“To what then should I compare the people of this generation, and what are they like?

Thus Jesus asked, “What is the kingdom of God like? To what should I compare it?

It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with three measures of flour until all the dough had risen.”

“Everyone who comes to me and listens to my words and puts them into practice – I will show you what he is like:

be like people waiting for their master to come back from the wedding celebration, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him.

But the person who hears and does not put my words into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against that house, it collapsed immediately, and was utterly destroyed!”

They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to one another, ‘We played the flute for you, yet you did not dance; we wailed in mourning, yet you did not weep.’

It is like a mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his garden. It grew and became a tree, and the wild birds nested in its branches.”

He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep, and laid the foundation on bedrock. When a flood came, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built.