I've always had trouble with this parable. Not with the understanding of it, obviously, because Jesus spells it out for His disciples at the end. It's more with the implications, I suppose. In the parable, the sower casts seed pretty much everywhere, but only in certain places does it catch. In the rocky soil, it sprouts up but dies with no root. In the thorny, it gets choked out. I think I've always assumed some sort of implication that God has made people the way they are, or more precisely, that not everyone has a fair shake at believing in Him. So, I just happened to be good soil? What about the poor sap who was rocky soil? He never had a chance.
But as I think about it now, maybe I have it backwards. It is a parable after all, it doesn't necessarily describe the way things really are (let me explain that). Maybe it's not that everyone doesn't have a fair chance at it, it's just that in the end, certain outcomes develop. Some people believe readily, and then fall away. I've seen it. Some people believe and life's worries choke out that belief. I've seen that too. In the end, the parable is meant to explain what is going on, as an illustration, it's not saying that it's a predetermined outcome.
The other part I have trouble with is what Jesus says about speaking in parables. It doesn't seem fair that the "secrets of the kingdom" aren't available to everyone. Is Jesus hiding things from some people? I think the part that explains it, though, the quotation in verse 15, "the heart of this people has become dull". It's not that Jesus is trying to hide things, it's that people won't hear it because their hearts have become dull.
Much of my reading lately has been in philosophy and evolutionary subject matter. No amount of content, explanations or illustrations serve to convince one side or the other. Atheist has a foundation of presuppositions that the rest is built upon, just as much as I do. We can hear the same facts and information, but come to different conclusions. So I think what is happening is that as Jesus tells these parables, there are some people who will get them and there are those who won't, but He's not intentionally trying to keep anyone from being able to understand him.
I guess in the end, I have to admit that I'm trying to reconcile these passages to my presuppositions of free will and our response to God's grace. If I held a Calvinist view I think I'd have different conclusions (but then again I'd have different problems I would have to reconcile, too).
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