Student Devotional Week 22: Rooted or Rootless? Parable of the Sower

"Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop-thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown" (Mark 4:20).
Jesus spoke in parables so that everyone would understand, right? Then why did they have to ask for an explanation everytime he spoke? Did you catch what is going on when Jesus delivers this parable? There were crowds gathered around Jesus, so much that he got into a boat and tried to get away from them for a while, but they would not go until Jesus gave them a message or word. So he tells the parable from the middle of the lake about the parable of the sower and the seeds. There are 4 types of people you basically says:
1)The Path- Those who hear the word but it passes between their ears, it doesn't sink in at all. 2)The Rocky Path- Those who hear the word but it doesn't take root and the first hardship (the blazing sun) they die away.
3)The Thorns-Those who hear the word but they are unfruitful listening to the world rather than God.
4)The Good Soil-Those who hear the word and it takes root and they produce fruit multiplying the sower (God's) investment (30X, 60X, 100X).
So, the question is what type of person are you: Path, Rocky, Thorny, Good Soil? I would guess the majority of that crowd was like the path, going from one ear out the next. Why? Because only the 12 disciples came to Jesus later to ask what the parable actually meant. That means the rest of the crowd had no clue what he was talking about. I know this because in verses 10-12 Jesus explains why he taught in parables, not so everyone would understand him, but to confuse them. What? This is not what I have been taught my entire life about parables, but read it for yourself, the point of teaching parables is so that those who really want to know what Jesus is saying and meant would ask Him, those who were not truthfully seeking Him would go about their business. Do you seek what Jesus is trying to teach us in scripture or do you hear the words and they pass through you? Jesus wants us to be good soil, but we have to let the words take root first in order to be useful and produce good fruit.