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Faith Sown Into Good Soil

On the shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus compares the mystery of faith to a sower's seeds—what the soil becomes decides whether the harvest is a hundredfold.

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번역본：ESV
마태복음 13:1-20
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On that day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. And there were gathered unto him great multitudes, so that he entered into a boat, and sat; and all the multitude stood on the beach. And he spake to them many things in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went forth to sow; and as he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the birds came and devoured them: and others fell upon the rocky places, where they had not much earth: and straightway they sprang up, because they had no deepness of earth: and when the sun was risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And others fell upon the thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked them: and others fell upon the good ground, and yielded fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He that hath ears, let him hear. And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? And he answered and said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables; because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And unto them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; And seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, And their ears are dull of hearing, And their eyes they have closed; Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And should turn again, And I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, that many prophets and righteous men desired to see the things which ye see, and saw them not; and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not. Hear then ye the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the evil one, and snatcheth away that which hath been sown in his heart. This is he that was sown by the way side. And he that was sown upon the rocky places, this is he that heareth the word, and straightway with joy receiveth it; yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while; and when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, straightway he stumbleth. And he that was sown among the thorns, this is he that heareth the word; and the care of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. And he that was sown upon the good ground, this is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; who verily beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Another parable set he before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man that sowed good seed in his field: but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. And the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence then hath it tares? And he said unto them, An enemy hath done this. And the servants say unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he saith, Nay; lest haply while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather up first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn. Another parable set he before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof. Another parable spake he unto them; The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened. All these things spake Jesus in parables unto the multitudes; and without a parable spake he nothing unto them: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world. Then he left the multitudes, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Explain unto us the parable of the tares of the field. And he answered and said, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; and the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one; and the enemy that sowed them is the devil: and the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are angels. As therefore the tares are gathered u

Matthew 13:1–20 records the parable of the sower along with Jesus' own explanation of why He speaks in parables. The same teaching appears in Mark 4:1–20 and Luke 8:4–15 (cross-references from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge with the highest vote counts).

📖 마태복음
🕰️ Early 30s CE, Galilean ministry of Jesus📍 Sea of Galilee📍 Nazareth/Bethlehem (Jesus' early life)
Narration

배경

Matthew sets the scene with deliberate calm: Jesus has left the house—likely Peter's home in Capernaum where He had been teaching and healing—and stepped outside to the shoreline of the Sea of Galilee. The crowds press so thickly that He is pushed out into a fishing boat, using it as a floating pulpit while the multitude stands along the beach (Matthew 13:1–2; cf. Mark 4:1; Luke 8:4). From this makeshift pulpit He delivers the parable of the sower, the first of seven kingdom parables in Matthew 13. The agricultural setting is not incidental. Galilee in the first century was a mosaic of cultivated fields, footpaths, limestone outcroppings, and thorn hedges. A sower scattering seed by hand would naturally see some kernels land on hard-packed paths, some in the thin soil over rock, some among the invasive thorns that farmers struggled to remove, and some in truly prepared, deep earth. Josephus, writing of Galilee in his Antiquities, describes its fertility alongside its rough edges—land that could yield abundantly, but only where the soil was right (Josephus, Antiquities 18.2.2; cf. Wars 3.3.2 on the agricultural character of the lake district). The parable thus draws on a scene every listener would recognize from daily life. When the disciples privately ask why Jesus speaks in parables (Matthew 13:10), He answers with a distinction that runs through the whole chapter: to those given to know the mysteries of the kingdom, the parable becomes a window; to those outside, it becomes a screen. Jesus cites Isaiah 6:9–10—'by hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand' (Matthew 13:14–15)—showing that resistant hearts are not enlightened by clearer words but by new eyes. 'Blessed are your eyes,' He adds, 'for they see; and your ears, for they hear' (Matthew 13:16). Faith, in other words, is not merely hearing; it is the soil in which the seed lands.

시대와 장소

Set in the gospels era around the Sea of Galilee, Bethlehem, and Nazareth, where Jesus taught parables of faith including the Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13.

