And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
Comment: It seems so simple an illustration in many ways! But if you don’t believe in the devil (Satan); if you don’t believe that God’s ‘word’ comes by revelation but rather think that you need to find an answer for yourself, or earn acceptance by good works (that is God’s acceptance); if trials and tribulations make you turn in disgust at any thought that God allows such things to develop you, is it easy to grasp this message? If you are tuned to mix perfectly into the world around you – do you not understand that your mind and life needs to be prepared soil (not the shallow hard soil of the much trodden path)? Don’t you understand that you must be prepared to chase off the skeptical attitudes with which Satan surrounds you (the birds)? Then with fortitude you need to root out the ‘thorns and weeds’ which drive out the voice and message of God, before you can be one whose life shows in abundance the seed (fruit) of God’s Spirit living and growing in you.
Prayer: Is this why You, Jesus, taught that the hard, upward and narrow path leads to You?
As I read it! 
Thank you Barry for your comments on this passage. It is interesting to think about the fact that the seed doesn’t change. The same seeds are thrown over the ground, but it is the soil that makes the difference, Where the soil is hard, where there are rocks in the soil, where there are weeds and thorns growing, those things make the difference as to whether the seeds will grow well or not. The good soil has been prepared, the weeds have been dug up and thrown away, the soil has been turned over and is soft ready to receive the seed. So it is with our hearts, when they are prepared and ready, when our hearts are soft and all the rubbish has been eliminated – then the seeds of the Word of God will grow and bring forth one hundredfold. God bless you.
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