Mark 4:21-34

New Testament for Everyone

A lamp on its stand

²¹ Jesus said to them, “When you bring a lamp into a room, do you put it under a bucket, or under a bed? Of course not! It goes on a lampstand. ²² No: nothing is secret except what’s meant to be revealed, and nothing is covered up except what’s meant to be uncovered. ²³ If you have ears, then listen!

²⁴ “Be careful with what you hear,” he went on. “The scales you use will be used for you, and more so. ²⁵ If you have something, you’ll be given more; but if you have nothing, even what you have will be taken away.”

More seed parables

²⁶ “This is what God’s kingdom is like,” said Jesus. “Once upon a time a man sowed seed on the ground. ²⁷ Every night he went to bed; every day he got up; and the seed sprouted and grew without him knowing how it did it. ²⁸ The ground produces crops by itself: first the stalk, then the ear, then the complete corn in the ear. ²⁹ But when the crop is ready, in goes the sickle at once, because harvest has arrived.

³⁰ “What shall we say God’s kingdom is like?” he said. “What picture shall we give of it? ³¹ It’s like a grain of mustard seed. When it’s sown on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth. ³² But when it’s sown, it springs up and becomes the biggest of all shrubs. It grows large branches, so that ‘the birds of the air make their nests’ within its shade.”

³³ He used to tell them a lot of parables like this, speaking the word as much as they were able to hear. ³⁴ He never spoke except in parables. But he explained everything to his own disciples in private.