The parable of the sower is one of the few occasions when an explanation is provided for a parable. This makes contemporary scholars a little skeptical that the explanation came from Jesus. Did St. Mark or someone in the early Church provide the explanation? Certainly there is a different emphasis in each telling. As Jesus gives the parable originially it is about the sower. God as the sower does not carefully look at who is worthy but gives widely, wildly, indiscriminately. The parable as explained is about the seed — how the seed responds to the different environments in which it finds itself. That is certainly a good message (which is why it is in the Bible!) but let’s not lose intent of the parable as spoken, Jesus wants us to understand God as the giver, as the one who bestows blessings not because we deserve it but simply because it is the nature of God to give.
