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 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 ^[a](A)puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30 (B)And He said, “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 smaller than 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; so that ^(D)the birds of the ^[c]air can nest under its shade.”

³³ With many such parables He was speaking the word to them, so far as they were able to hear 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 us go over to the other side.” ^36 [d]Leaving the crowd, they *took Him along with them ^(H)in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. ³⁷ And there *arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. ³⁸ 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 ^[e]it became perfectly calm.

Parable of the Mustard Seed

^30 (A)And He said, “How shall we ^[a](B)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 smaller than 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; so that ^(C)the birds of the ^[b]air can nest under its shade.”

Laborers in the Vineyard

20 “For ^(A)the kingdom of heaven is like ^[a]a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his ^(B)vineyard. ² When he had agreed with the laborers for a ^[b]denarius for the day, he sent them into his vineyard. ³ And he went out about the ^[c]third hour and saw others standing idle in the market place; ⁴ and to those he said, ‘You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.’ And so they went. ⁵ Again he went out about the ^[d]sixth and the ninth hour, and did ^[e]the same thing. ⁶ And about the ^[f]eleventh hour he went out and found others standing around; and he *said to them, ‘Why have you been standing here idle all day long?’ ⁷ They *said to him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You go into the vineyard too.’

⁸ “When ^(C)evening came, the ^[g]owner of the vineyard *said to his ^(D)foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’ ⁹ When those hired about the eleventh hour came, each one received a ^[h]denarius. ¹⁰ When those hired first came, they thought that they would receive more; ^[i]but each of them also received a denarius. ¹¹ When they received it, they grumbled at the landowner, ¹² saying, ‘These last men have worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden and the ^(E)scorching heat of the day.’ ¹³ But he answered and said to one of them, ‘^(F)Friend, I am doing you no wrong; did you not agree with me for a denarius? ¹⁴ Take what is yours and go, but I wish to give to this last man the same as to you. ¹⁵ Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with what is my own? Or is your ^(G)eye ^[j]envious because I am ^[k]generous?’ ¹⁶ So ^(H)the last shall be first, and the first last.”