The King teaches parables about God's kingdom
13
📚The same day Jesus went out of the house, and sat by the lake. 2 📚And great crowds gathered together to him, so he went into a boat, and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the shore. 3 📚✭And he told them many things in parables, saying, “Now a sower went out to sow. 4 📚And as he sowed, some seeds fell by the path, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 📚✭Some fell on stony places, where they had not much soil. And immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 📚And when the sun was up, they were scorched, and withered away, because they had no root. 7 📚✭And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up, and choked them. 8 📚✭But others fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixty fold, some thirty fold. 9 📚✭Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear”.10 📚And the disciples came, and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?”
11 📚✭He answered and said to them, “Because it is given to you to know the mysteries✭ of the kingdom of heaven,✭ but to them it is not given. 12 📚For whoever has, to him will be given, and he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, from him will be taken away even what he has. 13 📚Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
14 📚✭“And in them is fulfilled the prophecy
of Isaiah which says,
Hearing you will hear and
will not understand,
and seeing you will see and
will not perceive.
15 📚For this people's heart has become fat,
and their ears are hard
of hearing,
and they have closed their eyes,
so that they would not at any time
see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart,
and be converted, and be healed by me.
16 📚✭“But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear. 17 📚✭For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
18 📚✭“Therefore listen to the parable of the sower. 19 📚✭When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one who received seed by the path. 20 📚✭But the one who received seed in stony places, is he who hears the Word, and immediately receives it with joy, 21 📚but he has no root in him, so lasts only for a while. For when pressure or persecution comes because of the Word, he immediately stumbles. 22 📚✭And the one who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the Word, and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful. 23 📚✭But the one who received seed in the good ground is he who hears the Word, and understands it. He indeed bears fruit.✭ Some produce a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty”.
24 📚✭He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 📚But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away. 26 📚But when the blade sprang up, and began to produce a crop, the tares also appeared.
27 📚“So the servants of the owner came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Then from where have these tares come?’
28 📚“He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The servants said to him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’
29 ✭“But he said, ‘No. While you are gathering up the tares you may also root up the wheat along with them. 30 📚✭Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will say to the reapers, “First gather the tares together and tie them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
31 📚✭He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field. 32 📚It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown, it is the largest of the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches”.
33 📚✭He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like yeast which a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until the whole was leavened”.
34 📚✭Jesus said all these things to the crowd in parables, and without a parable he did not say anything to them, 35 📚✭so that there might be a fulfilment of what was spoken by the prophet, saying,
I will open my mouth in parables.
I will utter things which have been kept
secret from the foundation
of the world.
36 📚Then Jesus sent the crowd away and went in the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain the parable of the tares of the field to us”.
37 📚✭He answered and said to them, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of man. 38 📚✭The field is the world. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, but the tares are the children of the wicked one. 39 📚The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. 40 📚Therefore just as the tares are gathered up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. 41 📚✭The Son of man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom everything that causes stumbling, and those who do evil, 42 📚and will throw them into a furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. 43 📚✭Then the righteous will shine out like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear.
44 📚✭“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field that a man finds and hides again, and for joy over it goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
45 📚“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 📚When he found one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
47 📚✭“Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the lake and caught every kind of fish. 48 📚When it was full, they pulled it to shore, sat down, and gathered the good into containers, but threw the bad away. 49 📚It will be just like this at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from among the righteous, 50 📚and throw them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth”.
51 📚✭Jesus said to them, “Have you understood all these things?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord”.
52 📚✭Then he said to them, “Therefore every scribe instructed about the kingdom of heaven is like a man who is the owner of a house who brings out of his treasure things new and old”.
53 📚And it happened that when Jesus had finished these parables, he left there. 54 📚And when he came to his own country✭, he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, “Where does this man get this wisdom, and these miracles?
The King meets with unbelief and rejection in His own town of Nazareth
55 📚✭Is this not the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother called Mary, and his brothers, James, and Joses, and Simon, and Judas? 56 And his sisters, aren't they all with us? Then where does this man get all these things?”
57 📚✭And they were offended at him. But Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honour, except in his own country and in his own house”.
58 📚✭And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief.