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.
27. The servants came and asked, “Sir, didn't you scatter good seed in your field? Where did these weeds come from?”
28. “An enemy did this,” he replied.His servants then asked, “Do you want us to go out and pull up the weeds?”
29. “No!” he answered. “You might also pull up the wheat.
30. Leave the weeds alone until harvest time. Then I'll tell my workers to gather the weeds and tie them up and burn them. But I'll order them to store the wheat in my barn.”
31. Jesus told them another story:The kingdom of heaven is like what happens when a farmer plants a mustard seed in a field.
32. Although it is the smallest of all seeds, it grows larger than any garden plant and becomes a tree. Birds even come and nest on its branches.
33. Jesus also said:The kingdom of heaven is like what happens when a woman mixes a little yeast into three big batches of flour. Finally, all the dough rises.
34. Jesus used stories when he spoke to the people. In fact, he did not tell them anything without using stories.
35. So God's promise came true, just as the prophet had said,“I will use storiesto speak my messageand to explain thingsthat have been hiddensince the creationof the world.”
36. After Jesus left the crowd and went inside, his disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the story about the weeds in the wheat field.”