On another occasion he began to teach by the sea. A very large crowd gathered around him so that he got into a boat on the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was beside the sea on land. 2 And he taught them at length in parables, and in the course of his instruction he said to them, 3 “Hear this! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched and it withered for lack of roots. 7 Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it produced no grain. 8 And some seed fell on rich soil and produced fruit. It came up and grew and yielded thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.” 9 He added, “Whoever has ears to hear ought to hear.”
10 And when he was alone, those present along with the Twelve questioned him about the parables. 11 He answered them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables, 12 so that ‘they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.’”
13 Jesus said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear, Satan comes at once and takes away the word sown in them. 16 And these are the ones sown on rocky ground who, when they hear the word, receive it at once with joy. 17 But they have no root; they last only for a time. Then when tribulation or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 18 Those sown among thorns are another sort. They are the people who hear the word, 19 but worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things intrude and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. 20 But those sown on rich soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.”
Jesus teaches beside the Sea of Galilee, but the crowd is so large that he sits in a boat while the people remain on the shore. With open water behind him and the shoreline in front of him, Jesus could be heard more easily by a large crowd. Mark is showing both the reach of Jesus’ teaching and the growing need to manage the situation. The scene also fits Mark’s pattern: Jesus teaches the crowds in public settings like the shoreline, while fuller explanation is given later to those who stay close to him.
Jesus teaches “at length” in parables. A parable is not a children’s story. It is a pointed comparison that presses the listener to judge what is being said and to respond. In this first major block of teaching in Mark, Jesus uses a farming image that everyone in that world would understand: sowing seed. The details are simple and concrete, but the meaning is not automatic. Jesus begins with a command: “Hear this!” That is a signal that the main issue is not agriculture. The main issue is whether the listener will truly receive what God is saying and doing through Jesus.
The seed falls in four places. On the path it is immediately taken. On rocky ground it springs up quickly but cannot endure heat because it has no root. Among thorns it is crowded out before it can yield grain. Only in rich soil does it produce fruit, and it does so in abundant yield. The harvest numbers are not the point as statistics. They are the point as assurance: when the word is truly received, it really does bear fruit, even if the yield differs from person to person.
This parable stands in continuity with the Old Testament way of speaking about God’s word as effective, like rain that does not return without accomplishing its purpose. The prophets often proclaimed God’s word to people who resisted it, and yet the word remained God’s instrument for judgment, mercy, and eventual restoration. Mark is placing Jesus in that prophetic line, but with something greater: Jesus is not merely delivering a message. In Mark, the “mystery of the kingdom” is bound up with Jesus himself—his person, his mission, and where that mission is heading.
After the public teaching, those with Jesus ask about the parables. Jesus then speaks of an inner circle to whom “the mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted,” while “those outside” receive “everything” in parables. Mark is describing two responses: some draw near to Jesus, stay with him, and ask for understanding, while others remain at a distance. The difference is not that God refuses the willing, but that many refuse to receive what God is giving; the parables instruct, but they also reveal that refusal.
That is why the quotation from Isaiah about seeing without perceiving and hearing without understanding is so sobering. In Isaiah’s own mission, persistent refusal led to a hardening of heart. Mark presents a similar pattern around Jesus. The language can sound, in English, as if God is actively preventing repentance. The better sense is that the result of hardened refusal is deeper blindness: people resist what God is doing, and their resistance carries consequences. The parables have a double edge. They teach those who are willing to receive the word, and they also reveal the resistance of those who refuse it. In that way, they function like light: they help the willing to see, and they expose the unwilling as unwilling.
Mark also creates a deliberate tension for the reader. Up to a point, the reader is treated as an “insider,” because the reader is given the parable and then allowed to hear Jesus’ explanation. But Mark does not let the reader settle into comfort. He places the reader under the same demand placed on the crowd: will you merely hear words, or will you “hear” in the deeper sense—receive, accept, and live by the word? In Mark, that fuller understanding comes through remaining with Jesus and sharing the life of the community gathered around him, the community he has just defined as his true family.
Jesus then explains the parable. The seed is “the word.” The different soils are different ways of receiving it. The path describes the person who is closed off; the word never really penetrates, and it is quickly taken away. Jesus names the personal spiritual opponent behind this: Satan. The rocky ground describes the person who receives with immediate joy but without depth; when hardship comes “because of the word,” the person falls away. Mark is being realistic: the word is not only for comfort; it also calls for decision and endurance. In a world that resists God, it will also bring tribulation and persecution. The thorns describe a different threat: not open hostility, but slow suffocation—worldly anxiety, the lure of riches, and the craving for other things. Nothing here requires dramatic wickedness. A life can be so filled, so cluttered, so preoccupied, that the word is crowded out.
The rich soil describes the person who hears the word, accepts it, and bears fruit. Mark is careful: fruitfulness is not identical in every case, but it is real. The kingdom does not arrive as a triumphant conquest that sweeps away all resistance in a moment. It works in a hidden and unexpected way, like seed that must go into the ground if it is to yield a harvest. In the wider Gospel, that pattern points toward the cross, because the true shape of the kingdom will be revealed not by spectacle but by the mission of Jesus reaching its appointed end. For that reason, this first parable is foundational. It teaches what kind of hearing is required if Jesus’ teaching is to enlighten rather than remain puzzling. And it quietly explains why responses to Jesus are so mixed: the problem is not that the word is weak, but that hearts differ in receptivity.
Lord Jesus, give me a listening heart. Let your word take root in me, remain in me, and bear the fruit you desire. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The Holy Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition (2011).
- Curtis Mitch and Edward Sri, Catholic Commentary on Sacred Scripture: Mark (Ignatius Press), pp. 72-73.
- Raymond E. Brown et al., eds., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (1990), pp. 605-606 (paras. 25-28).
- Faculty of the University of Navarre, The Navarre Bible: St. Mark, pp. 175-176.
- José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (2018), pp. 986-988.
- John J. Collins et al., eds., The Jerome Biblical Commentary for the Twenty-First Century (3rd rev. ed.), pp. 1250-1251.
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