, it warns against any lightness of mind about the simple picture through which He would convey the most profound truth. "Listen." He has something to say which at first sight might seem of little account to those who listened or heard. So He would press on them the importance of what He is about to say.
This way of teaching sorted the crowd by desire.
By such a method of teaching He tested everyone in the vast crowd who heard what He said, to see who were eager to learn. For we read: "He did not speak to them without a parable" (4:34); yet He spoke, as Mark alone tells us, "as they were able to hear it" (4:33). The profit of souls was His aim, and all who wanted it had the interpretation.
One image catches the double effect.
Thomas Fuller compared the parables to God's appearance at the Red Sea, which was light to the Israelites and darkness to the Egyptians at the same time.
- Cause. After the leaders' rejection, Jesus changed both what He taught and how He taught it.
- Method. A parable sets two things side by side. It gives up its meaning only to an attentive mind.
- Message. He is no longer looking for fruit from man, but sowing seed that can produce fruit by God's own work.
- Call. "Listen" — Mark alone records it — warns against treating a simple picture as a small matter.
- Outcome. The same words are light to those who want to learn and darkness to those who do not. Everyone who wanted the meaning received it.
Hearken Behold, the sower went forth to sow.
Mark 4 marks a turn in the Lord's ministry. He sits in a boat by the sea and teaches the crowd in pictures. This verse holds three things worth weighing: a call to listen, a person who sows, and a going out that changes God's dealings with man.
The parable begins and ends with an appeal to the ear. One writer sets the opening call alongside the closing words, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear":
In this chapter the phrase occurs again (v. 23). It comes with special emphasis at the close of the parable of the sower. This force is even more striking when we connect it with the Lord's call for attention at the start of the parable. "Listen," He said, and having portrayed Himself as the Sower, He added, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." It was a summons to the individual to free himself from the heedless mass.
The Lord called for attention because a crowd can hear a story and still miss it:
Having hearing ears, or lacking them, would show at once whether a man belonged to the "within" or to the "without." The mass of His listeners evidently thought it was a pretty story and pleasant to the ear, but left it at that, showing they were without. Some others, along with the disciples, were not content with this. They wanted to arrive at its inner meaning, and pushed their enquiries further. They belonged to the within.
In this parable the Lord pictures Himself as the Sower. What He scatters is the word, and the two cannot be pulled apart:
The Lord Himself was the Sower, without a doubt. The Word was the divine testimony that He spread abroad. Scripture says of that great salvation: "It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard" (Heb. 2:3). In John's Gospel we discover that Jesus is the Word. Here He sows the word. Who could sow it like He who was it?
A sower does not come to a field expecting a crop already standing there. That picture marks a shift in God's dealings with man:
Christ came as the sower, and that fact alone proved that Israel was set aside. If He were still dealing with Israel as His vineyard, He would have come seeking fruit from the vine He had planted long before. He had come to Israel previously, seeking fruit and finding none. He now comes in the new character of the sower, which is quite another thing. He comes into a waste world, where there was nothing, and He begins a fresh work.
This also settled what man himself can produce for God:
His ministry was indeed a test for Israel, proving that there is no fruit for God from fallen man as such.
The seed does not come from the soil. It comes in from outside, carrying a life the ground could never supply:
The seed, in itself, is a completely new and distinct thing. It is not in principle like anything that was there before. It finds nothing there that it can call its own. It is not a seed of the soil springing up from it. It is the seed of God — it comes down from heaven… Once it is put into the soil, there is then in the soul what was not there before. It is no improvement or change of what was there before. It is eternal life.
The Sower and the seed are both faultless. So the outcome depends on the ground that receives the seed:
In the strict meaning of the parable we must all recognise that the Lord is the Sower, and the seed is the word of God. So the Sower was perfect, the sowing was faultless, and the seed good. Still, because of the character of the soil, three cases out of four give no lasting result.
The Lord spoke first of His own preaching. But the parable is not shut up in the past:
The immediate subject of the parable is the Lord's spoken ministry about the kingdom. But we can apply the parable more widely. It fits every occasion when His Word is preached, whether in a gospel setting or a meeting for the blessing of the Lord's people. The Lord was unique in His preaching and His words were always perfect. Still, a sower goes out to sow every time the Word of God is ministered.
- Listen. A call to hear opens and closes the parable. It pulls one person out of a crowd that heard the same words and kept none of them.
- Sower. Christ pictures Himself as the Sower, and the One sowing the word is Himself the Word.
- Sowing. He no longer comes seeking fruit from a field planted long ago. He comes to a waste world and begins the work that produces fruit.
- Seed. What He plants is not native to the soil. It comes down from heaven and puts in the soul what was never there before.
- Soil. Sower, sowing and seed are all faultless — so where three of four bear nothing, the ground is on trial, not the seed.
And it came to pass as he sowed, one fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured it.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And another fell on the rocky ground, where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprung up out [of the ground] because it had no depth of earth;
Of the four soils in this parable, the second looks the most promising at first. The seed comes up faster here than anywhere else — and that speed is the warning.
The word behind "rocky ground" means solid rock lying just under a thin skin of soil.
It is rocky ground, not stony: bedrock, with a slight layer of earth over it. In that layer the seed grows fast, but only near the surface. That is the very cause of its destruction a little while later. At first it produces forced, greenhouse growth: "immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil." Later the sun grew hotter and scorched it. Because it had no root, it withered away.
So where does the failure lie? Not in the sowing.
In the strict interpretation of the parable we must all recognise this: the Lord is the Sower, and the seed is the word of God. So the Sower was perfect, the sowing was faultless, and the seed good. Still, because of the character of the soil, three cases out of four bring no lasting result.
There is a difference between ground that was made hard and ground that is hard by nature.
Here it is the nature of the ground that is at fault. With the hearer by the path, someone might argue that circumstances had made him what he was. The traffic over it had made the ground hard. Here it was the nature of the ground itself. The prophet — or rather, God through him — speaks of a "heart of stone" (Ezek. 36:26). That, beyond question, is exactly what this ground pictures. Yet there is earth also, a surface responsiveness which promises a great deal at the beginning: "they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy." As the parable states it, this is a sign of a lack of depth.
A quick start looks like a strong one. Commentators read the speed the other way.
Here we have the flesh, or nature, doing its best, but proving its utter weakness... Here the work went no deeper than the affections. It never reached the conscience and convicted it before God. Some take the joy of Christianity where there has been no judgment of the life and state as God sees it. That is really to slight and ignore Him altogether, and to make much of self. Haste in receiving the blessing is anything but the sign of a divine work. So repentance is all-important. It has been too much lost sight of, through a desire to guard the freeness of grace.
If the affections are only topsoil, where does a root go down?
The hearer had received it with joy. He leaves it when trouble comes. His conscience never comes into God's presence, and he does not feel the need of a troubled conscience. The word of God fixes its roots in the conscience, because God reveals His presence there and awakens it. God Himself is revealed to the heart, and one finds oneself in His presence, conscious of being there. Self-judgment follows, the darkness passes away, and the light of God shines in the heart... If the announcement of pardon gives joy, there is reason to fear that the conscience is not awakened.
The heat does not create the problem. It shows one that was there from the start.
One may be responsive and enthusiastic at first and still not have the root of the matter in him. He is a stranger to the living work of the Spirit of God. Then a little heat of opposition or persecution arises. He may be as willing to give up his profession as he was to take it up at first. If in the first case we see Satan's activity, in this case the flesh is prominent — first its energy, then its weakness.
- Depth — The trouble is depth, not the seed. The Sower is perfect and the seed good; the shallow layer over rock decides everything that follows.
