Mark 4:26-41 ▼

26 He was also saying, |The kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seeds on the ground.

27 He sleeps and gets up night and day while the seeds sprout and grow, although he doesn't know how

28 the ground produces grain by itself—first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head.

29 But when the grain is ripe, he immediately starts cutting with his sickle because the harvest time has come.|

30 He was also saying, |How can we show what the kingdom of God is like, or what parable can we use to describe it?

31 It's like a mustard seed planted in the ground. Although it's the smallest of all the seeds on earth,

32 when it's planted it comes up and becomes larger than all the garden plants. It grows such large branches that the birds in the sky can nest in its shade.|

33 With many other parables like these, Jesus kept speaking his message to them according to their ability to understand.

34 He did not tell them anything without using a parable, though he explained everything to his disciples in private.

35 That day, when evening had come, he told them, |Let's cross to the other side.|

36 So they left the crowd and took him away in a boat without making any special preparations. Other boats were with him.

37 A violent windstorm came up, and the waves began breaking into the boat, so that the boat was rapidly becoming swamped.

38 But Jesus was in the back of the boat, asleep on a cushion. So they woke him up and asked him, |Teacher, don't you care that we're going to die?|

39 Then he got up, rebuked the wind, and told the sea, |Calm down! Be still!| Then the wind stopped blowing, and there was a great calm.

40 He asked them, |Why are you such cowards? Don't you have any faith yet?|

41 Overcome with fear, they kept saying to one another, |Who is this man? Even the wind and the sea obey him!|