Lohfink1 posits that the parable is directed at the eschatological renewal of God’s people. He rejects the exegesis that applies everything to the events surrounding the preaching. According to him the images must be looked at against the background of the Old Testament, where God “sows” the people (Zechariah 10:9; Hosea 2:1–3, 22; Jeremiah 31:27) and where the people are a “planting of God” (see Jeremiah 31:27–28). To the extent that people are being regenerated through the seed of the word and by careful listening, you could indeed draw a connection with the figurative language of the Old Testament. However, this remains a side issue in the parable. The main point is how people do or do not listen. It is not the promise of a new people that is the focus, but the warning attached to the manner in which God forms that new people. Thus, in explaining the parable we do not face two unconnected ideas (the Greek idea of “the word that has been heard” and the Old Testament idea of “the sown people”). While the preaching of the word and its explanation are central also in the exegesis (4:14), we can at the same time speak about people that are being sown among thorns or in good soil (4:15–16, 18, 20), for the sown word in this case is the unique life-giving seed of regeneration.2
3 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.