Embrace and Refrain

⁴⁶ While Yeshua was still speaking to the crowds, His mother and brothers were standing outside, trying to speak to Him. ⁴⁷ Someone said to Him, “Look, Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, trying to speak to You.”^[a]

⁴⁸ But to the one telling Him this, Yeshua responded, “Who is My mother? And who are My brothers?” ⁴⁹ Stretching out His hand toward His disciples, He said, “Here are My mother and My brothers. ⁵⁰ For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.”

Simple Stories, Profound Truths

13 On that day after Yeshua left the house, He was sitting by the sea. ² And large crowds gathered around Him; so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the shore. ³ And He told them many things in parables, saying, “Behold, a sower went out to spread some seed. ⁴ As he was scattering the seed, some seeds fell by the road; and the birds came and ate them up. ⁵ Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they didn’t have much soil. They sprang up immediately, because the soil wasn’t deep. ⁶ But when the sun came up, they were scorched; and because they had no roots, they withered away. ⁷ Other seeds fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew and choked them out. ⁸ But others fell on good soil and were producing fruit. They yielded a crop—some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ He who has ears,^[b] let him hear.”

¹⁰ Then the disciples came to Him and said, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

¹¹ And He replied to them, “To you has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ¹² For whoever has, to him more will be given and he will have plenty. But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³ For this reason I speak to them in parables,

¹⁴ “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says,

¹⁶ “But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷ Amen, I tell you, many a prophet and tzaddik longed to see what you are seeing and did not see, and to hear what you are hearing and did not hear.”

Parable of the Sower Explained

¹⁸ “You then, hear the parable of the sower. ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and doesn’t understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the one having been sown along the road.

²⁰ “The one sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. ²¹ Yet he has no root himself but lasts only a short while; and when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he falls away.

²² “But the one sown among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word; and the worries of the world and the seduction of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.

²³ “Now the one sown on the good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands. He indeed bears fruit, yielding a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty times what was sown.”