Mark 4:24-34

²⁴Then He said to them: “Pay attention to what you hear. With the same measure you use it will be measured to you in return; and to you who hear, more will be added.

²⁵Because whoever has, to him more will be given; whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.”

²⁶He also said: “The Kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter the seed on the ground

²⁷and should sleep and get up night and day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how.

²⁸All by itself the earth produces fruit: first a shoot, then a head of grain, then full grain in the head.

²⁹But as soon as the grain is ready, he sends in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

³⁰Again He said: “To what shall we compare the Kingdom of God, or with what sort of parable should we illustrate it?

³¹It is like a mustard seed, that when it is sown on the ground is the smallest of all such seeds,

³²yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden herbs and produces big branches, so that the birds of the air are able to rest in its shade.”

³³It was with many such parables that He was speaking the word to them, as they were able to hear it.

³⁴But apart from a parable He did not speak to them; privately, however, He would explain everything to His disciples.