Jesus began teaching beside the sea again. A crowd gathered around him — so huge that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the water, while the whole crowd stayed on the shore facing the sea. 2 He taught them many things using parables, and in his teaching he said to them:
3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he scattered the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky ground where there wasn’t much soil. It sprang up fast because the soil had no depth, 6 but when the sun rose, the plants were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it produced no grain. 8 But other seed fell on good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing. It yielded a crop — one part thirty times what was sown, one part sixty, and one part a hundred.”
9 Then he said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”
10 When he was alone, those around him along with the Twelve asked him about the parables. 11 He said to them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside, everything comes in parables, 12 so that
‘they may look and look but never see, and listen and listen but never understand, or else they might turn and be forgiven.’”[1]
13 Then he said to them, “You don’t understand this parable? Then how will you understand any of the parables? 14 The sower sows the word. 15 Some people are like the seed along the path where the word is sown. When they hear it, Satan comes right away and takes away the word that was sown in them. 16 Others are like the seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, they receive it at once with joy, 17 but they have no root in themselves. They last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they fall away immediately. 18 Still others are like the seed sown among thorns. They hear the word, 19 but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things creep in and choke the word, and it produces nothing. 20 But the ones sown on good soil — these are the people who hear the word, embrace it, and produce a crop: one part thirty, one part sixty, and one part a hundred times what was sown.”
21 He said to them, “Do you bring in a lamp to put it under a basket or under a bed? Don’t you put it on a lampstand?[2] 22 For nothing is hidden except to be brought to light, and nothing is concealed except to come out into the open. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.”
24 He went on, “Pay attention to what you hear. With the measure you use, it will be measured to you — and more will be added to you. 25 For whoever has, more will be given to him. And whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him.”
26 Then he said, “The kingdom of God is like this: a man scatters seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises, night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows — he doesn’t know how. 28 The earth produces the crop by itself: first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 And when the grain is ripe, he sends in the sickle at once, because the harvest has come.”[3]
30 He said, “What can we compare the kingdom of God to? What parable can we use for it? 31 It’s like a mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.[4] 32 But when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out big branches, so that the birds of the sky can nest in its shade.”
33 With many parables like these he spoke the word to them, as much as they were able to hear. 34 He didn’t speak to them without a parable, but when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything.
35 That same day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” 36 So they left the crowd and took him along in the boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him too.
37 A fierce windstorm came up, and the waves were crashing into the boat so that it was already filling with water.[5] 38 Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. They woke him and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re dying?”
39 He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet! Be still!” The wind died down, and there was a great calm.[6]
40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
41 They were terrified and said to one another, “Who is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Notes
Note 1. These lines quote Isaiah 6:9-10, words God gives the prophet at his commissioning about a people who hear but will not grasp what they hear. ↩
Note 2. The “basket” is a modion, a Roman dry measure for grain holding roughly 8.5 liters — about a peck. It was an everyday household object. ↩
Note 3. The phrase echoes Joel 3:13, “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.” In Joel the harvest imagery is one of judgment on the nations, gathered when their time has come. ↩
Note 4. The plant is a cultivated black mustard (Sinapis/Brassica nigra), grown in Palestinian gardens and known for tiny seeds that were proverbially small. ↩
Note 5. The Sea of Galilee sits in a deep basin some 700 feet below sea level, ringed by hills and, to the east, the Golan Heights. Cold air rushing down from those heights collides with the warm air over the water, producing the sudden violent squalls the region is known for. ↩
Note 6. The second command, “pephimōso,” literally means “be muzzled” — the same verb Jesus uses to silence an unclean spirit earlier in Mark (1:25). The gentle English “be still” does not carry that. ↩