Mk 4:26-34
26[Jesus] said, “This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land 27and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. 28Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come.”
30He said, “To what shall we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable can we use for it? 31It is like a mustard seed that, when it is sown in the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. 32But once it is sown, it springs up and becomes the largest of plants and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the sky can dwell in its shade.” 33With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to understand it. 34Without parables he did not speak to them, but to his own disciples he explained everything in private.
SOWER, SEED: Jesus’ original audience was mostly fisher folks and peasant farmers of Galilee so the parables today would be familiar to them.
The first part of the parable draws attention to the sower and to the seed. The sower is profligate in his sowing. So much of the seed goes to waste. If the sower is seen as a tenant farmer, then he gains sympathy from the audience who would know too well that the amount of seed and the efforts expended are not always rewarded with a fruitful harvest because of the difficult conditions in farming. If the sower represents God, then the parable teaches that God knowingly scatters the seed on all types of soil, regardless of the person’s potential in accepting. The seed is offered to all. If the sower is Jesus, then the parable underlines the same point: like God, Jesus preaches the word to all and indiscriminately offers God’s love to everyone.
When the parable focuses on the seed, it assures the audience that God’s word does accomplish its purpose, even if much of it falls on deaf ears or on people unable to understand. The seed has an innate power; it grows and matures “of its own accord” (from the Greek automate, having an inner dynamism and power). The parable may well be recasting Isaiah’s picture of the dynamism of God’s word: “For just as from the heavens the rain and snow come down and do not return there till they have watered the earth, making it fertile and fruitful, giving seed to him who sows and bread to him who eats, so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to me void, but shall do my will, achieving the end for which I sent it” (Is 55:10-11).