Mark 4:26

καὶ ἔλεγεν, and He said, to whom? The disciples in private, or the crowd from the boat? The absence of αὐτοῖς after ἔλεγεν (cf. Mark 4:21; Mark 4:24) is not conclusive against the former, as Weiss and Meyer think. On the latter view Mark 4:21-25 are a parenthesis. In any case this new parable refers to the disciples as representing the fertile soil, and is a pendant to the parable of the Sower, teaching that even in the case of the fourth type of hearers the production of fruit is a gradual process demanding time. Put negatively it amounts to saying that Christ's ministry has as yet produced no fruit properly speaking at all, but only in some cases met with a soil that gives promise of fruit (the disciples). The parable reveals at once the discrimination and the patience of Jesus. He knew the difference between the blade that would wither and that which would issue in ripe grain, and He did not expect this result in any case per saltum. A parable teaching this lesson was very seasonable after that of the Sower.