Don't you understand this parable? How then can you understand all the parables? (Mark 4:13).

This is what this parable means (explained.

Having finished the sermon with parables and dismissed the people, Jesus

entered the house (Matt. 13:36) and there, left alone with the Apostles, he explained to them, at their own request, the meaning of the parable of the tares. The apostles asked to explain to them only two parables; consequently, the others were understood by them without explanation. It was said above that the teaching of parables was intended exclusively for the people. Meanwhile, left alone with His disciples, He continues to speak in parables – why? Is it not in order to test their receptivity to the word of God, their thoughtfulness and understanding? "Behold," says He, "ye have not understood the parables of the sower and the tares;

how then can you understand all the parables?" (Mark 4:13). And then, apparently to test whether they understand the thoughts hidden in the parables at all, He tells them new parables.

The Parable of the Man Who Threw Seed into the Ground

The Kingdom of God is like if a man throws seed into the ground, and sleeps, and rises night and day; and how the seed sprouts and grows, he does not know, for the earth of its own accord produces first greenery, then an ear, then a full grain in the ear. When the fruit is ripe, he immediately sends a sickle, because the harvest has come.

This parable has always been considered one of the most difficult for an interpreter. Who should be understood by a person who throws seed into the ground? In the opinion of Anthony, Archbishop of Volhynia and Zhytomyr, here the sower is understood not as God, but as a Christian who plants a good seed (the teaching of Christ or feats of piety) both in his heart and in his social life; he cannot follow the further growth of the grace-filled life in himself and in others, just as a resting farmer does not follow the gradual growth of a sown field, but the Lord, invisibly affirming virtue in his heart and in his social life, like the sun and rain that raise the grain growing in the field, then suddenly, unexpectedly for the workers, reveals the grace-filled fruits of their labors and gives a bountiful harvest of God.

In interpreting the Lord's parables, it must always be borne in mind that, in teaching with parables, Jesus Christ did not take imaginary examples, but from the everyday life of His listeners, and He did so (according to the explanation of John Chrysostom) in order to make His words more expressive, to clothe the truth in a living image, to imprint it more deeply in the memory and, as it were, to present it to the eyes. Therefore, in parables one should look for similarities or similarities only in general, and not in particulars, not in each word taken separately. In addition, each parable must be understood in connection with others of the same kind and with the general spirit of Christ's teaching.

In His sermons and parables, Jesus Christ very precisely distinguishes the Kingdom of Heaven from the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Heaven He calls the Kingdom of God which is reserved exclusively for the righteous and will begin after the final Judgment of the human race. And He calls the Kingdom of God the Kingdom of those who believe in Him and do the will of the Heavenly Father Who sent Him, founded by Him on earth. The Kingdom of God prepares the people who enter it for the Kingdom of Heaven; it began with the coming of Christ, who threw the word of God into the hearts of people, just as a farmer throws seed into the ground; and it will end when the time of harvest comes, when the fruit that has grown from the sown word of God is fully ripe. This fruit will ripen when all mankind inhabiting the earth unites into one community of believers, into one flock of the One Shepherd; when all mankind will become one field in which good seeds are sown (the growth of tares together with wheat will not break the unity of the field, just as the presence of Judas in it did not break the unity of Christ's little flock). Then the Kingdom of Heaven will begin. The visible participation of Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God is expressed in His founding of this Kingdom and in the sending of reapers when the fruit ripens. Although His invisible leadership of this Kingdom is now undoubted for all who believe in Him, the Apostles at that time did not yet have such faith in Him. They had to give a clear example from everyday life to explain how the Kingdom of God begins and ends here on earth. The best example was the same sowing, which has already been mentioned. A man who threw seed into the ground he had prepared for it did all that was required of him; although, if he wishes, he watches over the growth of what is sown, and protects it from unfavorable outside influences, yet, because of the power hidden in the seed,