- Nature — The lack of depth is what the ground is, not what happened to it. Scripture's name for it is a heart of stone.
- Speed — Where there is no depth, growth is fast. Immediate joy without any dealing with sin is a symptom, not a success.
- Root — Depth comes when the word touches the conscience. There the word fixes its roots, self-judgment follows, and God's light shines in.
- Heat — The sun only shows what was there all along. Whoever took up a profession easily gives it up just as easily when trouble comes.
and when the sun arose it was burnt up, and because of its not having any root, it withered.
The seed in this verse comes up fast, looks alive, then dies in one hot day. The verse points straight to the reason: it had no root.
The picture is not a field littered with loose stones. One writer describes the actual ground the Lord had in view.
The expression "on stony ground" does not mean quite what we mean when we use the word in everyday speech. It is not ground with stones in it, because that by itself would not stop the root from getting down into the earth. By stony ground the blessed Lord means an actual surface of rock. Over it lies a very slight, thin coating of earth.
The plant failed at the point where it looked strongest — its speed. God's first work in a person looks very different.
The Lord explains that this stands for people who hear the word and receive it with gladness at once. But there is no work of God in their souls. It is not a good sign when a soul, without previous exercise, receives the word with joy. If God is working with a soul, He deals with the conscience, awakening a sense of sins and guilt. So the first effect of the word is not joy but trouble.
Where can the word go down and hold in a person? Commentators point to the conscience.
The hearer had received it with joy. He leaves it when trouble comes. His conscience never came into God's presence, and he never felt the need of a troubled conscience. The word of God fixes its roots in the conscience, because God makes His presence known and that awakens the conscience. God reveals Himself to the heart, and one finds oneself in His presence, aware of being there. Self-judgment follows, the darkness passes away, and the light of God shines in the heart.
The missing root is not in the soil but in the man himself. And what is missing is the mark of everything God does.
So there is no root in the man himself; Christ is not his real and great necessity. So "when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away." This is the religion of the flesh, of sentiment, of unreality. This is its end. It lacks the sign and seal of a work that is truly divine — permanence. It "endures for a while." "I perceived that whatever God does endures forever" (Ecc. 3:14).
The heat is not an accident of the weather. It stands for what a person meets once he takes the side of Christ in this world.
All is well with those who receive the word with joy but have no root, while they live at ease in the world. They produce fruit as fair and promising as any seen in the church. But then worldly loss and persecution come, because they profess Christ. When trials and afflictions and the cross meet them on their path, they fall away. These are the scorching sun that withers the seed and all its fruit.
The heat that kills the shallow crop is the very heat that ripens the rooted one. So the outcome of a trial is settled long before the trial comes.
So it is with every test and trial of life; they all have their sure effect on us. They either scorch and wither us, like the corn on the rocky ground that dies when the sun is up, or they bring our Christian life and fruit to maturity. Our secret life with our Lord decides which of these two effects happens in our case. Suppose we are much with Him, striking our roots downward in the knowledge of Himself, drawing our refreshment and strength from the hidden springs in Him. Then we need not dread the trial.
- Rock — the soil is not stony ground but bedrock under a thin skin of earth; the roots can reach nothing below the surface.
- Speed — gladness that comes at once, with nothing before it, is a warning and not a proof. God's work begins with trouble over sin, not joy.
- Root — the word takes root in the conscience, where a person finds himself in God's presence. Without that, there is no root at all.
- Sun — the heat is trouble and persecution that come because of the word, and it exposes what was never there.
- Fruit — the same sun that withers the shallow crop ripens the rooted one. The hidden life with Christ, formed before the heat arrives, decides which it will be.
And another fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
This third soil looks the most hopeful of the failures: nothing snatches the seed away, and nothing scorches it. Yet the harvest is nothing, so the real question is not whether the heart heard the word, but why it has no grain to show.
The thorns did not arrive after the sowing.
The seed fell, but the ground that took it was already occupied and overrun with thorns. These people looked well. They had received the seed, as far as anyone could see. There were indeed roots in them, but they were the roots of something else. The thorns were growing there before anyone scattered the seed. They had taken over the ground; they occupied all of it and drew their food from it. No doubt when the soil first took the word, these thorns looked feeble and of very little importance, and people may have supposed they were pulled up. But they left the roots there, and the roots sprang up, crowding out the good seed — choked it — and so no fruit came.
The problem was there all along, but nothing showed it.
Although the roots were already in the heart, they did not spring up until the good seed was sown there. How firmly present things grip the heart may not show, and may go unrecognised, until the word of God comes and tests it. Then the true state of the heart is exposed.
Later in the chapter the Lord names them, and the warning reaches the poor and the rich alike.
Such are those who hear the word. But the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things enter in and choke the word, so it becomes unfruitful. That is serious, and it is not uncommon. May we beware! The evil works in various forms. At bottom it is worldly lust and real selfishness, distrust of God and indifference to His interests. So the heart gets either overwhelmed with anxiety or busy chasing present things. It even loses the look of devotedness, and the soul goes back, sometimes with intense eagerness, to the world it had seemed to leave. None of us can do without God's guard against them all. You who are poor, watch against creeping cares. You who are rich, do not let the deceitfulness of riches lure you. Both of you, see that you judge the lusts of other things!
That last phrase is the widest of the three.
"Other" here stands against everything the word testifies of. It means everything except the word, everything that is not the word — to be plainer, everything that is not Christ. When the word is choked, it is the testimony about Christ that is choked. And Christ Himself is the word presented to us in that testimony. God's purpose in planting the seed of divine truth in us is to reveal Christ, to bring us into fellowship with Him, to form Him within us. So I say again, the lusts of other things mean anything and everything but Christ. Whatever it is, if the natural heart loves it, wants it, finds pleasure in it, it is a lust that chokes the seed.
The second soil failed under heat and pressure. This one fails without any open conflict at all.
This influence is not openly hostile, like the affliction and persecution of the previous class. But it is no less deadly, and far more dangerous, because it works out of sight. The thorns were growing too close to the seed; a mile away it would not have mattered. So, in secret and with full effect, they robbed the good seed of the light, air, moisture and food it needed from the soil. In the same way, the cares, riches and pleasures of this life, if they rule the heart, choke the good seed, and the dreadful result is no fruit.
Writers differ on how far this seed got. Some hold that it started and was strangled mid-growth:
The seed was good, it was alive, for it germinated, but the thorns choked its growth. The word of God was the seed. The Sower used nothing else. There is a lesson here for everyone. Let it be the word, and that in its simplicity.
The same crowding can work the other way.
Since the fall the ground produces thorns and briars, and people have tried many methods to get rid of them. Experience has taught the farmer that there is only one way. He may plough and harrow, but for every root he breaks, two plants will grow, and his field will become a briar patch. Let him instead sow the field with grass seed, and as the grass grows it will drive the briars out. This is overcoming evil with good... Let the positive things of Christ fill the heart. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Then we will have little room, and less desire, for the lusts of the flesh.
- Occupied. The thorns were rooted in the ground before the seed arrived; the heart was never empty, only untested.
- Exposed. Their hold is invisible until the word is sown and has to compete for the same soil.
- Named. Cares crush the poor, riches deceive the rich, and the lusts of other things reach everything that is not Christ.
- Quiet. No persecution here, no drought — just close, silent crowding that steals the light and food the seed needs.
- Fruitless. Grain is the test, not a warm hearing. The one cure is to let Christ so fill the heart that He crowds the thorns out.
And another fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing; and bore, one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred.
