Introduction

Mark 4:1–9: Today we begin reading excerpts from Mark’s Gospel, an account that focuses on Jesus as a man of authority, especially as seen through his teachings and parables. Parables were stories and word pictures that Jesus used to illustrate a moral or spiritual lesson relating to the Kingdom of God. In today’s reading, Jesus begins telling the crowd the Parable of the Sower, a story of an individual sowing seed.

Today’s Key Verse: Mark 4:8a

“Some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants sprouted, grew, and bore grain.”

Reading

4 Again Jesus began to teach beside Lake Galilee. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it. The boat was out in the water, and the crowd stood on the shore at the water’s edge. 2 He used parables to teach them many things, saying to them:

3 “Listen! Once there was a man who went out to sow grain. 4 As he scattered the seed in the field, some of it fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some of it fell on rocky ground, where there was little soil. The seeds soon sprouted, because the soil wasn’t deep. 6 Then, when the sun came up, it burned the young plants; and because the roots had not grown deep enough, the plants soon dried up. 7 Some of the seed fell among thorn bushes, which grew up and choked the plants, and they didn’t bear grain. 8 But some seeds fell in good soil, and the plants sprouted, grew, and bore grain: some had thirty grains, others sixty, and others one hundred.”

9 And Jesus concluded, “Listen, then, if you have ears!”

Reflect

According to verse 2, Jesus used parables to teach the people many things. In the parable of the sower, why is the sower scattering seeds? In what places do the seeds fall? Where do the seeds bear grain? What happens to the seeds that fall in other places? What do you think Jesus is seeking to convey through this parable?

Pray

Lord Jesus, open my mind and my heart to receive your teachings. Plant your word in my heart so that all I do and say this day is in accord with your will. Amen.

Tomorrow’s Reading

Mark 4:10–20: Jesus explains the Parable of the Sower.