Scripture Story Sketch Notes · Matthew 13
“Behold, a sower went forth to sow.” Matthew 13:3
One story, one seed, four kinds of ground. Walk the field, hear what Jesus said each part means, and get your own ground ready.
Before you begin
Jesus often taught in parables: simple stories about everyday life that carry deeper truths for anyone ready to hear them. One day the crowd on the shore of the Sea of Galilee was so large that He got into a boat and taught them from the water.
He told of a farmer who scattered seed. Some fell on a hard path, some on rocky ground, some among thorns and some on good ground, and each grew differently. Later His disciples asked what it meant, and Jesus explained it Himself: the seed is the word of God, and the kinds of ground are the different ways our hearts receive it.
The shore of the Sea of Galilee. In Jesus’s day, farmers often scattered seed by hand across their fields.
Jesus explained this parable Himself (Matthew 13:18–23). Listen for His meaning, and ask which ground is most like your heart.
Read it yourself: Matthew 13:1–23
Part 1 of 7
Eight stops, from the shore where Jesus sat to the good ground. Scroll, or tap a number on the map.
Part 2 of 7
Three scenes from the same day. Look for the Savior in each one.
Read it plainly
Tap any dotted word for its meaning. The scripture stays exactly as written.1
Part 3 of 7
This is one of the few parables Jesus explained Himself.1 Guess what each piece means, then turn the card to see His answer.
All nine. Notice what never changed: the seed. Matthew 13:19–23
Part 4 of 7
“The different soils on which the seeds fell represent different ways in which mortals receive and follow these teachings.”6 Most of us have had all four kinds of days.
A next step for you
Your choice is saved only on this device. Souls, like soils, can change.9
Try it
This activity applies prophets’ teaching to the parable. Elder Talmage observed that the Savior never said the wayside “might not be plowed,” the stones “broken up and removed,” or the thorns “uprooted.”9
Part 5 of 7
A little background helps the story land the way it did for the people on the shore. Outside sources are labeled.
The Bible Dictionary explains that a parable “conveys to the hearer religious truth exactly in proportion to his faith and intelligence.” To some it is “a mere story”; to the prepared it reveals “the mysteries … of the kingdom.” And: “Only he who seeks finds.”8
So the story itself is a test of soil.
Many scholars think farmers in Jesus’ day often scattered seed and then plowed it in, which would explain why seed landed on paths, rocks, and thorns.10 Others argue that plowing usually came first.11 Either way, this sower scatters widely.
The point is not carelessness. The seed goes everywhere.
In the hill country of Galilee, a thin layer of soil often sits over limestone bedrock. Plants sprout fast in that warm, shallow soil but have no moisture reserve when summer heat comes.10 Matthew says it simply: “they had not much earth.”1
It looks like the best ground at first. It isn’t.
Word study · Greek
suniēmi συνίημι · “understandeth” (Matthew 13:19, 23)
The lexicon gives “to put together,” and so, mentally, “to comprehend.”12 The way side hearer “understandeth it not.” The good-ground hearer “understandeth it.” Same word, opposite results.1
Understanding here is more than hearing. It is taking the word in and putting it together with your life. That is why the disciples kept asking. Our observation
Word study · Greek
skandalizō σκανδαλίζω · “offended” (Matthew 13:21)
From skandalon, a stumbling block. Strong’s defines it as “to entrap, i.e. trip up,” or figuratively “to stumble.”13
The stony-ground hearer is not just annoyed. When the heat comes, he trips and falls away. The same word appears when Jesus later warns the disciples about the night of His arrest (Matthew 26:31).13
What the text does not say
It never says the seed was bad: “In this parable the seed is the same, but it lands on four different kinds of soil.”7 It never says the sower was wasteful. And it never says a soil is stuck forever. Halverson suggests the Savior “must have intended it as a continuum upon which hearers were in constant motion, not merely as a dresser with four unchangeable drawers.”9 Outside
Part 6 of 7
The story is about soil, but the One telling it is the Sower.
