Mark 4:21-34

²¹And He was saying to them, “A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, or under a bed, is it? Is it not brought to be put on the lampstand? ²²For nothing is hidden, except to be revealed; nor has anything been secret, but that it would come to light. ²³If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” ²⁴And He was saying to them, “Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure it will be measured to you; and more will be given you besides. ²⁵For whoever has, to him more will be given; and whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

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

³⁰And He was saying, “How shall we picture the kingdom of God, or by what parable shall we present it? ³¹It 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, ³²yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants, and forms large branches, with the result that the birds of the sky can nest under its shade.”

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