The sower in the parable is Jesus. Many folks believe the sower may be anyone who preaches the Gospel, planting the seed of the word of God in the hearts of those who listen to him (Mark 4:3, 14-15). However, while this may be true in a works context, which Jesus tells his disciples to do, in the parable the sower is Jesus. I’ve heard it said, but I forget by whom, that logic demands that the sower would cast most of his seed on good soil. Only a small amount of seed would fall by the wayside or among thorns or rocks, but this misses the point of the parable. One shouldn’t try to press modern farming into the Lord’s first century AD parable. The idea of maximizing the output of a cash crop doesn’t enter the story of the parable. Rather, the parable tells us what happens to the word of God, once it’s deposited into the hearts of men. The different types of soil point to different types of human hearts (Mark 4:4-8, 15).
The wayside is a beaten down path, which is used by the sower, as he works his fields, and by folks who travel through the seeded fields on their way from one place to another. The seeds that fall there never produce anything, because the birds will come and eat up whatever the sower deposits. So, it is with the heart of the one who allows others to do his spiritual labor for him. Nothing ever reaches his heart. He believes whatever is told him, thinking his teachers (religious or otherwise) must know what they’re talking about (Mark 4:4, 15).
The birds in the parable are compared to satan or the enemy of the Gospel (Mark 4:15). Luke refers to the birds as the devil or the slanderer of the Gospel, while Matthew simply says the birds or those who take the seed away from the hearts of the listener, represent the wicked one. In other words, wicked people, religious or otherwise, are the enemies of the Gospel. They will slander God, his word or the folks who preach it. In this way, the word deposited by the sower is removed from the hearts of folks, who are mentioned in the parable as the wayside or the beaten down path where nothing (spiritual) grows.
The stony ground is a different type of heart (Mark 4:5, 16-17). These folks immediately receive the word of God with joy, but they refuse to endure adversity that comes with believing the word of God. So, when trouble comes, when they’re criticized or made to look foolish or when outright persecution comes their way, they simply give up, which means no fruit is born out in their lives for the Lord’s sake.
As for the seed that is sown among thorns (Mark 4:7, 18-19), these folks are really involved in the world and what it offers. They have little or no time for the Lord or his word. They listen to the Gospel and may even claim to be Christian, but the distractions of everyday life, (attraction to the things of this world, making a living, or being deeply involved in groups that concern themselves with this world) keep them from spending their time (their lives) drawing near to the Lord. While, they may have valid concerns about life, they address those concerns through the motif of the world rather than through the righteousness of the Gospel, so the problem is one of priority.
Finally, Jesus mentions that the sower deposits the seed or the word of God in good hearts, and here is where fruit is born to the Lord (Mark 4:8, 20). Nevertheless, even here there are degrees of faithfulness, so different, but good, hearts produce thirty, sixty and a hundred-fold. Obviously, the more fruit in one’s life that is born for the Lord, the better or more faithful that one is in submitting to the Gospel. Therefore, one shouldn’t be satisfied with thirty-fold, when one-hundred-fold production is possible. Jesus doesn’t identify the one who plowed the field, only that the sower sowed seed in the field. The conclusion of the matter seems to be that one’s heart is a plowed field, ready to accept seed from the Lord or anyone else the listener is attentive to. If one expects to live for the Lord and bear fruit to him, he must, first, draw near to the Lord (Mark 4:10; Luke 8:9), so that he is able to understand the word of God, and secondly, he needs to trust in the Lord, rather than the methods of this world for his joy in life (Mark 4:20; cp. 4:18-19).
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