Three casts of the seed in this parable end in nothing; only the fourth produces a crop. The failure cannot be traced to the seed or to the one scattering it.
Taking the parable strictly, we must all see that the Lord is the Sower, and the seed is the word of God. Therefore the Sower was perfect, the sowing was faultless, and the seed good. Still, because of the character of the soil, three cases out of four give no lasting result.
The verse calls the fourth soil good, but does not say it was good on its own. One writer traces that goodness to God's own work, and makes it the reason fruit is sure to come.
God had made the good soil good by His own farming work — the hidden visit of the Spirit. It would not have been good otherwise. But once God has visited it in this way, it must bear fruit, because God will always have His work seen. He never lights a lamp to hide it under a basket.
The Lord's own explanation of this soil, a few verses later, lays out three steps. Each one goes further than the last, and the crop only comes at the end.
What marked those on the good ground was loyalty to the truth. Notice the three things said here: they heard, they received, and they produced fruit — three very important realities. They heard; many people hear; do you receive? They received, and then they produced fruit — that is, they practised it. They heard it, they received it, they practised it: some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundredfold.
The same soil, the same seed — and still three different yields. One writer traces the shortfall to the same forces that wrecked the earlier soils.
But there are degrees of fruitfulness in the good ground. Not all bear fruit in the same abundance. The power of Satan and the pull of the world wipe out the growth completely in the other cases. Here they only cut down the amount of fruit produced. Some, the Lord said, bring out fruit thirtyfold, and some sixtyfold, while others, like the seed Isaac sowed (Gen. 26:12), yield a hundredfold.
Another writer says the same of the believer: what killed the other crops can still cut his own.
The last case is the good ground hearer. Good ground is always prepared ground. The word has reached the conscience, and so fruit comes. Even then it comes in different degrees: some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. The things that are fatal to the unbeliever can badly hinder the fruitfulness of the true believer.
Matthew ends this list with thirtyfold. Mark ends with a hundredfold.
In Matthew the return from the good ground is some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Mark reverses it: some thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some a hundredfold. Is this difference of order a mere accident? No, it is designed, and there is a divine purpose in it.
So what did the thirtyfold look like, and when does the hundredfold come? One writer answers both.
In Mark we see the results in another connection. Here is the work of the great Sower, and His results must grow into a full harvest for the glory of God. The yield at first was small. It seemed as though He had spent His strength for nothing: just 120 poor and despised people in an upper room, with no power, waiting in prayer. That was the small beginning — the thirtyfold, if you like. The hundredfold will come when this scripture is fulfilled: "Let everything that has breath praise the Lord! Praise the Lord!" (Ps. 150:6).
This crop keeps growing, and it does not stay with the one who grew it.
In this last case we see grace at work in the heart, because it grows and bears fruit, and keeps on growing. Anyone who has really received the word in his heart is able to pass it on to others. He may not have the gift of preaching. But he loves the truth, he loves souls, and he loves the glory of the Saviour. The light lit in his heart is meant to shine on everyone around him. He too sows according to his strength, and is responsible to do so.
- Ground, not seed — the Sower was perfect and the seed good; the whole difference in the four cases lies in the soil.
- Ground prepared — God Himself makes the soil good, and once He has worked it, fruit must follow, because He never hides His work.
- Ground receiving — the good hearer hears, receives, and then puts the word into practice.
- Ground yielding — Satan and the world destroy the crop in the other soils. Here they only shrink it, so believers bear thirty, sixty, or a hundred.
- Ground multiplying — Mark's rising order points to a harvest that starts small and ends full. Every fruitful heart becomes a sower in turn.
And he said, He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
The parable of the sower ends with a challenge, not an explanation. Everyone on the shore had ears, so who is the Lord speaking to, and what does He mean by an ear that hears?
This appeal fits the moment the Lord describes: seed going out, with no guarantee of how people will take it. One writer links the two sayings and shows who they draw in.
The words "He who has ears to hear" match, in principle, "A sower went out to sow." They were spoken to Israelites. But they do not address them as a people in a set position. They look to God's gracious working in their own minds and souls. "He who has ears" — for a word was then being sown for people to receive. It was a solemn matter. Many would slight the word, choke it, or deceive themselves about it. But in principle it applied to whoever had ears, and it was for their profit too. Here any Gentile, or anyone whose ear God opened, came in. It stands as a solemn warning as the seed is sown: all is ruined; God is acting in grace, taking this trouble before judgment falls — "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
The Lord is not talking about hearing as a physical ability. He made this call again and again, and one commentator explains what it asks for.
In the days of His life here the Lord often cried, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." He means the person who has an inward ear — an ear the Holy Spirit has opened to listen to the message and take it in.
There is a reason the Lord adds the words at all. What He has just said does not give up its meaning to a casual listener.
Our Lord used this phrase more than once. Each time, the words that went with it carried a meaning that did not lie on the surface. To grasp it truly, a person needed faith and love in the heart, and the Spirit's anointing as well.
The closing words pick single people out of the crowd, and the Lord later sent the same call to churches in decline.
"Listen," He said. Then He pictured Himself as the Sower and added, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." It was a call to one person to break free from the careless crowd. The Lord made this appeal to His earthly people. He then repeated the same cry to each of the seven churches in Asia: "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (Revelation 2 and 3). When the churches decline as a whole, the Lord still calls each person to be faithful and to heed His word and His warning.
Even the good ground gives back different amounts — thirty, sixty, a hundred. So the call that follows leaves no listener comfortable.
On the other hand, some seed falls on good ground and yields fruit, some thirty, some sixty, and some a hundred. Even there the result is mixed. What is fatal to the unbeliever can badly damage the fruitfulness of the believer. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (verse 9). It is a serious matter for every soul — serious for the one who hears. And what about the one who has no ear to hear?
The Lord repeats this call later in the chapter. One writer finds a second, larger responsibility in the repeat.
In the first case, all Israel carried a general responsibility: to hear their Messiah for their own enlightenment. In the second case there is a further responsibility. Those who have heard in that first sense must hear in such a way that they can pass on to others, faithfully and fully, what they heard. This agrees with the last message of Revelation, sent to the church and to each person: "The Spirit and the Bride say, 'Come.' And let the one who hears say, 'Come'" (Revelation 22:17).
- Sown. The call comes as the seed goes out. Many would slight the word, choke it, or deceive themselves about it. God takes this trouble in grace before judgment falls.
- Opened. The ear in view is inward, and the Holy Spirit opens it. The meaning does not lie on the surface; it needs faith and love in the heart.
- Widened. Spoken to Israelites, it reached anyone whose ear God opened — Gentiles included.
- Singled out. It calls one person out of the careless crowd. The Lord sent the same cry to each of the seven churches, where faithfulness had to be personal.
- Passed on. Those who have heard for their own enlightenment carry more. They must hear so well that they can pass it on to others, faithfully and fully.
And when he was alone, those about him with the twelve asked him [as to] the parables.
The crowd by the sea has heard the parable of the sower, and now the teaching is over and Jesus is alone. A smaller group comes to Him with a question, and who they were and why asking mattered is what this verse turns on.
Jesus spoke the parable to everyone. Only a few asked what it meant, and that response showed where each hearer stood:
The Lord addressed the parable to the crowd while the disciples listened. It proved the state of each person — or, to use the language of the parable, the nature of the soil. All heard, but how few cared to know the meaning. The twelve did ask for the interpretation. Mark tells us, as the other Gospel writers do not, that some others with the twelve also wanted to understand what He had set out (4:10). The Lord opened up the parable at once.
Two groups stand out here: those who came near to ask, and everyone else. One writer marks where the line falls, and what grace it shows:
When He was alone the questions came, and He explained to the disciples — not only the twelve, but those around Him or with Him. Here comes the distinction. It marks out not only the apostles but the disciples: all the rest were now looked at as "those outside." But to know the mystery was the portion of "those around him with the twelve." To the rest it was all parables. This distinction, and where it comes from, is important. There are still "those around him" — what marvellous grace! And "those outside," sadly. We must not be surprised if everything is parables to them.
William Kelly points out what this dividing line meant for the nation as a whole:
He explains the mind of God, not to the twelve only, but to those who were about Him. They were those inside. All others were "outside." But those inside have the privilege of knowing the mystery of the kingdom. Grace works this way. It marks off those set apart to Christ from the guilty nation.
He turned away no one who came to ask. One writer sets this quiet teaching alongside older examples:
Here we find the disciples seeking instruction in the meaning of the parable of the sower and others. It is striking that others besides the twelve apostles wanted to be taught, and He refused none of them. This teaching may be regarded as private. He gave it in this way to these chosen witnesses, so that after His ascension it would spread throughout the world. Still, the general truth is important: God makes His ways known in the hush of the sanctuary rather than in the noise of the camp. God spoke of the coming destruction of Sodom and the cities near it — not to Lot in its busy streets, but to Abraham in the quiet of a hot noon at his own tent door. David in the wilderness with his sheep, not Eliab in the camp of Saul, learned the mind of God about Goliath.
The crowd could have asked the same question. What held them back was refusing to admit they had missed the point:
This does not mean that God hid these things from them because He wanted them not to be converted. In fact, if men would only recognise their ignorance and ask in earnest, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins. Those who chose to stay ignorant would remain that way.
Asking did not mean they had understood. The Lord answered them with both a rebuke and an explanation:
He rebukes the disciples, because they too could not understand the parable. Still, He explains it to them in His grace.
- Ask. The crowd and the disciples heard the same words. Only some came back to ask what they meant.
- Given. Grace opened the mystery of the kingdom to those who asked; rank had nothing to do with it.
- Wider. The circle was not the twelve only but "those around Him" as well, and He refused no one who wanted teaching.
- Alone. God makes His ways known in quiet — to Abraham at his tent and David with his sheep — not in the noise of the crowd.
- Taught. Those who asked still did not grasp the parable; He rebuked them, then explained it to them in His grace.
And he said to them, To you is given [to know] the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to them who are without, all things are done in parables,
After teaching the crowds, Jesus is alone with a small circle. He draws a line. He lets one group into the secret of God's kingdom. For the rest, everything comes wrapped in stories they will not open. So what is this secret, and why would the Lord leave anyone outside?
Older translations call this secret a "mystery." In the Bible a mystery is not a puzzle that clever people can crack.
These examples show what Scripture calls a "mystery." It may be a dream, a vision, a parable or a spoken prophecy. The key point is this: you cannot understand what God has said until God says something more that explains the first message. The Greek word for mystery first appears in Daniel chapter 2. There it is used again and again of King Nebuchadnezzar's forgotten dream and its meaning... So a mystery is a secret thing. It would stay secret if God did not reveal it. You must be let into it before you can know and understand it.
So what is the secret? It is about the kingdom itself — how it runs while its King is not on the scene.
In His ministry here below the Lord announced the mystery, or secret, of the kingdom of God (Mark 4:11). The King has been rejected on earth and is absent on high. So divine power does not now remove Satan and put down all the enemies. It works in the hearts of those who believe. Meanwhile a vast system of mere profession grows up and spreads to some extent here below.
The word "given" matters. No one in the room worked the secret out. The Lord handed it to them — and not to the twelve only.
He explains the mind of God, not to the twelve only, but to those who were around Him. They were the ones within. All the rest were "without." To them everything comes in parables — a rebelling people who now have no one even to correct them. But those within have the privilege of knowing the mystery of the kingdom. Grace worked in this way to mark off those set apart to Christ from the guilty nation. God was giving that nation up more and more to a darkness that was His judgment.
The setting is part of the lesson. Jesus explained the parable when He was alone, to people who bothered to ask.
It is interesting to see that others besides the twelve apostles wanted to be taught, and He refused none of them... The general truth is important: God makes His ways known in the quiet of the sanctuary, not in the noise of the camp.
The next words, about seeing and not perceiving, trouble many readers. Commentators differ. One takes them as a verdict on the nation as a whole, not a bar across any one person's path.
They are under the judgment of God. The Lord does not mean that an individual could not believe in Jesus and so be forgiven. He means that the nation had rejected the testimony of Jesus. God had now deserted that nation, left it outside, and exposed it to His judgment. He rebukes the disciples too, because they could not understand the parable. Yet in His grace He explains it to them.
Another writer points to the hearers' own unwillingness. God was not shutting the door.
This does not mean that these things were hidden from them because God wanted them not to be converted. In fact, if people would only admit their ignorance and ask in earnest, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins. Those who chose to stay ignorant would remain that way.
Nothing here suggests the insiders were smarter than the crowd. They wanted to know — that was the difference. And such a gift brings a duty with it.
There were those without — how many, sadly — who did not care to know (v. 11). There were some who wanted to understand, which showed they were within. To such it was "given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God." This was great favour. But it came with responsibility, for the light they received was to be shown to others. So they had to take heed what they heard.
- Secret. A "mystery" in Scripture is not a hard riddle but a sealed message — it stays shut until God Himself opens it.
- Given. No one earned this. Grace drew the line between those "within" and those "without."
- Kingdom. The secret is how the kingdom runs now. Its King is rejected and absent on high. His power works inside believers instead of crushing His enemies.
- Nearness. Those who stayed close and asked received it. God makes His ways known in quiet, not in the crowd.
- Responsibility. Light given is light to be shown. Great favour carries a duty: take heed what you hear.
that beholding they may behold and not see, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest it may be, they should be converted and they should be forgiven.
Here the Lord explains why He began teaching the crowds in stories they could not decode, echoing words Isaiah spoke long before. They sound harsh — as if the veiling itself kept people from forgiveness — so where did the blindness begin?
The switch to parables marks a turning point, not a change of style. One writer compares it to the pillar of cloud that once stood between Israel and Egypt. That pillar lit one side and darkened the other:
And now the Lord begins to speak in parables. This detail matters greatly at this moment, because this way of speaking was one kind of judgment on Israel. It was like the raising of the pillar between Israel and the Egyptians; only Israel was now put on the dark side of it... They each had their own secret, but Israel was not given to know it. The Lord had a people whom these parables would teach — teach them mysteries, the mysteries of the kingdom; but the same parables left Israel in darkness.
The verse splits the crowd in two. Those "outside" are not people who never heard. They had heard, and they had made their choice.
The Lord began to cast His teaching in a form that would reserve it for those who had ears to hear... This shows that a split was already becoming clear. You could tell those "within" from those "without." Those within could see and hear with perception and understanding, and so the "mystery" or "secret" of the kingdom of God became plain to them. The rest were blind and deaf, and the way of conversion and forgiveness was closing to them. If people will not hear, a time comes when they cannot. The people wanted a Messiah who would bring them worldly prosperity and glory. They had no use, as events proved, for a Messiah who brought them the kingdom of God in the mysterious form of conversion and forgiveness of sins.
So did God want to keep them from forgiveness? One writer answers that head-on:
They might hear and see the surface, yet they would not grasp what these things meant. This does not mean that these things were hidden from them because God desired them not to be converted. In fact, if men would only admit their ignorance and truly ask, they too would be converted and find forgiveness of sins. Those who chose to stay ignorant would remain that way.
