Mark 4:1-12

Once again Jesus went to teach the people at the shore of Lake Galilee and a massive crowd surrounded him. The crowd was so huge that he had to get into a boat and teach the people from there. He taught them many things by using parables to illustrate spiritual truths, saying: “Consider this: A sower went out to sow. As he sowed some fell along the beaten path and soon the birds came and ate it. Some fell onto gravel with no topsoil and quickly sprouted since the soil had no depth. But when the days grew hot, the sprouts were scorched and withered because they had insufficient roots. Some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. But some fell onto good, rich soil that kept producing a good harvest. Some yielded thirty, some sixty—and some a hundredfold! If you understand this, then you need to respond.” Afterward, Jesus’ disciples and those close to him remained behind to ask Jesus about his parables. He said to them, “The privilege of intimately knowing the mystery of God’s kingdom realm has been granted to you, but not to the others, where everything is revealed in parables. “For even when they see what I do, they will not understand, and when they hear what I say, they will learn nothing, otherwise they would repent and be forgiven.”