의미

Jesus' later explanation in Matthew 13:18–23 (the verses that immediately follow our passage) makes the allegory explicit: the seed is the word of the kingdom; the soils are the human heart. But within Matthew 13:1–20 itself the meaning is already woven in. The wayside soil represents the hearer in whom the word has no entry at all—the birds of the air (an image the Jews used for evil influences, recalling the birds that devoured the sacrifices of the wicked in Genesis 15:11 and the 'birds of the evil one' in the later parable expansion) snatch the seed before it can be understood. The rocky soil represents the hearer who receives the word with immediate joy but has no root. This is not merely shallow feeling but shallow trust—assent without endurance. The sun rises, persecution or pressure comes, and the plant withers because its roots never reached deep. The thorny soil represents the hearer who lets the word coexist with the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. Faith is choked not by hostility but by distraction and desire. The seed is genuine; the soil is overcrowded. The good soil represents the hearer who hears, understands, and bears fruit—some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Notice the variation in yield: even among the faithful, growth differs. The point is not uniform perfection but genuine, sustained fruitfulness. Faith, then, is not a single decision but a soil-condition. It is the prepared, deep, weed-cleared ground in which the word of the kingdom can actually take root. Trust that does not endure under sun, that competes with thorns, that allows itself to be snatched away before understanding—may be a flash of assent, but it is not yet the faith Jesus describes.

적용

Applying this parable begins with an honest inventory. Which soil describes my hearing this week? 1. The path. Is there anywhere the word of God bounces off me because I never really listen? The remedy is not louder preaching but a quieted heart—slowing down enough that the seed actually lands. 2. The rocks. Where have I received truth joyfully but abandoned it under pressure? Jesus does not call us to be impervious to the sun; He calls us to grow roots that reach past the rocks. Endurance in small trials today is the deepening of tomorrow's root. 3. The thorns. What cares, what 'deceitfulness of riches,' is crowding out the word in my life? Often the thorns are not obviously evil—they are good things (work, family, plans) given more room than the word of God. The cure is reordering, not removing. 4. The good soil. The fruit Jesus names is patient—thirty, sixty, a hundredfold. Genuine faith does not have to be spectacular; it has to be sustained. We cultivate good soil by repentance (the turning that Jesus says leads to healing), by the disciplines of prayer and Scripture, and by community that keeps us accountable. Above all, the parable reminds us that faith is not the seed; faith is the soil. The seed—Christ's word, Christ's work—never fails. The question that follows us into each new day is what kind of ground we will be when He sows.

되새김

There is a striking mercy hidden in this passage. Jesus does not say, 'Some sowers are excellent and others are careless, so the yield depends on the sower.' He says the sower goes forth to sow—and He sows generously, even wastefully, on every kind of ground. Every hearer, every path, every rocky patch, every thorn patch, every field of good earth: all receive the same seed from the same hand. The disappointment is not in the sower's generosity but in the soil's readiness. This is both humbling and hopeful. Humbling, because it shows that the limit on fruit is not God's willingness to give but my willingness to receive. Hopeful, because no soil is final. The wayside can be broken up; the rocks can be dug out; the thorns can be cleared. The gospel call is itself the tilling. When Isaiah's prophecy is quoted—'Lest haply they should perceive…and should turn again, and I should heal them'—Jesus holds out the very turning that closes the prophecy. Hardened hearts are not his final verdict; they are his diagnosis, and he is the physician. So the call is not to feel bad about our soil but to let the Gardener work it. He who has ears, let him hear. He who has hard ground, let him ask the Sower to break it up. The seed is good; the sower is generous; the harvest is sure. The only question is whether today we will be the kind of soil in which the word of the kingdom takes root and bears fruit.

자주 묻는 질문

Why did Jesus teach the crowds in parables?

Jesus answers the question directly in Matthew 13:10–17. To those willing to receive, parables unlock the mysteries of the kingdom; to those whose hearts are hardened, parables become a veil so that they do not pretend to understand. As Isaiah 6:9–10 puts it, the resistant hearer's response is 'hearing they hear not, and seeing they see not.'

What does the seed in the sower parable represent?

In Matthew 13:19 Jesus identifies the seed as 'the word of the kingdom,' and Luke 8:11 calls it 'the word of God.' The seed is God's revealed word and promise in Christ—the same seed lands everywhere; what varies is the soil.

What makes soil 'good'?

Good soil is the heart that hears, understands, and bears fruit (Matthew 13:23). It is not a natural condition but a prepared one: roots must go deep, thorns must be cleared, and the plant must endure scorching sun long enough to ripen grain. The sower scatters the seed; the soil-condition is cultivated over time.

What is the relationship between faith and soil?

In the sower parable, faith is not the seed but the soil. The seed—God's word—is reliable and never fails. Faith is the receiving ground that lets the word take root, survive the sun, and outlast the thorns. Matthew 13:16 calls the disciples 'blessed' precisely because they see and hear; that seeing-and-hearing is the faith that becomes good soil.

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