The parable of the sower isn't only about soil quality. Mark 4 holds a paradox most Sunday schools never taught: God conceals on purpose, so he can reveal.
I've often thought of this as a deeply humorous parable: Jesus is telling a bunch of peasant farmers - for whom every seed would have been precious, saved for sowing when it could have fed their family - about a sower who is clearly utterly mad. He thoughtlessly chucks that precious seed anywhere and everywhere, into places where there was *almost* no chance of it fully growing. Then Jesus suggests that God is like that mad farmer ... and they should be too!
We never know who will respond and our judgements of who is most likely to are deeply flawed.
I've often thought of this as a deeply humorous parable: Jesus is telling a bunch of peasant farmers - for whom every seed would have been precious, saved for sowing when it could have fed their family - about a sower who is clearly utterly mad. He thoughtlessly chucks that precious seed anywhere and everywhere, into places where there was *almost* no chance of it fully growing. Then Jesus suggests that God is like that mad farmer ... and they should be too!
We never know who will respond and our judgements of who is most likely to are deeply flawed.