Tag: Bible Study

Mark 4

Parable of the Sower Mark 4 1-20

This parable is about how people receive the word of god.  It talks about the different ways people reject it and how one accepts it.  You know, the ones on the path, the ones, in shallow soil, the ones in the thorns, and the ones that grow great  crops.  He then tells his close followers what he meant by the whole thing.  There is something that appears to be missing and I seem to fall into this category.  What about the one who hears the word receives it, produces crops, and then, I guess to go along with the parable, withered and died? Or does nearly two decades of having this as an identity lump me in with the ones that shot up quickly but then died due to lack of soil?

The Parables of the Lamp, Growing Seed, and the Mustard Seed Mark 4 21-34

Jesus goes on to talk in more parables about faith and how it is used and what it should be like.  The interesting line that stands out to me is at the end.  It says he spoke in parables to all the crowds be only told what they meant to his disciples.  He says it’s because of a prophecy in Isaiah.  Doesn’t this become a self fulfilling prophecy.  If you’ve already read this and wanted to make sure you fulfilled it, knowing it would be a good start.

Jesus Calms the Storm Mark 4 35-41

So they are on the boat at night and a storm kicks up. They wake him up and he says “Quiet! Be Still!”  is it possible he was yelling at the people on the boat and the storm happened to calm down at the same moment.  Or maybe the storm was a bit less intense than they thought.

Mark Chapter 3

Last Weeks Study

Jesus Heals on the Sabbath

Ok so again we see Jesus doing things just to piss off the religious leaders.  I understand what is trying to be conveyed here, that it’s better to do good on a holy day than do nothing and thus changing their paradigm.  However, perhaps it would have been better to change other social ideas.  Maybe denounce slavery, or incest, or rape?

Crowds Follow Jesus

Another example of Jesus being mysterious.  He’s got people falling down and saying “You are the son of god” and he shushes them.  I still don’t understand this whole “don’t tell anyone who I am” thing.  Seems like he’d be in his prime to say who he was, if that’s who he was, in order to spread the message of it’s validity.  The one thing that comes to mind is that this wasn’t really his end game originally.

Jesus Accused by His Family and by Teachers of the Law

This opens with Jesus’ family wanting to go collect him because they thought he was crazy.  Perhaps they were right lol.  It goes on to the religious leaders accusing him of being the devil.  Jesus refutes this saying that the devil couldn’t cast out demons because that would be him fighting against himself.  I thought about this even when I was a believer.  Wouldn’t that actually be a great tactic for the devil to do?  “Look at me getting rid of all this evil!  Aren’t I doing good things?”  It seems that even though he’s driving out theses “evil spirits” they don’t seem to be “killed”.  Can you kill a spirit?  Could you prove that?  Even if that were the case, killing a few pawns to further your end game seems to be worth it.

He then goes on to completely ignore his family and say that everyone there is his family.  I’m pretty sure one of those commandments says to honor your mother and father, saying that everyone is your “mother” seems to be a bit disrespectful to your actual mother.