Mark 4:14

“The sower sows the word.”

This is the clue that makes the meaning of the parable clear. What is sown is God's word to man. This includes the message that ‘the Kingly Rule of God is at hand', and that by faith they can repent and come under His Kingly Rule. The initiator is in the first place God. It is He Who in the Old Testament sends forth His word to bring about His purpose. But He sends out and provides seed for the sower (Isaiah 55:10). Thus the sower is the One to Whom He has given His word, and who is to follow in His steps. Here it is especially Jesus by implication, but as well includes John the Baptiser, together with Jesus' own followers, for once He has trained them they too will be given the seed and will sow the word. Compare how the work of Jesus as the Servant of God is to be continued in His followers (Acts 13:47). But the main emphasis is certainly on the fact that it is God's word that is being sown. It is on the fact that God's word is now among them as never before. The message is all the more poignant in that it could already be seen as having occurred in the ministry of John, and to some extent as having failed to some degree. True there had been great response in many, but in many more the early enthusiasm resulting from his ministry had already died down.

The discerning listener would have been reminded of Isaiah 55:10. ‘For as the rain comes down, and the snow, from heaven, and does not return there, but waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth, it shall not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please and prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.' In these words Isaiah depicts the whole process of the growth of grain, the rain and snow from heaven, the watering of the earth, the bringing forth of grain and fruit, the sower who receives and sows the seed in order to continue the process, and the eater who eats what is produced from it. By comparison with Isaiah 44:2 this could then be related to God's activity in sending forth His Spirit to change the hearts of men. God's word is the prime source and the prime emphasis is on the fruitfulness produced by the activity of God, and the sower sows as a result and continues the work. Then He likens it to the going forth of His word which directly accomplishes His purposes. Thus the sower is one provided with seed to assist in the carrying forward of the purposes of God.

The discerning among Jesus' hearers were well aware that a great work of God was going on in Jesus. That is why they had come to listen to Him. And they did not need to be reminded of the need for heavenly rain to water the seed. The need for rain to produce fruitfulness was to them a constant fact of life and had been illustrated spiritually in John's baptism. But there was also need for a sower, and Jesus is now saying that the time for the sower to go forth to continue the work of God has come, a sower taking forth the word of God.

‘The word.' Compare Mark 2:2; Mark 7:13. To Jesus ‘the word (logos)' refers to the true message of God, both to His own message of the nearness of the expected Kingly Rule of God (Mark 2:2 with Mark 1:15) and to ‘the word of God' as found in the Scriptures (Mark 7:13). Indeed to Him they were both one word. However, the stress in the parable (as in Isaiah) is not on the sower but on the going forth of the word, and that the word that is going forth is the word of God (Isaiah 55:11). And then the stress is on the hindrances to its reception because of the condition of the ground, which represents the condition of the hearts of men, and what results for those who truly receive it. The sower, though necessary, was secondary. The going forth of the word and the condition of the ground that received it were primary.