This coming Sunday is the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time. “A sower went out to sow.” As France [2007, 504] notes, in a primarily agrarian society the choice of agricultural imagery for parables needs no special explanation; three of the parables in this chapter are set on the farm. It is estimated that 90% of Israelites worked in some aspect of agriculture. There was also already a tradition in the prophetic books of using agricultural imagery, primarily in judgment narratives (e.g., Is 32, 35 and 44; Jer 31 and 51; Joel 3; and Amos 8).

“And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path,and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky ground, where it had little soil. It sprang up at once because the soil was not deep, and when the sun rose it was scorched, and it withered for lack of roots. Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.” (Mt 13:4-9)

The seed falling on the beaten earth beside the path, where it could not penetrate, may be the few grains which inevitably go beyond the intended range in broadcast sowing, though it is also possible that the technique envisaged is of sowing before plowing in which case the birds got to the seed before the path could be plowed up and the grain buried. This seed is totally wasted.

The second scenario would be familiar to those who farmed the rocky land of Galilee, where the bedrock is often close to the surface. While there is promising initial growth, the point of the parable focuses on the inability of the growing plants to sustain themselves when the heat is on and the shallow soil is quickly parched.

In the third scenario the danger comes not from the inadequate resources in the soil, but from competition. The luxuriant growth of the thorns shows that there is nothing wrong with the soil here; the problem is that it is already occupied and there is no room for a new type of vegetation. The plants do not necessarily die, but they cannot produce grain because of the competition for light and nourishment. There has thus been a progression in the first three scenes: the first seed never started; the second started well but did not survive; the third may even have survived, but produced nothing. But none of them are of any use to the farmer.

In contrast to the first three scenarios, the seed that lands in rich soil produces a bountiful harvest.

What is Jesus implying with his parable? Maybe a better question is what did the people hear?

Image credit: “The Sower” Vincent van Gogh (June 1888), Van Gogh Museum, Public Domain