Charles Ellicott Commentary Matthew 13

The same day ... out of the house — In Mark, the parable of the Sower follows the appearance of Jesus’ mother and brothers, as it does in Matthew, but in Luke the order is inverted (Luke 8:4–15; Luke 8:19–21). In this case, the order of the first Gospel seems preferable, as it provides a more understandable sequence of events. The hostile accusation of the Pharisees, the plots against His life, the absence of real support where He might have most expected it, and the opposition stirred up by His direct teaching—these factors led Him to present His message in a form that was at once more attractive, less open to attack, and better as an intellectual and spiritual training for His disciples. It also served as a test of character and, therefore, an education for the multitude.

That our Lord had been speaking in a house up to this point is implied by the phrase standing without in Matthew 12:46. He now turned to the crowd that followed Him. To prevent the pressure of the crowd from interrupting His teaching or provoking a hostile attack—a real possibility given the feelings stirred by what He had just taught—He entered a boat, likely with a few of His disciples. He then put a short distance of water between Himself and the crowd and began to speak.

A sower—This is literally the sower, the man whose form and work were so familiar to the peasants of Galilee during the planting season.

The outward framework of the parable requires us to remember the features in which Eastern agriculture differed from our own: ground that was not perfectly cleared; a road passing across the field; rock that often cropped out or lay just under a few inches of soil; and a patch of good ground that rewarded the farmer’s labor by what seemed more like a lucky chance than skillful husbandry.

The wayside — that is, along the edges of the broad path that crossed the field. Here the surface was hard and smooth, the grain lay on the surface, and the pigeons and other birds that followed the sower reaped an immediate harvest.

Stony places — This refers either to ground in which stones and pebbles were mixed with the soil or, more probably, where a thin layer of earth covered solid rock. Here, of course, growth was rapid because of the very circumstance that later proved fatal.

Because they had no root—or, as in Luke 8:6, because they lacked moisture. The growth had been overly rapid, and the presence of the underlying rock at once made the heat more intense and deprived the plant of the conditions for resistance.