Mark 4:26–41

Parable of the Seed

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 by day, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know.

²⁸“The soil produces crops by itself; first the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head.

²⁹“But when the crop permits, he immediately ^1aputs in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30aAnd He said, “How shall we ^1bpicture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it?

³¹“It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than 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; so that ^athe birds of the ¹air can nest under its shade.”

³³With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear it;

³⁴and He did not speak to them ^awithout a parable; but He was ^bexplaining everything privately to His own disciples.

Jesus Stills the Sea

^35aOn that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.”

³⁶¹Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them ^ain the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him.

³⁷And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up.

³⁸Jesus 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 ^arebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and ¹it became perfectly calm.

⁴⁰And He said to them, “Why are you ¹afraid? ^aHow is it that you 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?”