14. So God's promise came true, just as the prophet Isaiah had said,“These people will listenand listen,but never understand.They will look and look,but never see.
15. All of them havestubborn minds!Their ears are stopped up,and their eyes are covered.They cannot see or hearor understand.If they could,they would turn to me,and I would heal them.”
16. But God has blessed you, because your eyes can see and your ears can hear!
17. Many prophets and good people were eager to see what you see and to hear what you hear. But I tell you that they did not see or hear.
18. Now listen to the meaning of the story about the farmer:
19. The seeds that fell along the road are the people who hear the message about the kingdom, but don't understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches the message from their hearts.
20. The seeds that fell on rocky ground are the people who gladly hear the message and accept it straight away.
21. But they don't have deep roots, and they don't last very long. As soon as life gets hard or the message gets them in trouble, they give up.
22. The seeds that fell among the thorn bushes are also people who hear the message. But they start worrying about the needs of this life and are fooled by the desire to get rich. So the message gets choked out, and they never produce anything.
23. The seeds that fell on good ground are the people who hear and understand the message. They produce as much as a hundred or sixty or thirty times what was planted.
24. Jesus then told them this story:The kingdom of heaven is like what happened when a farmer scattered good seed in a field.
25. But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and scattered weeds in the field and then left.
26. When the plants came up and began to ripen, the farmer's servants could see the weeds.