Mark 4 (Jesus teaching with parables)

The key verse for this chapter sums up the chapter fairly well.

Mark 4:34 (ESV)
He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.

I subtitled Mark 4 "Using Stories". It is built on the 'U' of Jesus is the Ransom (our chapter outline acronym). To add to the memory hook, each outline point has a 'u' first word and an 's' second word.

• Using a Sower
• Using a Shining Light
• Using a Seed
• Using a Storm

Brief Commentary

Using a Sower
Church health strategies, church growth initiatives, church-wide evangelism programs......one out of four. Jesus teaches that the ratio of people who receive the Gospel and trust Him to those who ultimately reject Him is 1 out of four. And this is Jesus talking. It's the ratio that He saw in His own ministry. People (including me) tend to overlook the fact that people rejected Jesus all the time in the Gospels. Even some who followed Him, whom John calls 'disciples', turned away and stopped following Him (John 6:66). And this is after walking with Jesus Himself. How can this inspire my ministry? The numbers don't look so good. I must remember when I'm preaching, teaching, counseling, leading, confronting, evangelizing, shepherding, and contending that even if I use the exact words that Jesus Himself would have used........one out of four. Even if I give the same counsel that Jesus Himself would give, some will reject it. Even if I use the same strategy of evangelism that Jesus would use, some will reject it.
My job? I need to walk with Jesus so that I do lead and speak in the very character and mind of Jesus.....and trust the response to God. I must be true to Jesus and His Word.....and trust the response to God. I must proclaim the truth and beauty of the Gospel of Jesus to the crowds and to individuals (to all who have ears to hear, v9).......and trust the response to God. Then, should He call someone and they repent of their sin and follow Jesus, we obey His commission; make disciples and baptize them.

Using a Shining Light
"This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine.....hide it under a bushel, NO..." If the Gospel is a life-giving light, we must let it 'shine' in our lives. If we don't then we won't see where to go, and we'll never be able to help others see where to go either.

2 Peter 1:19 (ESV)
And we have something more sure, the prophetic word, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, (italics mine)

Using a Seed
There are actually two 'seed' parables back-to-back in this chapter. The first is about how a seed (apparently the Gospel seed similar to the one sown in the vv 1-20) grows. Jesus teaches that a man sows the seed, but he doesn't know how it grows. But it does. And when it is ripe, the man brings in the harvest. This echoes what Paul wrote about in 1 Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 3:6-7 (ESV)
⁶ I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. ⁷ So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.

God is the originator of the Seed itself (the truth of the Gospel), but has given it to us to proclaim. God is the instigator of salvation (He alone saves people), but He has given us a role in the 'watering'. God is the initiator of growth (Holy Spirit working in us) but He commanded us to make disciples in His name. We are to sow, bring Christ to people, and make disciples. But the power of all of this lies with God alone.

The second seed parable seems to compare the growth of the Church to that of a mustard seed. Although the mustard seed is the smallest of seeds, it can grow into a large plant. Jesus' mission has played this out. His investment and training into a few men grew into a world-wide church that continues to carry out His mission today.

Verses 33 and 34 are confounding and yet comforting. Jesus taught with parables. He taught that way to the crowds to (among other things) test to see who was hungry. Then He took His disciples aside and explained it to them. He walked with them and taught them continually. Even if they didn't know it at the time, the kingdom rested on their shoulders (by the grace of God). He wanted to make sure they got it.

Using a Storm
Jesus got tired. I can't believe that He was just 'faking' being asleep, or that (as some would suppose) He just 'appeared' to be tired in order to better relate to His men. He was tired. He walked a lot, taught a lot, it was hot, and working with people is draining. So after a hard day of teaching, preaching, healing, and ministering....He wanted to get out on the water and take a nap.

And a storm came up. But He still slept. So He was either REALLY tired, or His disciples were freaking out over a storm that wasn't really that bad. Either way, they were scared, He was asleep. They wake Him up, accuse Him of not caring if they live or die, and then He displays the power of His Word.

'Peace! Be still!'

Done. No more storm.

But instead of just going back to sleep, He used this moment to challenge His men.

Mark 4:40 (ESV)
He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”

Faith. They heard Him. They followed Him. They walked all over the place with Him.

But did they trust Him?
Did they really believe Him?
Did they know Who He was?

Jesus let them get to the point of despair and then used the moment to drive home His point; remember who I am, and trust Me.

It seemed to take a long time for His own men to really trust Him. They had to walk with Him and follow Him. They had to learn, and sometimes re-learn. They had to believe who He was and what He was sent to do. Only then could they truly be disciples of Jesus.

Mark 3 (Jesus picking fights with bullies)

I'm reminded of a scene from Braveheart (which I saw many times in college, but can hardly watch anymore; unless it's the edited for TV version :)  when William Wallace gets his army all fired up and then says to his friend 'I'm going to pick a fight'.  The British looked on the rag-tag group of Scots with scorn and superiority.  Wallace was about to change everything they ever thought about how important freedom is to those who are oppressed.

Well, that was Jesus' battle cry long before William Wallace.

Luke 4:18 (ESV)
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed,

In order to free people from the oppressive bondage of the Pharisees' religion, Jesus had to pick some fights.  The title I have given to Mark 3 is 'Skirmishes'; based on the first 's' of JeSus is the Ransom.   


The thematic outline is

• Shrunken hand
• Spirits proclaim Him
• Selects the twelve
• Sacrilege against Holy Spirit
• Sisters, brothers and mothers

The key verse is

Mark 3:5 (ESV)
And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.

