The Parable of the Automatic Yield

from Google Images

What many refer to as the Parable of the Growing Seed can be called by several other names: the Parable of the Plowed Field, or the Parable of the Fertile Soil, or the Parable of the Automatic Yield, to name a few. This parable is a continuation of the former parable, or what I call the Parable of Taking Heed. These parables were spoken and offered to the disciples privately, sometime after the multitude was sent away. The sower in the Parable of the Soil seems to be the believer, because how can we say that the Lord sleeps and rises day after day and doesn’t understand how the seed grows into a useful plant (Mark 4:26-27)? Therefore, the sower in this parable must be someone other than the Lord, and, since it immediately follows the context of taking heed (Mark 4:24), I believe Jesus is speaking of the believer, himself. That is, what the believer takes heed of and plants in his heart.