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1236
MARK 4
seed ­comes up and ­grows. It hap­pens
wheth­er the farm­er s ­ leeps or gets up.
He ­doesn’t know how it hap­pens. 28  All
by it­self the soil pro­duc­es ­grain. ­First
the ­stalk ­comes up. Then the head ap­
pears. Fi­nal­ly, the full ­grain ap­pears in
the head. 29  Be­fore long the ­grain rip­ens.
So the farm­er cuts it down, be­cause the
har­vest is ­ready.”
THE STORY OF THE MUSTARD
SEED
30  ­Again ­Jesus said, “What can we say
God’s king­dom is like? What sto­ry can
we use to ex­plain it? 31  It is like a mus­
tard seed, ­which is the small­est of all
seeds on ­earth. 32  But when you ­plant
the seed, it g ­ rows. It be­comes the larg­est
of all gar­den ­plants. Its branch­es are so
big that b
­ irds can rest in its ­shade.”
33  Us­ing many sto­ries like ­these, ­Jesus
spoke the word to them. He told them as
much as they ­could un­der­stand. 34  He
did not say any­thing to them with­out us­
ing a sto­ry. But when he was a ­ lone with
his dis­ci­ples, he ex­plained ev­ery­thing.
JESUS CALMS THE STORM
35  When eve­ning came, ­Jesus said to
his dis­ci­ples, “­Let’s go over to the oth­er
side of the lake.” 36  They left the ­crowd
be­
hind. And they took him ­
along in
a boat, just as he was. ­There were also
oth­er b
­ oats with him. 37  A wild ­storm
came up. W
­ aves c ­ rashed over the boat.
It was ­about to sink. 38  ­Jesus was in the
back, sleep­ing on a cush­ion. The dis­ci­
ples woke him up. They said, “Teach­er!
Don’t you care if we ­drown?”
39  He got up and or­dered the wind to
stop. He said to the w
­ aves, “Qui­et! Be
still!” Then the wind died down. And it
was com­plete­ly calm.
40  He said to his dis­ci­ples, “Why are
you so a ­ fraid? D
­ on’t you have any f ­ aith
at all yet?”
41  They were ter­
ri­
fied. They a ­ sked
each oth­er, “Who is this? Even the wind
and the w
­ aves obey him!”
JESUS HEALS A MAN
CONTROLLED BY DEMONS
They went a ­ cross the Sea of Gal­
i­lee to the area of the Ger­a s ­ enes.
2  ­Jesus got out of the boat. A man
con­trolled by an evil spir­it came from
the ­
tombs to meet him. 3  The man
lived in the t ­ ombs. No one c ­ ould keep
him tied up any­more. Not even a c ­ hain
could hold him. 4  His ­hands and feet
had of­
ten been ­
chained. But he tore
the ­chains ­apart. And he ­broke the iron
cuffs on his an­kles. No one was ­strong
enough to con­trol him. 5  ­Night and day
5
WHAT’S A PARABLE?
A “parable” is a story that teaches a lesson. ­Jesus told many parables.
Sometimes his parables hid the truth from p ­ eople who were not really
interested in obeying him.
Sometimes parables taught the truth to p ­ eople who
were interested and wanted to learn. P ­ eople
who wanted to learn asked J ­ esus to explain the
story. As soon as he did, they understood
the lesson.
  Mark 4:33
Related vers
es:
Matthew 13:34 –
 35