15TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)

And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path…. Some fell on rocky ground…. Some seed fell among thorns….

Mt 13:1-9

Matthew 13:3b to 13:52 constitutes the third section of teaching. It is a collection of parables and their explanation.

This section like the other four has an introduction which describes the setting. The scene is Jesus sitting in a boat on the lake of Galilee. The crowds are standing on the beach and Jesus is speaking to them in parables.

The mention of the crowds is important. They are there in contrast to the disciples. Jesus speaks to the crowds and the disciples in parables. But only the disciples understand him but only upon hearing the explanation of Jesus. These stand for those to whom God has given the ability to know the secrets of the Kingdom. The crowds, on the other hand, are those to whom it has not been given (Mt 13:11).

This passage has a parallel in Mark (4:1ff). But while Mark states that Jesus taught the crowds, Matthew is content to say that he told them many things in parables. This is because the crowds do not understand and therefore, it cannot be said that Jesus “taught” them.

v. 1. On that day, Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the sea.

“On that day” links this teaching section with the previous narrative section of Chapters 11 and 12. In that section the present generation of Jews are condemned for having refused to repent. And it is because of this refusal that Jesus speaks to them in parables.

The sea is the Sea of Galilee.


There are seven parables in this chapter. The first parable contrasts the see which never grows and bears fruits with the seed which is fruitful.

The first four verses describe the seed which is wasted on bad ground. One verse describes the seed which is fruitful because it falls on good soil. Nevertheless, the fruitful seed makes up for the waste.

We find the idea of fruitfulness in Mt 3:8 where John commanded the Pharisees to bear fruit. Later on Jesus would say that the test of the tree was its fruit (Mt 12:33ff). In the parable of the sower and the seed, the fruitless ground stands for the Pharisees who have not believed in Jesus. In contrast, the good soul is the disciples who do the Father’s will (Mt 12:50). This is the meaning which the parable has at this point in the gospel.

But because the Pharisees and the disciples themselves are representative figures standing for believers and unbelievers, a wider interpretation will be given in Mt 13:18ff. In those verses what we have is the Church’s application of the parable. It is no longer about faith and unbelief but about the different degrees of faith in the disciples themselves.

Biblical scholars find a third set of interpretation. And it is how Jesus may have understood the parable when he used it. He may have wanted to contrast the wasted seed with the abundance of the final harvest. If this were the case, then Jesus may be saying that although God does not seem to be at work in the world and does not seem to be King, nevertheless, his Kingdom is coming and when that happens, he will make up for all the apparent failures and disappointments that have gone before.

vv. 4-7. And as he sowed, some seed fell on the path…. Some fell on rocky ground…. Some seed fell among thorns…. 

In Palestine, sowing preceded plowing. The sower could not tell what ground was like at the time of the sowing, that is, whether there was any depth of earth.

v. 8. But some seed fell on rich soil, and produced fruit, a hundred or sixty or thirtyfold.

Grain in Greek is “karpos” which was previously translated as fruit (Mt 3:8ff; 7:16ff; and 12:33).

The quantities “a hundredfold, sixty, thirty” are far higher than even in a good year. Seven and a half was the average. Ten was good. The incredibly high number serve to underline the point of the parable: the immense richness of the Kingdom when it comes (original meaning) and later, the fruitfulness of the disciples.

v. 9. Whoever has ears ought to hear.

The disciples and the readers of the Gospel have been given ears to hear by God (Mt 13:16); they are commanded to use their gift of understanding which comes from the faith that has been given to them by God.