Another writer shows what the parables hid, and why the darkness fell:
He set out this mystery of the kingdom in His teaching by parables. For the time being that hid from the crowd the meaning He later revealed to His apostles... So He added a solemn warning to the people. God's sentence of blindness would fall on the nation as a whole, just as Isaiah had prophesied. For the Light of the world was among them, yet they refused to see light in His light. So darkness would come among them and on them. Even as He was speaking, His parables veiled from their eyes the truth about what God had provided in view of their rebellion.
So who is under this judgment? One writer draws the line carefully:
They are under the judgment of God. The Lord does not mean that no single soul could believe in Jesus and be forgiven. He means that the nation had rejected the testimony of Jesus. God had now abandoned it, left it outside, and exposed it to His judgment. He rebukes the disciples for not understanding the parable, yet in His grace He explains it to them.
If more light would only deepen their guilt, holding it back is mercy, not cruelty:
He speaks to them indeed from this new place that He has taken; but He speaks in parables. The nation as such is given up to hardness of heart: there is no use in increasing their condemnation by more light. And yet the very act of speaking to them shows that not all are given up... if there are those with earnestness of heart to press inside the outward form, they will still find a gracious heart beating towards them. The national rejection leaves individual responsibility just where it always is. He who has an ear, as the Lord tells them, still may hear.
- Light refused. The Light of the world stood among them, and they would not see by it. The parables came after that refusal, not before.
- Light veiled. More light would only deepen their condemnation, so the Lord wrapped the truth in stories — restraint, not spite.
- A line drawn. Those "within" receive the secret of the kingdom; those "without" keep the shell of a story. Refuse to hear long enough, and a time comes when you cannot.
- A door left open. The sentence falls on the nation, not on every soul. Anyone who admits his ignorance and asks can still be converted and forgiven.
- A summons still standing. National blindness never cancels personal responsibility — whoever has an ear may still hear.
And he says to them, Do ye not know this parable? and how will ye be acquainted with all the parables?
The disciples asked the Lord what the parable of the sower meant. His reply is not an explanation but a question about their own ability to follow Him. That question sets the sower above every other parable He would tell: miss this one, and the rest stay closed.
The Lord's words weigh what the disciples had and what they lacked. One writer draws out why this parable was the test case.
The apostles came to the Lord to seek enlightenment about the meaning of the parable of the sower. He told them that He had entrusted the mysteries of the kingdom to them, though these stayed hidden from the unbelieving crowd. But it was one thing to hold these mysteries in the form of a parable, and another thing to know their true inner sense. Their question about the parable of the sower confessed their ignorance on that second point. Compared with the others, this parable was elementary and introductory. Suppose they could not grasp this first lesson about phases of the kingdom never revealed before. How much less could they understand further parables, more advanced and more complex?
This parable stands at the door because of what it handles. It says what a human heart produces on its own, and what must happen to it before anything grows for God.
The Lord's own words show how important this parable is: "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?" The truth it teaches is elementary. It lies at the doorway of all truth. In one sentence it is this: there can be no fruit for God apart from repentance and the Word of God. For the human heart is like a farmer's field, which grows nothing but weeds if left to itself. Someone must plough the soil and sow the seed.
Once you open the parable, the failure it describes is not the fault of the sower or of the seed.
If we interpret the parable strictly, we must all recognise that the Lord is the Sower. The seed is the word of God. So the Sower was perfect, the sowing was faultless, and the seed good. Yet, because of what the soil is like, three cases out of four bring no lasting result.
The question carries reproach. But that reproach assumes something high about the people He aims it at. Christ would not press for an understanding He had made impossible.
People once complained about the prophets that they "spoke parables." Still, disciples at least should understand them. "Do you not understand this parable?" the Lord once asked His twelve disciples. "How then will you understand all the parables?" It is our shame to be like those who see and do not perceive, and hear and do not understand. The Lord does not trifle with us. He does not invite us to see what He forbids us to understand.
In the same talk the Lord rebukes them for not understanding. He also says that understanding is a gift. The two do not clash.
The Lord's answer did not ignore the parable form. He insisted they should have been able to understand it. "Do you not understand this parable?" He asks. "How then will you understand all the parables?" Yet He adds, "To you it has been given to know." That does not deny their responsibility, since God does not withhold His gifts on a whim. It throws us on Himself for the ability… Grace does not free us from the conditions holiness demands. It makes us able to meet them.
The Lord explained this parable and expected the others to follow from it. So His explanations work as samples of method. They give readers a standard instead of guesswork.
Some argue that there is no fixed standard for interpretation. Several things show that this is not the case. First, our Lord Himself explains the parable of the sower in great detail. He explains the parable of the weeds in the same way. In Mark He makes clear that these are samples of how we should interpret all parables… He meant the parables He explains to guide us in interpreting the others.
- Threshold. The sower is the first and simplest parable. Its lesson lies at the door of all truth, so missing it locks the rest.
- Seed. Nothing grows for God apart from repentance and the Word. The Sower is perfect and the seed is good, yet three soils in four bear no lasting fruit.
- Rebuke. The Lord's question reproaches slowness. In doing so it shows He never invites us to see what He forbids us to understand.
- Gift. "To you it has been given to know" does not cancel responsibility. It throws us back on Him for the ability He expects us to have.
- Key. The explanations He does give are samples of method, handed over so we can read every other parable by them.
The sower sows the word
Mark 4:14 opens the Lord's own explanation of the parable He has just told. It names the two things everything else depends on: who sows, and what the seed is. The rest of the parable then turns on a third thing the verse does not name — the ground.
The one scattering the seed is the Lord Himself, and the seed is what He came to speak.
The Lord's word in verse 13 shows that this parable of the sower must be understood, or His other parables will not make sense to us. It holds the key that unlocks the whole series… The Lord Himself was the Sower, without a doubt, and the Word was the divine testimony that He spread. For this great salvation was first spoken by the Lord, and then confirmed to us by those who heard Him (Hebrews 2:3). In John's Gospel we discover that Jesus is the Word. Here He sows the word. Who could sow it like He who was it? But even when He sowed the word, not every grain produced fruit. Only one case out of the four bore a crop.
A farmer sows where nothing is growing. That the Lord takes up this role marks a change in how God deals with people.
The very fact that Christ came as the sower proved that Israel was set aside. If Israel were still His vineyard, He would have come seeking fruit from the vine He planted long before. He had already come to Israel, seeking fruit and finding none. He now comes in the new character of the sower, which is quite another thing. He comes into an empty world, where there was nothing, and He begins a fresh work… So the Lord now comes as sower. He is not looking for fruit. He is doing the thing that will produce it.
Kelly gives the reason this fresh work was needed.
This was His work now, scattering abroad the seed of the Word. There was nothing in man acceptable to God. It was a question of something new and divine, the fruit of the working of grace. There must be new life if there is to be fruit for God.
Three of the four sowings come to nothing, and it is natural to wonder whether the message itself was at fault.
The seed was pure; it was the word of God. Of its germinating power there could be no doubt, for that Word lives and remains (1 Peter 1:23). So the only thing that could stop a full crop, wherever it fell, was the condition of the ground. That means the heart of the person it came to. Men might think of blaming the Word for the apparent failure of the work. Against such thoughts the Lord would warn us… We do well to remember this. Then all who preach or teach will make sure it is the word of God they are using. They will count on it being enough, as the Holy Spirit applies it, to do a divine work in the hearts and consciences of people.
The sower does not aim at selected patches. He throws the seed wide.
