And again he began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gathered to him, so that having got into a boat, he sits on the sea, and the whole crowd was toward the sea on the land. 2 And he was teaching them many things in parables and he was saying to them in his teaching, 3 “Listen, behold, the sower went out to sow, 4 and it happened in the sowing it fell beside the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 And another fell on the rocky (place), where it did not have much earth, and immediately it sprang up because it did not have deep earth, 6 and when the sun rose, it was scorched, and because it did not have root, it dried up. 7 And another fell in the thorns, and the thorns rose up and choked it, and it did not give fruit. 8 But also it fell on the good earth and was giving fruit, rising up and bringing one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred. 9 And he was saying, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve were asking about the parables. 11 And he said to them, ‘To you the mystery of the kingdom of God has been given, but to those outside everything becomes in parables, 12 so that “seeing, they see and may not perceive, and hearing, they hear and may not understand, lest they should turn and it is forgiven them.”’[fn]The point of this quotation from Isaiah 6:9-10 is that by speaking somewhat cryptically in parables Jesus demonstrates prophetically that Israel is unable to hear the message of coming judgment.[/fn]
13 And he says to them, “Do you not know this parable, and how will you understand all the parables?” 14 The sower sows the word.[fn]The parable can no doubt be used in other contexts, but Jesus means specifically the word spoken to Israel about the coming judgment and renewal of God’s people.[/fn] 15 And these are those along the path, where the word is sown, and whenever they hear, immediately the satan comes and takes the word that has been sown in them. 16 And these are those sown on the rocky-places, those who whenever they hear immediately receive it with joy, 17 and they do not have root in themselves but are transitory, then when affliction happens or persecution because of the word, they immediately stumble. 18 And others are those sown among the thorns, they are those hearing the word, 19 and the cares of the age and the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for the remaining things, entering, they choke the word it becomes fruitless. 20 And those are the ones having been sown on the good soil and they receive and they bear fruit one thirty and one sixty and one a hundred.
21 And he said to them, “Does the lamp come in order that it might be put under the basket or under the bed, not that it might be put on the lampstand?” 22 For it is not hidden except in order that it might be revealed, and it was not secret but in order that it might come to be plain. 23 If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. 24 And he said to them, “See what you hear. In the measure you measure it will be measured to you and will be added to you. 25 For the one who has, it will be given to him; and the one who has not, even what he has will be taken from him.”
26 And he said, “So is the kingdom of God as a person as might throw the seed on the ground, 27 and he may sleep and may rise up night and day, and the seed may sprout and and may grow as he knows not. 28 Self-moved the earth bears-fruit, first a grass, then a head of grain, then full grain in the ear. 29 And whenever the fruit was delivered over, immediately he sends the sickle, because the harvest has become-present.
30 And he said, “How do we compare the kingdom of God or by what parable might present it?” 31 As to a seed of mustard, which whenever it might be sown in the earth, being smallest of all the seeds on the earth, 32 and whenever it might be sown, it rises up and becomes larger than all the vegetables and makes great branches, so that the birds of the heaven are able to live under the shade of it.[fn]Ezekiel has a parable about the tree of a new Davidic dynasty that is planted by God in Israel; it will grow to a great height, and “under it will dwell every kind of bird; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest” (Ezek. 17:23). Jesus no doubt uses the image in a similar political sense.[/fn]
33 And with many such parables he was speaking to them the word as they were able to hear. 34 Without a parable he was not speaking to them, and privately he was explaining all things to his own disciples.
35 And he says to them on that day with evening having come, “Let us pass-through across.” 36 And having left the crowd, they took him as he was in the boat, and other boats were with him.[fn]For the christological implications of the parallel with the story of Jonah see “Jesus and Jonah at sea: what the disciples learned.”[/fn] 37 And there is a great storm of wind and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat is already being filled up. 38 And he was in the stern sleeping on the cushion, and they raise him and say to him, “Teacher, is it not a concern to you that we are perishing?” 39 And having been raised up, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Be silent, be still.” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calmness. 40 And he said to them, “Why are you timid? You still have no faith?” 41 And they were afraid with a great fear and they were saying to one another, “Who then is this that even the wind and the sea obey him?”[fn]See this post for the argument that ‘Jesus is doing now as “Son of God”, on a small scale, what sooner or later God himself will do on a massive scale.’[/fn]
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