“He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.” Matthew 13:37
He scattered seed on paths, on rocks and among thorns. He taught the whole multitude, then explained it again to the few who asked.1 He did not wait for perfect ground before He sowed.
The seed is “the word of God.”3 John calls Jesus Himself “the Word” (John 1:1). To receive the word is, in the end, to receive Him.
What prophets have taught
“The suitability of the soil depends upon the heart of each one of us who is exposed to the gospel seed.”
“We must also seek that mighty change of heart (see Alma 5:12–14) that replaces evil desires and selfish concerns with the love of God and the desire to serve Him and His children.”
“We need to harrow the soil by overcoming our feelings of pride.”
“Each of us needs to nourish our seeds of faith so that they continue to take root.”
Another Testament
Alma picks up the same picture: “Now, we will compare the word unto a seed.” If it is nourished “with great diligence, and with patience,” it takes root. If it is neglected, “when the heat of the sun cometh and scorcheth it, because it hath no root it withers away.” Alma 32:28, 38, 41
Jesus’ parable describes the ground. Alma describes how to tend it.
Notice
Alma says the same thing Jesus’ story shows: when nothing grows, “this is not because the seed was not good … but it is because your ground is barren, and ye will not nourish the tree.” Alma 32:39
Part 7 of 7
The Savior’s question
“Know ye not this parable? and how then will ye know all parables?” Mark 4:13
He treats this story as a key to the rest. Before you move on, ask yourself what kind of listener you want to be this week.
This week
“It is up to each of us to set the priorities and to do the things that make our soil good and our harvest plentiful.”6
Each thing you do grows the plant. It saves on this device, one day at a time.
0 of 6 today
Some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred. Keep going tomorrow.
A quiet moment
“Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.”
Read Matthew 13:9 slowly. Put the screen down for one minute. What is the Spirit asking you to hear right now? Matthew 13:9
A verse to hold
Talk about it
For adults and deeper study
Longer readings, harder questions, and where to study next. Each one says what it is before you click.
Walks through each soil and applies it to modern life. He calls the cares, riches and pleasures of life “the most subtle thorns,” and teaches that “the possession of wealth or significant income is not a mark of heavenly favor, and their absence is not evidence of heavenly disfavor.” Ends with how conversion deepens roots.6
Read the talk →A farmer’s reading of the parable: plowing with prayer, harrowing away pride, preparing the seedbed by keeping the commandments, and nourishing faith so it keeps taking root.7
Read the talk →Argues the four soils are a continuum, not four fixed types: “souls, like soils, could change.” Traces how Joseph Smith read Matthew 13 as a sequence of the kingdom’s history, and how Mark’s ascending yields (thirty, sixty, a hundred) suggest growth over time.9
Read the article →A one-page chart of the soils and their meanings, and BYU Studies’ list of readings for this week of Come, Follow Me.14,15
See the chart → BYU Studies week 12 →Every quotation, gloss, and piece of background on this page is listed here: scripture first, then Church sources, then outside scholarship (labeled).
Quotations checked against the linked pages on October 6, 2026. Scripture is quoted from the King James Version as published in the Gospel Library.
The seed is good. The Sower is generous. The ground is ours to tend. Matthew 13:23
Printable sketch notes
Everything on this page as an 11-page letter-size PDF: the map, scenes, cards, activity, word studies, tracker, Go deeper and sources. For home, class or a quiet Sunday.
More stories
The Sower is part of the Scripture Story Sketch Notes for the New Testament, set alongside Come, Follow Me for March 15–21, 2027 (Matthew 13; Luke 8; 13).
See every story See all 2027 weeksIndependent study notes from Weak Things, not an official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Scripture quotations are from the King James Version. Symbol meanings come from the Savior’s own explanation in Matthew 13:18–23 and Luke 8:11–15; outside sources are labeled.
