Show Don't Tell: Mark 4:1-9

Instead of saying "Jesus told the parable of the sower," scatter the seed with him. Again Jesus begins to teach by the lake. The crowd is so large that he gets into a boat and sits in it on the water, while all the people are along the shore—a natural amphitheater, water carrying his voice. "Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed." As he scattered, some fell along the path—hard-packed ground—and birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places with shallow soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and without root, they withered. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil—deep, clear, receptive. It came up, grew, produced a crop: thirty, sixty, even a hundred times what was sown. "Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear." Four soils, one seed. The outcome depends on reception.