Matthew 13:8

“And others fell on the good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

But some of the seed would fall on the ground which yielded to the plough, some parts better than others, and the result was that it would grow and yield fruit with various measures of success. But even the good seed was graded because of the quality of the ground. Nevertheless in this case it developed splendidly.

The fruitfulness of the seed should be noted. The power of the seed is being accentuated. Thirtyfold indicates completeness (three times ten), sixtyfold indicates intensified completeness (three times two times ten), and a hundredfold even greater completeness (ten times ten). The fruitfulness of the good seed in the Kingly Rule of Heaven will be abundant and satisfying.

It is unwise to try to analyse too closely the details of the parable. The aim was not accuracy of detail but the getting over of the point. Jesus was not aiming to give an accurate lesson on farming techniques. In fact He was a carpenter talking to some who were experienced farmers, and they would instantly recognise the distortions and learn from them. (The very distortions in fact demonstrate that to Jesus the details were intended to be important). But the story was intended to convey the facts of His ministry, (and in a sense of all ministry), and if to us too much of the seed appears to be wasted we must recognise that that is precisely what did happen to Jesus' teaching, and therefore was necessary as a point in the story, and provided a stern warning to the listeners. As we have learned previously the majority did not hear. But it was all made up for by those who did hear. In them the power of the word brought forth fruit abundantly, ‘thirtyfold, sixtyfold and a hundredfold'.

Furthermore the people would recognise that the seed had resulted in fourfold results; snatched up by birds, withering in the sun, choking among the thistles, and some wonderfully fruitful, and many would ponder over what these pictures indicated as they went along. They had not read the books that said that they had to wait for the end of the parable, and they had a number of Old Testament parables to go by (e.g. Isaiah 5:1, depicting poor results; Matthew 27:1, depicting good results) which would, if they thought about it, make them think about both aspects of what was happening, the bad and the good. Furthermore the birds ominously swooping and snatching the seed would take their thought to Old Testament references which referred to birds acting as harbingers of evil (Genesis 40:17; Genesis 40:19; Jeremiah 12:9; Ezekiel 39:4), and to Jewish teaching where birds sometimes even indicated demons and Satan (compare Revelation 18:2), and thorns and thistles would inevitably take their minds back to Genesis 3:18; Proverbs 24:30; Isaiah 5:6; Isaiah 27:4; Jeremiah 4:3; Jeremiah 12:13. There would thus no doubt be many fervent discussions among them as to what it all meant, and we really cannot doubt that Jesus intended it to be so.

But hopefully the main point would finally come through to all, that what was sown was intended to produce fruitfulness, a message that they had already heard from John the Baptist (Matthew 3:8; Matthew 3:10; Matthew 3:12).