Look at the birds in the sky; they do not plant seeds or harvest [a crop] or store [things] in barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them [adequately]. Are you not a lot more valuable than they are?

Beware of false prophets; they come to you with the garb of sheep but at heart they are ravenous wolves.

You shall know them by their fruits. Do the people gather the grape-bunches from thorns, or figs from thistles?

Also, people do not put freshly squeezed grape juice into bottles made of previously used animal skins. If they did, the [old dried-out] animal skins would break open and the grape juice would [all] leak out, and the animal skins would become useless. But people put freshly squeezed grape juice into newly prepared animal skin bottles. That way both of them will survive."

"You should pray to the Lord of the harvest to send [more] workers out into the field to gather His crop."

He said to them, "What man is there among you, who has one sheep, and if this one falls into a pit on the Sabbath day, won't he grab on to it, and lift it out?

Still others fell on good ground and produced a crop: some 100, some 60, and some 30 times what was sown.

As for what was sown among the thorn bushes, this is the person who hears the word, but the worries of life and the deceitful pleasures of wealth choke the word so that it can't produce a crop.

But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the person who hears the word, understands it, and produces a crop that yields 100, 60, or 30 times what was sown."

When the crop came up and bore grain, the weeds appeared, too.

And straight away Jesus put out his hand and took a grip of him, and said to him, O man of little faith, why were you in doubt?

“When evening came, the owner of the vineyard *said to his foreman, ‘Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last group to the first.’

"Listen to another parable [i.e., a brief story used to illustrate His teaching]: There was the owner of a farm who planted a vineyard and built a fence around it. He constructed a grape squeezing device, built a [lookout] tower [near it], leased it to tenant farmers and then went to another country.

When the grape harvest drew near, he sent his slaves to the farmers to collect his fruit.

Again, he sent other slaves, more than the first group, and they did the same to them.

And He took a cup [i.e., probably wine made from fresh or possibly preserved grape juice], gave thanks to God, then passed it to them, saying, "All of you, drink from it;

But I tell you, I will not drink of this fruit of the vine [i.e., grape juice] from now on until that day when I will drink it again with you [i.e., figuratively] in my Father's kingdom."

Pilate said to them, "Take [a group of] guards [with you]; go and make the grave site as secure as you can."