26
When the plants grew and the heads of grain began to form, then the weeds showed up.
27
The man's servants came to him and said, "Sir, it was good seed you sowed in your field; where did the weeds come from?'
28
"It was some enemy who did this,' he answered. "Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds?' they asked him.
29
"No,' he answered, "because as you gather the weeds you might pull up some of the wheat along with them.
30
Let the wheat and the weeds both grow together until harvest. Then I will tell the harvest workers to pull up the weeds first, tie them in bundles and burn them, and then to gather in the wheat and put it in my barn.' "
31
Jesus told them another parable: "The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A man takes a mustard seed and sows it in his field.
32
It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it grows up, it is the biggest of all plants. It becomes a tree, so that birds come and make their nests in its branches."
33
Jesus told them still another parable: "The Kingdom of heaven is like this. A woman takes some yeast and mixes it with a bushel of flour until the whole batch of dough rises."
34
Jesus used parables to tell all these things to the crowds; he would not say a thing to them without using a parable.
35
He did this to make come true what the prophet had said,
1 "I will use parables when I speak to them; I will tell them things unknown since the creation of the world."
36
When Jesus had left the crowd and gone indoors, his disciples came to him and said, "Tell us what the parable about the weeds in the field means."