Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.
Picture a market vendor filling a basket with grain — pressing it down, shaking it to settle, piling more on until it spills over the sides. That's the image Jesus reaches for here, and it's a strange amount of detail for a simple point about generosity. He's describing abundance, not a careful, measured return.
This isn't a transaction, though it's easy to hear it that way — give more, get more, like some kind of spiritual investment strategy. Read in context, it's really about the posture you bring to other people. Generous, or stingy. Quick to give the benefit of the doubt, or quick to withhold it. Whatever you put out tends to come back around, and usually in the same shape you sent it.
You don't need to believe anything supernatural to notice this pattern in your own relationships. People generally treat you the way you've trained them to expect. This verse just says that pattern goes deeper than we usually assume.
If you're curious what it would look like to actually live generously and see what comes back, that's worth testing for yourself.
A short video on this is coming soon — for now, read on.