In Mark 3, in the midst of revealing the struggles that Jesus was encountering with both the religious leaders and some members of His family, we were introduced to Jesus’ teaching in parables. Mark 4 now opens with what is probably Jesus’ most famous parable. The parable has many different references, some call it the parable of the seed, or of the sower or even of the soil, they all apply because each of the components have a central point in the story that is being told. One of the things that is very interesting about this passage is that we see the disciples asking Jesus for the meaning of the story after it was told. There are times in the gospels in which the disciples clearly didn’t understand. When Jesus told them to beware the yeast of the Pharisees they were worried because they forgot to buy bread. When Jesus spoke to them about servanthood they argued over which of them would be the greatest in the kingdom, John even writes in chapter 20 of his gospel that after seeing the empty tomb that he and Peter did not understand that Jesus would rise from the dead. What makes this passage somewhat different and interesting is that this time, when they didn’t understand, they asked Jesus to explain the parable to them. In His explanation Jesus makes it very clear that this parable is of great importance, in fact, He infers that if they didn’t understand this parable that they would not be able to understand the others that He would teach in the future. He explains it for them and for us and in doing so, I believe He reveals His heart for man and how important the condition of our hearts are for our eternal destination.