Brief Commentary

Shrunken hand
The Pharisees were doing their homework.  They followed Jesus around trying to figure Him out.  Here, Jesus came to them in the synagogue where He found a man who had a withered hand (side note; this would have been really cool to watch).  Knowing He was under heavy scrutiny, He picked a fight with the Pharisee bullies using a carefully crafted question.  The Pharisees didn't bite (probably still smarting from the crushing they received from Jesus before).

I really appreciate how Mark includes Jesus' emotions here.  He looked at them 'with anger' and He 'grieved at their hardness of heart'.  Then He healed the guy.  Look at the faith He challenged this man to have; Jesus made the man expose his malformed arm and extend it.  It was probably embarrassing, but certainly awkward.  But when the man stretched it out, he was healed.  Whatever faith this man had in Jesus, he used it and trusted His word.  And he was healed.  Now, Jesus did the healing, but He required the man to have a part.  I suppose a debate could be waged about the possibility that if the man didn't extend his hand then he wouldn't have been healed.  We don't know because the Bible doesn't give us that information.  But it seems that sometimes Jesus commands a person to do something in order to initiate the healing; notably the 10 lepers in Luke 17:11-19.  Jesus told them to go present themselves to the priest and 'while they went, they were healed'.  This was not to earn their healing, but to demonstrate faith and obedience to Jesus.  Hopefully we can track down this guy in heaven and ask what Jesus really did for Him that day.  I can only imagine that there was more to this story for that guy. 

Spirits proclaim Him
I haven't even looked at a map yet to see where some of these towns are and how far apart they are...but it doesn't matter.  Jesus was healing people, and crowds showed up.  So much so that we see Him making a contingency plan in case things get out of hand; a boat to get away from the crush of the crowd.

But the very interesting verse in this section is Mark 3:11.  (don't forget to use Ref-tagger; just hover over the reference and you'll see the verse pop up).  These demons are coming face to face with Jesus and they (obviously) can't handle it.  They cry out "You are the Son of God".  But Jesus strictly orders them to stop. 

I gave my wife free ammunition for teasing me one day.  I took one of those online IQ tests for fun.  Well, obviously it showed up that I am a genius :)  Well, she has no end of fun reminding me (and others) that I am a genius according to the internet.  My job is to play the 'shhh, don't say 'from the internet'' card.  But why?  The source of information labeling me a 'genius' is dubious indeed.  While me being a genius may be true (it's not, but for the illustrations sake, bear with me :), the fact is tainted by the one accrediting it.

The Bible does not say specifically why Jesus tells the demons to be silent.  And I always used to think that the demons just couldn't help themselves when they came into the presence of Jesus; they had to proclaim the truth because of His authority.  But I had another thought also.  Demons, being the minions of Satan, will try anything to discredit, disprove, or dismantle anyone's credibility when it comes to Jesus and the Gospel.  So here, knowing that their time was numbered, what if they were testifying about the true nature of Jesus in order to get people to think "Hey, how can we trust what demons say about this guy?  Who is He really?"...etc.  Or they might think that He was from Satan (see below).  Or they might just think He's crazy.  Our enemy is devious, clever and strategic, and Jesus knows it. And Jesus knew the correct time and place for the disclosure of His person and ministry; it was going to be on His terms. 

It's also interesting that the demons obeyed Him, but some people (see Mark 1:40-45) completely blew Him off. 

Selects the twelve
These guys are worth mentioning.  Not because of who they were, but because of who the became under Jesus.
Simon Peter
James
John
Andrew
Philip
Bartholomew
Matthew
Thomas
James son of Alphaeus
Thaddaeus
Simon the Cananaean
Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Him.

Sacrilege against Holy Spirit
Jesus then beautifully mixes logic and parable in His refutation of the Pharisees' accusation that He was 'of the devil'.  He blows up their argument by reminding them that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.  Then Jesus changed the focus and put it in proper perspective; He came to bind the strongman (Satan) in order to plunder (rescue) those whom were enslaved by him (lost people).  

And then He draws a line in the sand after being accused of being 'demon possessed.  "All sins can be forgiven except blasphemy against the Holy Spirit" (28-29).  This 'unforgivable sin' gets some people really worked up.  Here's my basic thought; if you are worried that you have committed the unforgivable sin, you almost assuredly have not.  A lifestyle of continually blaspheming and denying God and His free gift of salvation would not leave one wondering or caring about the unforgivable sin.  If a person rejects Jesus, disregards God, and attributes the powerful, holy work of Holy Spirit to demons, one may suppose that the unforgivable sin (that is a continued rebelliousness that never repents nor seeks forgiveness) will continue for eternity.  We need to take sin (ours and others') very seriously.  I sometimes summarize discipleship to Jesus as 'loving more of what He loves, and hating more of what He hates'.  Jesus hates sin and everything about it.  Thus His call to 'repent and believe in the Gospel' (Mark 1:15). 

Sisters, brothers and mothers
First of all, His family wasn't coming to give Him some of his favorite cookies and a pep talk.  We know they aren't really sure what to think of Jesus and His antics.  But He still uses this incident to make a point; 'My family is those who obey God and follow Me'.  I don't know if it's as much a statement against His family as it is for His disciples.  There's more to following Jesus than getting some degree or prestige.  Those who repent of sin and believe in Jesus are actually adopted by God the Father into His family.  And with that adoption comes the inheritance due a child of God; eternity in heaven with Him.