Mark 4-5

Common English Bible

Parable of the soils

4 Jesus began to teach beside the lake again. Such a large crowd gathered that he climbed into a boat there on the lake. He sat in the boat while the whole crowd was nearby on the shore. ² He said many things to them in parables. While teaching them, he said, ³ “Listen to this! A farmer went out to scatter seed. ⁴ As he was scattering seed, some fell on the path; and the birds came and ate it. ⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground where the soil was shallow. They sprouted immediately because the soil wasn’t deep. ⁶ When the sun came up, it scorched the plants; and they dried up because they had no roots. ⁷ Other seed fell among thorny plants. The thorny plants grew and choked the seeds, and they produced nothing. ⁸ Other seed fell into good soil and bore fruit. Upon growing and increasing, the seed produced in one case a yield of thirty to one, in another case a yield of sixty to one, and in another case a yield of one hundred to one.” ⁹ He said, “Whoever has ears to listen should pay attention!”

Jesus explains his parable

¹⁰ When they were alone, the people around Jesus, along with the Twelve, asked him about the parables. ¹¹ He said to them, “The secret of God’s kingdom has been given to you, but to those who are outside everything comes in parables. ¹² This is so that they can look and see but have no insight, and they can hear but not understand. Otherwise, they might turn their lives around and be forgiven.

¹³ “Don’t you understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? ¹⁴ The farmer scatters the word. ¹⁵ This is the meaning of the seed that fell on the path: When the word is scattered and people hear it, right away Satan comes and steals the word that was planted in them. ¹⁶ Here’s the meaning of the seed that fell on rocky ground: When people hear the word, they immediately receive it joyfully. ¹⁷ Because they have no roots, they last for only a little while. When they experience distress or abuse because of the word, they immediately fall away. ¹⁸ Others are like the seed scattered among the thorny plants. These are the ones who have heard the word; ¹⁹ but the worries of this life, the false appeal of wealth, and the desire for more things break in and choke the word, and it bears no fruit. ²⁰ The seed scattered on good soil are those who hear the word and embrace it. They bear fruit, in one case a yield of thirty to one, in another case sixty to one, and in another case one hundred to one.”

Parables about lamps and measures

²¹ Jesus said to them, “Does anyone bring in a lamp in order to put it under a basket or a bed? Shouldn’t it be placed on a lampstand? ²² Everything hidden will be revealed, and everything secret will come out into the open. ²³ Whoever has ears to listen should pay attention!”

²⁴ He said to them, “Listen carefully! God will evaluate you with the same standard you use to evaluate others. Indeed, you will receive even more. ²⁵ Those who have will receive more, but as for those who don’t have, even what they don’t have will be taken away from them.”

More parables about God’s kingdom

²⁶ Then Jesus said, “This is what God’s kingdom is like. It’s as though someone scatters seed on the ground, ²⁷ then sleeps and wakes night and day. The seed sprouts and grows, but the farmer doesn’t know how. ²⁸ The earth produces crops all by itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full head of grain. ²⁹ Whenever the crop is ready, the farmer goes out to cut the grain because it’s harvesttime.”

³⁰ He continued, “What’s a good image for God’s kingdom? What parable can I use to explain it? ³¹ Consider a mustard seed. When scattered on the ground, it’s the smallest of all the seeds on the earth; ³² but when it’s planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all vegetable plants. It produces such large branches that the birds in the sky are able to nest in its shade.”

³³ With many such parables he continued to give them the word, as much as they were able to hear. ³⁴ He spoke to them only in parables, then explained everything to his disciples when he was alone with them.

Jesus stops a storm

³⁵ Later that day, when evening came, Jesus said to them, “Let’s cross over to the other side of the lake.” ³⁶ They left the crowd and took him in the boat just as he was. Other boats followed along.

³⁷ Gale-force winds arose, and waves crashed against the boat so that the boat was swamped. ³⁸ But Jesus was in the rear of the boat, sleeping on a pillow. They woke him up and said, “Teacher, don’t you care that we’re drowning?”

³⁹ He got up and gave orders to the wind, and he said to the lake, “Silence! Be still!” The wind settled down and there was a great calm. ⁴⁰ Jesus asked them, “Why are you frightened? Don’t you have faith yet?”

⁴¹ Overcome with awe, they said to each other, “Who then is this? Even the wind and the sea obey him!”

