Mark 4:26-5:20

New American Standard Bible

Parable of the Seed

²⁶ And He was saying, “The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil; ²⁷ and he goes to bed at night and gets up daily, and the seed sprouts and grows—how, he himself does not know. ²⁸ The soil produces crops by itself; first the stalk, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. ²⁹ Now when the crop permits, he immediately ^[a](A)puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30 (B)And He was saying, “How shall we ^[b](C)picture 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 the smallest of all the seeds that are upon the soil, ³² yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that ^(D)the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.”

³³ And with many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to ^[c]understand it; ³⁴ and He did not speak to them ^(E)without a parable; but He was ^(F)explaining everything privately to His own disciples.

Jesus Stills the Sea

^35 (G)On that day, when evening came, He *said to them, “Let’s go over to the other side.” ³⁶ After dismissing the crowd, they *took Him along with them ^(H)in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷ And a fierce gale of wind *developed, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling with water. ³⁸ And yet Jesus 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?” ³⁹ And He got up and ^(I)rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and ^[d]it became perfectly calm. ⁴⁰ And He said to them, “Why are you ^[e]afraid? ^(J)Do you still have no faith?” ⁴¹ They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who, then, is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

The Demon-possessed Man Cured

5 ^(K)They came to the other side of the sea, into the region of the Gerasenes. ² When He got out of ^(L)the boat, immediately a man from the tombs ^(M)with an unclean spirit met Him. ³ He lived among the tombs; and no one was able to bind him anymore, not even with a chain, ⁴ because he had often been bound with shackles and chains, and the chains had been torn apart by him and the shackles broken in pieces; and no one was strong enough to subdue him. ⁵ Constantly, night and day, he was screaming among the tombs and in the mountains, and cutting himself with stones. ⁶ Seeing Jesus from a distance, he ran up and bowed down before Him; ⁷ and shouting with a loud voice, he *said, “^[f](N)What business do You have with me, Jesus, ^(O)Son of ^(P)the Most High God? I implore You by God, do not torment me!” ⁸ For He had already been saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” ⁹ And He was asking him, “What is your name?” And he *said to Him, “My name is ^(Q)Legion, for we are many.” ¹⁰ And he begged Him earnestly not to send them out of the region. ¹¹ Now there was a large herd of pigs feeding ^[g]nearby on the mountain. ¹² And the demons begged Him, saying, “Send us into the pigs so that we may enter them.” ¹³ Jesus gave them permission. And coming out, the unclean spirits entered the pigs; and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the sea, about two thousand of them; and they were drowned in the sea.

¹⁴ Their herdsmen ran away and reported it in the city and in the countryside. And the people came to see what it was that had happened. ¹⁵ And then they *came to Jesus and *saw the man who had been ^(R)demon-possessed sitting down, ^(S)clothed and ^(T)in his right mind, the very man who had previously had the “^(U)legion”; and they became frightened. ¹⁶ Those who had seen it described to them how it had happened to the ^(V)demon-possessed man, and all about the pigs. ¹⁷ And they began to ^(W)beg Him to leave their region. ^18 (X)And as He was getting into the boat, the man who had been ^(Y)demon-possessed was begging Him that he might ^[h]accompany Him. ¹⁹ And He did not let him, but He *said to him, “^(Z)Go home to your people and report to them ^[i]what great things the Lord has done for you, and how He had mercy on you.” ²⁰ And he went away and began to ^(AA)proclaim in ^(AB)Decapolis ^[j]what great things Jesus had done for him; and everyone was amazed.