Luke 8:4

‘And when a great crowd came together, and those of every city resorted to him, he spoke by a parable.'

The crowds still flocked to Him from towns all around, and He was now teaching in parables so as to stir the people into thought. He had probably already discovered that many of His hearers were becoming ‘word-hardened', and stolidly listened to His words without taking them in and acting on them. So now He had decided to teach in stories, leaving them to think about, and ask about, their significance. The first example is that of the sower which reveals the way by which the Kingly Rule of God is growing.

As we consider the parable we need to consider the background situation. Different farmers would have strips of land in the same field, and much of the land would be hard and stony, and some merely a thin layer of soil over hard rock underneath. The poorer farmers would do what they could with their wooden ploughs, pushed or pulled by hand, but only parts of their land would be dug up suitable for sowing. There would be the rocky parts which the plough would not touch, and weed ridden parts where the weeds had been cut back but were still in the soil, or parts so overgrown that getting rid of the weeds would be too difficult, and there would necessarily be pathways between the furrows for other farmers to reach their strips. So as the sower went forward, taking handfuls from his satchel of seed and dispersing it over the ground, however great his effort and careful his aim, it would fall on all kinds of ground. He was not even sure in all cases what would be the good ground.