Show Don't Tell: Mark 4:10-20

Instead of saying "Jesus explained the parable of the sower," decode the soils. When Jesus is alone with the Twelve and others, they ask about the parables. He says: "The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that 'they may be ever seeing but never perceiving.'" Parables reveal and conceal. Then the explanation: The farmer sows the word. The path—people who hear, but Satan immediately snatches it away. The rocky soil—they receive the word with joy, but having no root, when trouble comes, they fall away. The thorns—they hear, but worries, wealth, and wants choke the word, making it unfruitful. The good soil—they hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop. Same word, four responses. Which soil are you? Can soil be changed? That's the question Mark leaves hanging.