Mark 4 1-20
1 And he again started teaching beside the sea. And a very great crowd gathered near him, so that he went aboard a boat and sat out on the sea, but all the crowd beside the sea were on the shore. 2 So he began to teach them many things with illustrations and to say to them in his teaching: 3 “Listen. Look! The sower went out to sow. 4 And as he was sowing, some [seed] fell alongside the road, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 And other [seed] fell upon the rocky place where it, of course, did not have much soil, and it immediately sprang up because of not having depth of soil. 6 But when the sun rose, it was scorched, and for not having root it withered. 7 And other [seed] fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 8 But others fell upon the fine soil, and, coming up and increasing, they began to yield fruit, and they were bearing thirtyfold, and sixty and a hundred.” 9 So he added the word: “Let him that has ears to listen listen.”
10 Now when he got to be alone, those around him with the twelve began questioning him on the illustrations. 11 And he proceeded to say to them: “To YOU the sacred secret of the kingdom of God has been given, but to those outside all things occur in illustrations, 12 in order that, though looking, they may look and yet not see, and, though hearing, they may hear and yet not get the sense of it, nor ever turn back and forgiveness be given them.” 13 Further, he said to them: “Y OU do not know this illustration, and so how will YOU understand all the other illustrations?
14 “The sower sows the word. 15 These, then, are the ones alongside the road where the word is sown; but as soon as they have heard [it] Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 And likewise these are the ones sown upon the rocky places: as soon as they have heard the word, they accept it with joy. 17 Yet they have no root in themselves, but they continue for a time; then as soon as tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, they are stumbled. 18 There are still others who are sown among the thorns; these are the ones that have heard the word, 19 but the anxieties of this system of things and the deceptive power of riches and the desires for the rest of the things make inroads and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 Finally, the ones that were sown on the fine soil are those who listen to the word and favorably receive it and bear fruit thirtyfold and sixty and a hundred.”
I guess the elders think that I'm the "rocky places" and also the "thorns"