Jesus frees a demon-possessed man

5 Jesus and his disciples came to the other side of the lake, to the region of the Gerasenes. ² As soon as Jesus got out of the boat, a man possessed by an evil spirit came out of the tombs. ³ This man lived among the tombs, and no one was ever strong enough to restrain him, even with a chain. ⁴ He had been secured many times with leg irons and chains, but he broke the chains and smashed the leg irons. No one was tough enough to control him. ⁵ Night and day in the tombs and the hills, he would howl and cut himself with stones. ⁶ When he saw Jesus from far away, he ran and knelt before him, ⁷ shouting, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? Swear to God that you won’t torture me!”

⁸ He said this because Jesus had already commanded him, “Unclean spirit, come out of the man!”

⁹ Jesus asked him, “What is your name?”

He responded, “Legion is my name, because we are many.” ¹⁰ They pleaded with Jesus not to send them out of that region.

¹¹ A large herd of pigs was feeding on the hillside. ¹² “Send us into the pigs!” they begged. “Let us go into the pigs!” ¹³ Jesus gave them permission, so the unclean spirits left the man and went into the pigs. Then the herd of about two thousand pigs rushed down the cliff into the lake and drowned.

¹⁴ Those who tended the pigs ran away and told the story in the city and in the countryside. People came to see what had happened. ¹⁵ They came to Jesus and saw the man who used to be demon-possessed. They saw the very man who had been filled with many demons sitting there fully dressed and completely sane, and they were filled with awe. ¹⁶ Those who had actually seen what had happened to the demon-possessed man told the others about the pigs. ¹⁷ Then they pleaded with Jesus to leave their region.

¹⁸ While he was climbing into the boat, the one who had been demon-possessed pleaded with Jesus to let him come along as one of his disciples. ¹⁹ But Jesus wouldn’t allow it. “Go home to your own people,” Jesus said, “and tell them what the Lord has done for you and how he has shown you mercy.” ²⁰ The man went away and began to proclaim in the Ten Cities all that Jesus had done for him, and everyone was amazed.

Jesus heals two people

²¹ Jesus crossed the lake again, and on the other side a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. ²² Jairus, one of the synagogue leaders, came forward. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet ²³ and pleaded with him, “My daughter is about to die. Please, come and place your hands on her so that she can be healed and live.” ²⁴ So Jesus went with him.

A swarm of people were following Jesus, crowding in on him. ²⁵ A woman was there who had been bleeding for twelve years. ²⁶ She had suffered a lot under the care of many doctors, and had spent everything she had without getting any better. In fact, she had gotten worse. ²⁷ Because she had heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his clothes. ²⁸ She was thinking, If I can just touch his clothes, I’ll be healed. ²⁹ Her bleeding stopped immediately, and she sensed in her body that her illness had been healed.

³⁰ At that very moment, Jesus recognized that power had gone out from him. He turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched my clothes?”

³¹ His disciples said to him, “Don’t you see the crowd pressing against you? Yet you ask, ‘Who touched me?’” ³² But Jesus looked around carefully to see who had done it.

³³ The woman, full of fear and trembling, came forward. Knowing what had happened to her, she fell down in front of Jesus and told him the whole truth. ³⁴ He responded, “Daughter, your faith has healed you; go in peace, healed from your disease.”

³⁵ While Jesus was still speaking with her, messengers came from the synagogue leader’s house, saying to Jairus, “Your daughter has died. Why bother the teacher any longer?”

³⁶ But Jesus overheard their report and said to the synagogue leader, “Don’t be afraid; just keep trusting.” ³⁷ He didn’t allow anyone to follow him except Peter, James, and John, James’ brother. ³⁸ They came to the synagogue leader’s house, and he saw a commotion, with people crying and wailing loudly. ³⁹ He went in and said to them, “What’s all this commotion and crying about? The child isn’t dead. She’s only sleeping.” ⁴⁰ They laughed at him, but he threw them all out. Then, taking the child’s parents and his disciples with him, he went to the room where the child was. ⁴¹ Taking her hand, he said to her, “Talitha koum,” which means, “Young woman, get up.” ⁴² Suddenly the young woman got up and began to walk around. She was 12 years old. They were shocked! ⁴³ He gave them strict orders that no one should know what had happened. Then he told them to give her something to eat.