Farmer sows seeds

Luke 8:4-15. Jesus used a parable of a farmer sowing his fields to illustrate a point. The word of God and how people react to it.

The 10th Parable in Luke.

In Luke 8:11-15 He gives the explanation of this parable.

This parable was told while He was in Galilee. Jesus seems to have told the same parable more than once.

Background Reading:

The Parable about a Farmer

8:4 Now while a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from every city, he said in a parable: 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some seeds fell along the path, were trampled on, and birds from the sky ate them up. 6 Others fell on stony ground, and as soon as they came up, they dried up because they had no moisture. 7 Others fell among thorn bushes, and the thorn bushes grew with them and choked them. 8 But others fell on good soil, and when they came up, they produced 100 times as much as was planted.” As he said this, he called out, “Let the person who has ears to hear, listen!”

The Purpose of the Parables

9 Then his disciples began to ask him what this parable meant. 10 So he said, “You have been given knowledge about the secrets of the kingdom of God. But to others they are given in parables, so that

‘they might look but not see,

and they might listen but not understand.’”

Jesus Explains the Parable about the Farmer

11 “Now this is what the parable means. The seed is God’s word. 12 The ones on the path are the people who listen, but then the devil comes and takes the word away from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 The ones on the stony ground are the people who joyfully welcome the word when they hear it. But since they don’t have any roots, they believe for a while, but in a time of testing they fall away. 14 The ones that fell among the thorn bushes are the people who listen, but as they go on their way they are choked by the worries, wealth, and pleasures of life, and their fruit doesn’t mature. 15 But the ones on the good soil are the people who hear the word but also hold on to it with good and honest hearts, producing a crop through endurance.”
Luke 8:4-15
Also see: Matthew 13:1-23 and Mark 4:1-20.


Other modules in this unit: