The Parable of the Sower (sometimes called the Parable of the Soils) is a parable of Jesus found in the three Synoptic Gospels in Matthew 13:1-23; Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:1-15.

 

In the story, a Sower sows seed and does so indiscriminately.  Some seed falls on the path (way side) with no soil, on rocky ground with little soil, and soil which contained thorns, and in those cases it is lost or fails to produce a crop, but when it falls on good soil it grows, yielding thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

Jesus then (only in the presence of disciples) explains that the seed represents the Gospel (the Sower being anyone who proclaims it), and the various soils represent people's responses to it . . .