Dual Panel1IT was on the same day that Jesus went out of the house and sat down by the lakeside.
2Such great crowds collected round him that he went aboard a small boat and sat down while all the people stood on the beach.
3He told them a great deal in parables, and began: "There was once a man who were out to sow.
4In his sowing some of the seeds fell by the roadside and the birds swooped down and gobbled them up.
5Some fell on stony patches where they had very little soil. They sprang up quickly in the shallow soil,
6but when the sun came up they were scorched by the heat and withered away because they had no roots.
7Some seeds fell among thornbushes and the thorns grew up and choked the life out of them.
8But some fell on good soil and produced a cropsome a hundred times what had been sown, some sixty and some thirty times.
9The man who has ears to hear should use them!"
10At this the disciples approached him and asked, "Why do you talk to them in parables?"
11"Because you have been given the privilege of understanding the secrets of the kingdom of Heaven," replied Jesus, "but they have not.
12For when a man has something, more is given to him till he has plenty. But if he has nothing even his nothing will be taken away from him.
13This is why I speak to them in these parables; because they go through life with their eyes open but see nothing, and with their ears open, but understand nothing of what they hear.
14They are the living fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy, which says: By hearing ye shall hear, and shall in no wise understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall in no wise perceive:
15For this people's heart is waxed gross, And their ears are dull of hearing, And their eyes they have closed; Lest haply they should perceive with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And should turn again, And I should heal them.
16"But how fortunate you are to have eyes that see and ears that hear!
17Believe me, a great many prophets and good men have longed to see what you are seeing and they never saw it. Yes, and they longed to hear what you are hearing and they never heard it.
18"Now listen to the parable of the sower.
19When a man hears the message of the kingdom and does not grasp it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is like the seed sown by the roadside.
20The seed sown on the stony patches represents the man who hears the message and eagerly accepts it.
21But it has not taken root in him and does not last longthe moment trouble or persecution arises through the message he gives up his faith at once.
22The seed sown among the thorns represents the man who hears the message, and then the worries of this life and the illusions of wealth choke it to death and so it produces no 'crop' in his life.
23But the seed sown on good soil is the man who both hears and understands the message. His life shows a good crop, a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."
24Then he put another parable before them: "The kingdom of Heaven," he said, "is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
25But while his men were asleep his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away.
26When the crop came up and began to ripen, the weeds appeared as well.
27Then the owner's servants came up to him and said, 'Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where did all these weeds come from?'
28'Some enemy of mine has done this,' he replied. 'Do you want us then to go out and pull them all up?' said the servants.
29'No,' he returned, 'if you pull up the weeds now, you would pull up the wheat with them.
30Let them both grow together till the harvest. And at harvesttime I shall tell the reapers, 'Collect all the weeds first and tie them up in bundles ready to burn, but collect the wheat and store it in my barn.'"
31Then he put another parable before them: "The kingdom of Heaven is like a tiny grain of mustardseed which a man took and sowed in his field.
32As a seed it is the smallest of them all, but it grows to be the biggest of all plants. It becomes a tree, big enough for birds to come and nest in its branches."
33This is another of the parables he told them: "The kingdom of Heaven is like yeast, taken by a woman and put into three measures of flour until the whole had risen."
34All these things Jesus spoke to the crowd in parables, and he did not speak to them at all without using parables
35to fulfill the prophecy: I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world.
36Later, he left the crowds and went indoors, where his disciples came and said, "Please explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field."
37"The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man," replied Jesus.
38"The field is the whole world. The good seed? That is the sons of the kingdom, while the weeds are the sons of the evil one.
39The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of this world. The reapers are angels.
40"Just as weeds are gathered up and burned in the fire so will it happen at the end of this world.
41The Son of Man will send out his angels and they will uproot from the kingdom everything that is spoiling it, and all those who live in defiance of its laws,
42and will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be tears and bitter regret.
43Then the good will shine out like the sun in their Father's kingdom. The man who has ears should use them!
44"Again, the kingdom of Heaven is like some treasure which has been buried in a field. A man finds it and buries it again, and goes off overjoyed to sell all his possessions to buy himself that field.
45"Or again, the kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls.
46When he has found a single pearl of great value, he goes and sells all his possessions and buys it.
47"Or the kingdom of Heaven is like a big net thrown into the sea collecting all kinds of fish.
48When it is full, the fishermen haul it ashore and sit down and pick out the good ones for the barrels, but they throw away the bad.
49That is how it will be at the end of this world. The angels will go out and pick out the wicked from among the good
50and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be tears and bitter regret.
51"Have you grasped all this?" "Yes," they replied.
52"You can see, then," returned Jesus, "how everyone who knows the Law and becomes a disciple of the kingdom of Heaven is like a householder who can produce from his store both the new and the old."
53When Jesus had finished these parables he left the place,
54and came into his own country. Here he taught the people in their own synagogue, till in their amazement they said, "Where does this man get this wisdom and these powers?
55He's only the carpenter's son. Isn't Mary his mother, and aren't James, Joseph, Simon and Judas his brothers?
56And aren't all his sisters living here with us? Where did he get all this?"
57And they were deeply offended with him. But Jesus said to them, "No prophet goes unhonoured except in his own country and in his own home!"
58And he performed very few miracles there because of their lack of faith.