Mark 4:10-16

Later, when Jesus was alone, the twelve apostles and others around him asked him about the stories. Jesus said, “You can know the secret about the kingdom of God. But to other people I tell everything by using stories so that: ‘They will look and look, but they will not learn. They will listen and listen, but they will not understand. If they did learn and understand, they would come back to me and be forgiven.’ ” Then Jesus said to his followers, “Don’t you understand this story? If you don’t, how will you understand any story? The farmer is like a person who plants God’s message in people. Sometimes the teaching falls on the road. This is like the people who hear the teaching of God, but Satan quickly comes and takes away the teaching that was planted in them. Others are like the seed planted on rocky ground. They hear the teaching and quickly accept it with joy.