MARK 4:1-20

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him as so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: " Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds ate it up. Some fell in the rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun cam up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soul. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times."
    Then Jesus said, " Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear."
    When he was alone, the twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, " The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that,
    " ' they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!' "
    Then Jesus said to them, " Don't you understand thus parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed on rocky places, hear the word at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last for only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries if this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things cone in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop some thirty, some sixty, sine a hundred times what was sown."