Mark 4:10-41

10As soon as He was alone, 1His followers, along with the twelve disciples, began asking Him about the parables. 11And He was saying to them, “To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but for 2those who are outside, everything comes 3in parables, 12so that 4while seeing they may see, and not perceive, and while hearing, they may hear, and not understand, otherwise they might return and it would be forgiven them.”

135And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? 14The sower sows the word. 15These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately 6Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16And in a similar way these are the ones sown with seed on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; 17and yet they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary; then, when affliction or persecution occurs because of the word, immediately they 7fall away. 18And others are the ones sown with seed among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, 19but the worries of 8the 9world, and the 10deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter and choke the word, and it 11becomes unfruitful. 20And those are the ones sown with seed on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it and 12bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundred times as much.”

21And He was saying to them, “13A lamp is not brought to be put under a 14basket, or under a bed, is it? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? 2215For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. 2316If anyone has ears to hear, 17let him hear.” 24And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. 1819By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. 2520For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

26And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; 27and he goes to bed at night and gets up daily, and the seed sprouts and grows--how, he himself does not know. 28The soil produces crops by itself; first the stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. 29Now when the crop permits, he immediately 2122puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

3023And He was saying, “How shall we 2425picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? 31It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, 32yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that 26the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.”

33And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to 27understand it; 34and He did not speak to them 28without a parable; but He was 29explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

3530On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” 36After dismissing the crowd, they took Him along with them 31in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. 37And a fierce gale of wind developed, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling with water. 38And yet Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” 39And He got up and 32rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and 33it became perfectly calm. 40And He said to them, “Why are you 34afraid? 35Do you still have no faith?” 41They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”