The sowing is broadcast, with the result that the seed falls on various types of ground. Mark 4:14 declares that the sower sows the word. The word of God today is not withheld from anyone: it is available for all. The seed also is all good seed: if it does not produce, the fault is in the ground, not in the seed.
Three forces work against the seed once it is sown.
He Himself is the great Sower and His fellow servants sow after Him. That which is sown is the Word, even as He came to preach the Word. The devil, the flesh and the world are the hindering forces.
Commentators apply this beyond the Lord's own preaching.
The parable is first about the Lord's spoken ministry concerning the kingdom. But it applies more widely to every occasion when His Word is preached, whether in a gospel meeting or a meeting for the blessing of the Lord's people. The Lord was unique in His preaching, and His words were always perfect. Even so, a sower goes out to sow every time the Word of God is ministered.
So the parable holds up a mirror to the listener, not only to the preacher.
- Sower. The one sowing is Christ, and He sows the very word He Himself is — the sowing is faultless because the Sower is.
- Seed. The seed is the word of God, living and full of germinating power; no crop ever fails because the seed was weak.
- Sowing. The Sower throws it wide and withholds it from no one. It marks a new work: God is no longer seeking fruit from man but producing it Himself.
- Soil. Since Sower and seed are perfect, the whole difference lies in the heart that hears. The devil, the flesh and the world all work to stop it there.
- Servants. The sowing has not stopped. His servants sow after Him, so the question of the soil comes to us today.
and these are they by the wayside where the word is sown, and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
Jesus has just told a crowd about a sower whose seed lands on four kinds of ground. Now He explains the first kind, and names two reasons the word fails: a heart packed hard like a path, and an enemy who acts fast.
The "wayside" is not a field at all but the footpath running through it, packed hard by constant traffic. One writer draws the picture out from the human side:
The trodden pathway across the Galilean hillside is a fitting picture of great numbers of people, then and now. Everything in a man's life flows out of his heart. The heart is the road that all of it travels. Duty and enterprise, as well as pleasure and pain, all crowd in daily, one after another, along the highway of the heart. These earthly things come one after another without end. Each one demands attention, if not the whole mind. Together they wear the heart down into the ruts of a dull routine. When truth from above falls in such a street, it lies unnoticed.
These people do hear. But the word never gets past interest and opinion.
The first class, where nothing comes of the word at all, is the wayside hearers. This is the enemy's direct, destructive power, and it keeps the Word from entering. The word does not get below the surface. It goes no further than talk, theories, or admiration of the preacher.
Another writer names the part of a person the word never reaches.
The "wayside" hearers hear without the word reaching the conscience. It is like seed that falls on the hard road but does not sink beneath the surface. Satan can take away what is of only passing interest to the mind, and never touch the conscience.
The Lord says the word was sown in them. That phrase matters. Something arrived, and the hearer answers for what he did with it.
The first class represented here comes before us in the wayside hearer. In him we see the power of Satan at work. Yet it works in a way that leaves the man himself fully responsible. It is solemn to read even of such a person that the word was "sown in his heart." That does not imply conversion. He does not even "understand." But why? Because the ground it falls on, like the wayside, is trodden too hard for the seed to get in. So it lies out in the open before the birds of heaven, tempting the tempter, as it were, to catch it away.
Mark calls him Satan; the other accounts use other names, and one of them tells us what he is after.
The Pharisees had made the blasphemous charge that the Lord was in alliance with Satan (3:22-30). Here the Lord declared Satan to be the foremost enemy of the word of the kingdom. He catches away the word "immediately" — so energetic is his opposition. Luke presents him as the devil, the adversary of man, in contrast with the Saviour of men, and gives his aim in stealing the word: that they should not believe and be saved.
This verse is the first of three failures. A different power spoils each soil, and the devil comes first.
The Lord shows by the three classes that the power of the devil removes the seed — the birds. The power of the flesh keeps the seed from rooting — the rocks. The power of the world keeps the seed from bearing fruit — the thorns.
One writer turns the picture on the reader. What state is your own heart in?
If your heart is uncultivated, there is nothing there to receive the seed. No tenderness, no softness of soil — only ground trodden down by feet that pass over it every day. And not only that — the devil is at hand. Mark this. The very best piece of truth may fall on your heart. If it does not find a lodging there through God's grace, if it does not gain a place in the soul by His mighty power, that is the very truth the devil will take from you.
If hard ground is the problem, then something must break it before sowing can help.
It is very necessary these days to testify that the plough must come before the seed-basket. What makes the heart good? He who has gone out to plough the fallow ground and sow the seed.
- Path — Daily traffic of duty, business and pleasure beats the heart hard. The word lands on the surface and lies there unnoticed.
- Hearing — They listen, but the word never reaches the conscience. It stays at talk, theories, or admiration of the preacher.
- Sown — The word does enter the heart, yet no conversion follows. The hearer stays fully responsible for what he lost.
- Snatched — Satan moves "immediately." Luke gives his aim: that they should not believe and be saved. He is the first of three powers — devil, flesh, world — that spoil the harvest.
- Ploughed — The plough must come before the seed-basket; only broken ground keeps what is sown in it.
And these are they in like manner who are sown upon the rocky places, who when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy,
Mark 4:16 is the Lord's own explanation of the second soil in the parable of the sower. It is the seed that lands on rocky ground and shoots up at once. Can someone welcome God's message with real gladness and still stay unchanged?
Before looking at any single soil, it helps to see the frame the Lord sets.
In the strict interpretation of the parable we must all recognise that the Lord is the Sower, and the seed is the word of God. So the Sower was perfect, the sowing was faultless, and the seed good. Yet, because of the character of the soil, three cases out of four give no lasting result.
This hearer is not hostile. He looks like the best case, not the worst — and that is what makes him worth a close look.
In the next class of hearers, the stony ground illustrates the opposition of the flesh. And for this purpose it is pictured, not at its worst, but at its best. This is not the natural man's rejection of the Word. It is his reception of it. Yet there is no more real fruit than in the first case. The seed grows fast, because the rocky bed acts like a warm garden bed, so it springs up with plenty of promise. But the very thing that helps this ready growth prevents it lasting.
The wayside hearer could blame his circumstances, since traffic had beaten his path hard.
Here it was the nature of the ground itself. The prophet — or rather, God through him — speaks of a "heart of stone" (Ezekiel 36:26); and this, beyond question, is exactly what is pictured here. Yet there is earth as well, a shallow responsiveness that promises a great deal at the start. But there has been no deep conviction and no true repentance. The feelings are engaged, but not the conscience. Such a person may be warm and enthusiastic, and may learn the truth quickly, but he has not counted the cost.
The word "immediately" is the warning sign. So what should the word do first in a person?
The Lord explains that these hearers receive the word with gladness, but there is no work of God in their souls. It is not a good sign when someone receives the word with joy without any previous trouble of soul. If God is working with a soul, He deals with the conscience, awakening a sense of sins and guilt. So the first effect of the word is not joy but trouble. That leads to self-judgment and repentance towards God.
Joy itself is not the problem. The order is.
Scripture says of true converts that they "received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit" (1 Thessalonians 1:6). That affliction came before their gladness. It came because the word convicted them and woke them up to their sin. The stony ground hearer skips the affliction, because he is unaware of his real need. He lands himself in only a surface gladness, which fades under testing — and he fades with it.
Some avoid pressing repentance for fear of clouding the freeness of grace. One writer treats that shortcut as its own danger.
