"A sower went out to sow his seed. As he was sowing, some of the seed fell along the path, and were trodden down, and the wild birds ate them up.

This is what the story means: The seed is God's message.

It is like a mustard seed which a man took and dropped in his garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the wild birds roosted in its branches."

Then the Lord said to them, "If you had faith that grows like a mustard seed, you might have been saying to this mulberry tree, 'Pull yourself up by the roots and plant yourself in the sea,' and it would have obeyed you!