Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁴ A large crowd came together, and people came to him from town after town. He spoke to them in parables: ⁵ “A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some fell by the road, and was trodden on, and the birds of the air ate it up. ⁶ Other seed fell on stony ground, and when it came up it withered, because it didn’t have any moisture. ⁷ Other seed fell in among thorns, and when the thorns grew up they choked it. ⁸ Other seed again fell into good soil, and came up, and gave a yield of a hundredfold.”

As he said this, he called out: “If you’ve got ears to hear, then hear!”

⁹ His disciples asked him what this parable was about.

¹⁰ “You are being let in on the secrets of God’s kingdom,” he said, “but to the rest it happens in parables, so that ‘they may see but not perceive, and hear but not understand.’

¹¹ “This is the parable: the seed is the word of God. ¹² Those by the roadside are people who hear, but then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they won’t believe it and be saved. ¹³ Those on the stony ground are those who hear the word and receive it with delight—but they don’t have any root, and so they believe only for a time, and then, when a time of testing comes, they draw back. ¹⁴ The seed that falls in among thorns represents people who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and they don’t bear proper, ripening fruit. ¹⁵ But those in the good soil are the ones who hear the word and hold on to it with an upright and good heart, and who patiently produce fruit.”