Suppose someone takes the joy of Christianity, but has never judged his life and state as God sees it. That is really to slight and ignore Him altogether, and to make much of self. Speed in receiving the blessing is anything but the sign of a divine work. So repentance is all-important. Many have lost sight of it, out of a desire to guard the freeness of grace... But this remedy is at least as dangerous as the disease it was meant to cure.
This verse also shapes how we judge other people's responses, even the ones that move us.
I may see tears. I may hear groans and cries. I may even see a fairly long profession of accepting Christ, and think that a person is born again. But my thoughts are — let me repeat — not Scripture... We may be deceived into counting these promising "cases of blessing." Then we discover with bitterness the "afterward" of Mark 4:16-17, and that they had no root in themselves... The reality of new birth is proved by whether it lasts... Appearances may fool us; they never fool God.
- Sower — The Lord sows, and the seed is the word of God. The sowing is faultless, so any failure lies in the ground, not in the message.
- Rock — Under a thin layer of soil lies a heart of stone. The same shallowness that makes growth fast makes it short.
- Immediately — Quick gladness with no earlier trouble of soul is not a good sign. Where God works, He reaches the conscience first.
- Order — Real converts receive the word in affliction, and then with joy. This hearer skips the affliction and keeps only a surface gladness.
- Afterward — Tears and professions may convince us, but they prove nothing. Appearances fool us; they never fool God.
and they have no root in themselves, but are for a time then, tribulation arising, or persecution on account of the word, immediately they are offended.
The parable of the sower gives four kinds of hearers. The second looks the most promising, because this hearer takes the word at once, with joy. Verse 17 explains why that welcome collapses. There is no root, so the first pressure that comes because of the word ends the whole thing.
The picture is not a field littered with stones. The ground itself shows what kind of hearer this is.
If what we have already looked at is indifference, this is shallowness. In the first hearer you get carelessness, recklessness and a lack of feeling. Here you get no root, no depth, shallowness and emptiness. That is what the stony ground hearer is. What the Lord means here by stony ground is not soil with stones scattered about in it, as you have often seen as you pass through the country. It is a hard surface or bed of rock, with only a thin coating of earth over it.
The problem is not the joy itself. The problem is where that joy stopped.
Here we have the flesh, or nature, doing its best and proving how weak it is. The work went no deeper than the feelings. It never reached the conscience and convicted it before God. To take the joy of Christianity without ever judging your life and state as God sees it is to slight Him and ignore Him altogether, and to make much of self. Being quick to receive the blessing is anything but the sign of a work of God. So repentance is all-important. It has been too much forgotten, because people wanted to guard the freeness of grace and free the gospel from legal burdens.
If instant joy is the wrong sign, what is the right one? God works in a set order.
It is not a good sign when a soul receives the word with joy, having never been troubled about itself before. If God is working with a soul, He deals with the conscience and wakes up a sense of sins and guilt. So the first effect of the word is not joy but trouble. This leads to self-judgment and repentance towards God. After self-judgment the darkness passes and the light of God enters the dark heart. The light stirs the soul, and when it has done its work, the love of God meets that soul and gives it confidence.
The verse gives this hearer a time limit. That limit is the diagnosis.
The seed grows fast, because the bed of rock acts like a natural hot-bed under it, so it springs up quickly with plenty of promise. But the very thing that makes it grow so readily is what stops it lasting. The seed cannot root itself in the rock, and the sun withers it up. So there is no root in the man himself. Christ is not his real and great necessity. So when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, he falls away at once. This is the religion of the flesh, of sentiment, of unreality, and this is where it ends. It lacks the sign and seal of a work that is truly divine — permanence. It "endures for a while." "I perceived that whatever God does endures forever."
Nothing exposes this hearer while life stays comfortable. The trouble comes because of the word.
All is well with those who receive the word with joy but have no root, as long as they live at ease in the world. Their fruit looks as fair and promising as any fruit in the church. But then loss in the world and persecution come, because they profess Christ. When trials, afflictions and the cross meet them on their path, they fall away. These are the scorching sun that withers the seed and all its fruit.
The same heat does two opposite things, depending on what it falls upon.
Trial comes in many forms. It either proves that faith is real and strengthens the faith that is there. Or it exposes the hollowness of mere profession, as with the stony-ground hearer.
The failure lies underground, so we cannot judge who has really believed.
I may see tears, I may hear groans and cries. I may even see someone profess to accept Christ for a long time, and think that he is born again. But my thoughts are not Scripture. We may count these promising cases as "cases of blessing." Then we find out, with bitterness, the "afterward" of Mark 4:16-17: they had no root in themselves. Continuing is what proves that new birth is real. Appearances may deceive us, but they never deceive God.
- Rock. The soil is a hard shelf of rock under a thin skin of earth — the hearer's trouble is depth, not the seed.
- Root. The word reached the feelings but never the conscience. There was joy, but no judgment of self before God.
- Order. Where God works, the word first brings trouble, then self-judgment. Only then come the light and love that give confidence.
- Sun. All looks fine while life is easy. Loss and persecution for the word are the heat that scorches.
- Time. "Endures for a while" is the verdict. What lasts is the seal of God's work. Trial either strengthens real faith or exposes an empty profession.
And others are they who are sown among the thorns these are they who have heard the word,
The Lord is explaining His own parable, and here He names the third hearer: the one sown among thorns. This person hears the word, yet no fruit follows — so what was already growing in that ground before the seed arrived?
Everything in the parable is perfect except the soil. Whatever fails here cannot be traced to the seed or to the one scattering it.
If we take the parable strictly, we must all recognise that the Lord is the Sower, and the seed is the word of God. So the Sower was perfect, the sowing was faultless, and the seed was good. Yet because of what the soil is like, three cases out of four give no lasting result.
The Lord is not describing people who never heard the message. These people did hear, and that gives them the look of real converts.
In each case the Lord is speaking of those who have heard the word, not of those who have never heard the gospel. Hearing the word points to some claim of faith. That claim gives hope of a real conversion, until something proves otherwise.
In this case the word did more than land on the ground. Something began to grow.
The seed was good and alive, for it sprouted; but the thorns choked its growth.
Thorns do not arrive with the seed. They were rooted in that ground beforehand, and the sowing brought them into the open.
Before the good seed fell into the hearts of the thorny ground hearers, roots of thorns already filled the ground. Those roots are the desires for the things of this life, for riches and pleasures. They sprang up and choked the word. The roots were already in the heart, but they did not spring up until the good seed was sown there. Present things can grip the heart hard, and no one may see or feel that grip until the word of God tests it.
A thorn works on the plant in two ways at once. And the original word for "cares" is a strong one.
The thorns act in two ways. They shut the light out, and as they grow they take a terrible grip on the plant and choke it. So the plant has neither light nor fruit... The original word for "cares" is very strong — the strongest word there is. It means corroding, perplexing, withering care; care that would, so to speak, cut a man in two!
Poverty and wealth each supply their own thorn, so the warning reaches everyone who hears.
The evil works in various forms, but at heart it is worldly lust and real selfishness — distrust of God and indifference to His interests. So the heart is either overwhelmed with anxiety or busy chasing present things. Even the look of devotion is lost, and the soul goes back, sometimes eagerly, to the world it had seemed to leave... But you who are poor, watch against cares that creep in; you who are rich, do not be enticed by the deceitfulness of riches; both of you, see that you judge "the lusts of other things!"
Does this only describe a claim of faith that fades, or does it also touch true believers? One writer applies it to both.
The parable is mainly about the heart first receiving God's Word, and about the things that hinder this. But whatever hinders that first receiving will also hinder the fruitfulness of those who have truly received the Word.
