The Parable of the Sower

Mat 13:1–9

1. 1 Then Jesus told the people another picture story. He said, “This story shows you something about God’s family. A farmer planted some good food seeds in his garden.
2. 2 But there was a bad man that didn’t like the farmer. One night, when everyone was asleep, that bad man went to the farmer’s garden and planted some rubbish plant seeds in it, beside the good seeds. Then that bad man went away.
3. 3 The good seeds grew into good plants and started to make seed food. But at the same time, the seeds of the rubbish plants, that we call weeds, they grew big there too.
4. 4 So the farmer’s workers came to him and said, ‘Boss, you planted good food seeds in that ground. How come a lot of weeds are growing there too?’
5. 5 The farmer said, ‘I reckon a bad man planted those weeds, somebody that doesn’t like me.’ The workers said, ‘Do you want us to go and pull up those weeds?’
6. 6 The farmer said, ‘No, don’t do that. Those plants are all mixed together, so if you pull up the weeds you will pull up some of the good food plants with them.
7. 7 No. Just let them all grow up, the good plants and the rubbish plants together. Later, when the right time comes, I will get some men to get the good seed food. But I will talk to hem before they do that job. I will tell them to cut down the weeds first, and tie them in bundles, and burn them. After that they will get all the good seed food and bring it in to my shed.’”
8. 8 Then Jesus went into a house, away from all the people. And his followers came to him and said, “Please tell us what that story means, that picture story about the weeds.”
9. 9 Jesus said to them, “I’m God’s special man from heaven, and I’m like the farmer in that story. I’m like the one that planted good food seeds in a garden.

Mrk 4:1–9

1. 1 Jesus went down to the lake and started to teach again. A big mob of people came to listen to him. There were too many people, so Jesus got into a boat, pushed it out a little bit away from the dry ground, and sat down there. All the people stayed on the dry ground and listened to his words.
2. 2 He told them picture stories to help them understand what he was teaching. Jesus told them this story. He said,
3. 3 “You mob listen to me now. A man wanted to grow some seed food in a garden.
4. 4 He threw the seeds all over the garden. Some went too far and fell on the road. Some birds saw that seed lying there, so they ate it and finished it up.
5. 5 The man kept on throwing seeds and some of those seeds went another way again and fell down on ground that had too much rock in it. Those seeds grew up really fast, but they had too much rock and only a little bit of ground, so when the sun got hot they dried up and died.
6. 6 He kept on throwing seeds and some of those seeds went into the rubbish grass growing right next to the garden. Those new seeds tried to grow but the rubbish grass blocked them, so they couldn’t grow properly. They didn’t get any new seeds on top.
7. 7 But some of those seeds fell into really good ground and those seeds grew properly. When the seed food plants were ready they had a really big mob of new seeds on top.”
8. 8 Then Jesus said, “You’ve got ears, so you have to listen to me properly, and take notice of my words.”
9. 9 Some time later Jesus came away from that big mob of people. Then just his 12 close followers and a few other people sat around him. They said to him, “You tell us these picture stories but we can’t understand them. What are your stories all about?”

Luk 8:4–8