Either way, the list of thorns is not limited to obvious vices.
"Other" here stands over against everything the word bears witness to. It means everything except the word, all that is not the word — to put it plainly, all that is not Christ... Whatever it is, if the natural heart loves it, wants it, takes pleasure in it, it is a lust that chokes the seed.
- Perfect sowing. The Sower is faultless and the seed is the word of God. When there is no fruit, look at the soil.
- Real hearing. This hearer does hear, and the seed even sprouts. What happens next shows what the heart was already full of.
- Occupied ground. Thorn roots were in the heart already. Sowing did not plant them, it exposed them.
- Double grip. Thorns shut out the light and strangle the plant. The word for "cares" means care that could cut a man in two.
- Everyone's warning. Anxiety crushes the poor; wealth deceives the rich. "Other things" means anything the natural heart loves that is not Christ.
and the cares of life, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, entering in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
The thorns in this parable are not left to guesswork — the Lord names them. Three forces get in among the seed, and the result is a life that heard the word and still produced nothing.
A thorn harms a plant in two ways at once. And the first thorn named here carries a far stronger word than English shows.
The thorns work in two ways. They shut out the light, and the growing thorn takes a terrible grip on the plant and chokes it. It has neither light nor fruit... The original word for "cares" is very strong — the strongest word that can be used. It means corroding, perplexing, withering care, care that, so to speak, would cut a man in two!
The first two thorns catch different people. One grows in poverty, the other in wealth — and the third grows anywhere.
The "cares" point especially to the poor man's struggle over how to live at all, how to keep food on the table. This is the fight for a daily living, the cares of this life. If faith does not meet them, they stop the spiritual word from thriving in the heart. The wealthy are wide open to the "deceitfulness of riches," above all when the love of money goes together with having it (1 Tim. 6:9-10). The "lusts of other things" cover every ambitious chase after passing goals, however innocent those goals may be in themselves. People in every condition are open to this, and it can fill the heart until what is divine is crowded out.
Mark's list is the fullest of the three Gospel accounts, and the third item is the widest. It is deliberately vague, and that vagueness is the point — "other" is measured against one standard.
Notice, dear friends, that the lusts of other things destroy it just as surely as the cares of this world do. What are these other things? "Other" is set here against everything the word testifies about. It means everything except the word, all that is not the word — to be plainer, all that is not Christ... No matter what it is, if the natural heart loves it, desires it, finds pleasure in it, it is a lust that chokes the seed.
Mark alone says where the trouble happens. The thorns enter in and do their damage inside a person, in the one place the word was meant to fill.
Mark records the fullest description of these worldly forces. Luke sums them up as the "cares and riches and pleasures of this life." Matthew mentions only two of the three, and he expands them — "the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches." Mark's list is fuller still. He also adds that these things do their damage by entering into the heart, where the word of God should be hidden (Ps. 119:11).
Nothing here openly fights the word. The eye and the heart are simply divided, and the thorns outgrow the wheat.
These hearers have no singleness of eye and heart. A busy world with its constant demands takes over their attention. So do the worries of everyday life, and the excitements of a restless, reckless age. Such divided efforts to serve both God and money always end the same way: flourishing thorns and withered wheat.
This soil looks devoted for a time. The warning that follows is aimed at the reader, rich or poor.
The evil works in various forms, but at heart it is worldly lust and real selfishness. It distrusts God and is indifferent to His interests. So the heart gets either overwhelmed with anxiety or busy chasing present things. Even the appearance of devotedness is lost. The soul goes back to the world it had seemed to leave, sometimes with intense eagerness... But you who are poor, watch against creeping cares. You who are rich, do not let the deceitfulness of riches entice you. Both of you, see that you judge "the lusts of other things!"
- Entering — the thorns work by getting into the heart, the very place the word was meant to fill.
- Corroding — "cares" is the strongest word there is: withering worry that cuts a man in two.
- Deceiving — riches promise and lie. Anxiety crushes the poor; plenty fools the rich.
- Crowding — "other things" means anything that is not Christ, however innocent it looks.
- Choking — the end is not open rejection. It is withered wheat: a hearer who kept everything but fruit.
And these are they who have been sown on the good ground, such as hear the word and receive it, and bear fruit; one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred [fold].
Mark 4:20 is the Lord's own explanation of the fourth soil — the only one of the four in which the seed comes to anything. It answers two questions the parable leaves hanging. What makes ground "good"? And why does the same seed yield such different amounts?
The religious leaders had rejected the Lord. This parable shows what His ministry was really doing. He was not inspecting Israel for a crop already there.
Up to this moment, in His ministry of grace, it might appear that He was seeking fruit from Israel. The parable of the Sower now makes it clear that He was doing a work to produce fruit. His ministry was indeed a test for Israel, proving that there is no fruit for God from fallen man as such. If there is to be any fruit, it can only be through God's own work in the souls of men, pictured by the sowing of the seed.
That raises an objection. If every heart is bad, how can God call any heart good ground?
Why are the hearts of some compared to good ground, when Scripture says the heart is "deceitful above all things, and desperately sick"? Not because there is anything naturally good in them. This passage gives only the facts, not the cause behind them. It is simply the fact of the preaching of the word, and the reception of it.
Soil does not become fertile on its own. A farmer breaks it up first.
The good ground hearers are those who not only hear the word but receive it and bring forth fruit. The ground has come under the action of the plough and the harrow. So it has been prepared.
What does that ploughing look like in a person?
Good ground is ground prepared by ploughing up the soil to receive the seed into itself. Without this preparation of repentance there can be no receiving the word of God into the heart in a way that produces fruit.
Three verbs carry the whole verse, and each one is a step further than the last.
What marked those on the good ground was loyalty to the truth. Notice the three things said here: they heard, they received, and they brought forth. These are three very important realities. They heard; many a person hears. Do you receive? They received, and then they brought forth fruit — that is, they practised it.
The middle verb is the one Mark presses. He uses a different Greek word here than for the rocky-ground hearers earlier in the chapter.
In Mark, the word is received into the heart — that is, it is taken to oneself, welcomed and cherished. The truth is received not in a formal sense as in verse 16, where a different Greek word is used, but in the love of it.
Genuine believers do not all bear the same amount.
On the other hand, there is seed that falls on good ground and yields fruit, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred. Even there the result is uneven. What is fatal to the unbeliever can do grave harm to the fruitfulness of the faithful.
The same forces that ruined the first three soils still work in the fourth. Here they cut the harvest down instead of killing it. Even so, the lowest figure is a real harvest.
This group alone describes true believers. All of them bear fruit, though in three different measures. Thirty-fold is not large, but it is fruit; sixty-fold is more fruit; and one hundred-fold is much fruit.
The numbers are not decoration. One grain does not stop at one plant.
The word is the seed of one grain. One soul, made alive by the power of the word working inside it, becomes the living source of an effect multiplied many times over. That effect is not only righteousness, but testimony, and souls brought to righteousness. Those souls become the vessels and keepers of grace and truth through that testimony, and they hold out the word of life themselves.
- Prepared. No soil is good by nature. Good ground is ground God has broken up, so fruit traces back to His work, not to anything already in the person.
- Received. Mark's verb means more than hearing. The heart welcomes the word and loves it, unlike the rocky ground's shallow, formal reception.
- Practised. Hearing is not enough. Those on good ground receive the word and then put it into practice.
- Multiplied. One soul made alive spreads far beyond itself: righteousness, testimony, and other souls brought in.
- Measured. Thirty, sixty, a hundred. Every real believer bears fruit, but what kills the crop in other soils can still shrink it here.