Episode 250: He is beside himself

Mark 3-4

A man with a withered hand

3 ¹ When Jesus went again to the synagogue, he saw a man with a withered hand.

² Some watched to see if he would heal on the sabbath day, so they could accuse him.

⁴ Jesus said to those who were watching, “Is it lawful to do good or evil on sabbath days?”

But no one answered him.

⁵ Jesus looked at them in anger, and then said to the man, “Hold out your hand.”

And when he held out his hand, it was no longer withered.

⁶ Then the Pharisees went to meet with the Herodians to devise a plot to destroy Jesus.

Jesus to the unclean spirts: Don't tell anyone who I am

¹¹ When the unclean spirits saw Jesus, they fell down and cried, “You are the Son of God.”

¹² Jesus commanded them not tell anyone who he was.

The twelve apostles

^13-15 Jesus and his disciples climbed a mountain, where he ordained twelve of them and sent them forth to preach, to heal the sick, and to cast out devils.

¹⁶ These are the twelve men that Jesus ordained: Simon (whom Jesus called Peter),

¹⁷ James, the son of Zebedee, and John, James's brother (whom Jesus called the sons of thunder),

¹⁸ Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James, the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Canaanite,

¹⁹ and Judas (who betrayed him).

Jesus's family think he's crazy

²⁰ So many people came to the house that Jesus and his disciples couldn't even eat.

²¹ When Jesus's family heard about it, they went to constrain him, saying, “He is beside himself.”

Jesus and Beelzebub

²² The scribes from Jerusalem said, “He is possessed by Beelzebub. He casts out devils by the power of the prince of devils.”

^23-24 Jesus said, “How can Satan cast out Satan? A kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.”

The unforgivable sin: blasphemy against the Holy Ghost

^28-29 Jesus said, “All sins will be forgiven, except for blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. That sin will never be forgiven, and whoever is guilty of it is in danger of eternal damnation.”

³⁰ Jesus said these things, because people were saying he had an unclean spirit.

Jesus: Who is my mother?

³¹ Jesus's mother and brothers stood outside and called to him.

³² The crowd that was standing around said to Jesus, “Your mother and your brothers would like to see you.”

³³ Jesus said to them, “Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?”

³⁴ Then he looked at the crowd around him and said,

These are my mother and brothers!

³⁵ Whoever does the will of God is my brother, sister, and mother.

The parable of the sower

4 ¹ Jesus began again to teach on the seashore.

² A large crowd gathered to see him, so he boarded a boat, leaving the crowd on the shore.

³ From the boat he said many things to them, such as this parable:

⁴ A sower sowed some seeds that fell on the wayside, and the birds ate them up.

⁵ Some seeds fell on rocky soil, were burnt by the sun, and withered away because they had no roots.

⁷ Some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.

⁸ But others fell onto good ground, producing 100, 60, or 30 times as much seed as was scattered.

The purpose of the parables (to confuse people)

¹⁰ Later when the twelve were alone with Jesus, they asked him to explain the parable to them.

^11-12 Jesus said,

You are permitted to understand what I'm saying about the kingdom of God, but to everyone else, I speak in parables, so they see and hear, but don't understand, lest they should be converted and their sins be forgiven.

Jesus explains the parable of the sower

Then Jesus said to them,

¹³ If you can't understand this parable, how will you understand any of the others?

¹⁴ The sower sows the word.

¹⁵ The seed that falls by the wayside are the people who hear the word, but Satan comes and takes it from their hearts.

^16-17 The stony ground refers to people who hear the word gladly, but give up when troubles and persecution comes.

^18-19 The ones who are like seeds sown among thorns have the word choked by the riches and cares of this world.

²⁰ And the seed on good ground are like people who receive the word and bring forth fruit thirty or a hundredfold.

Candles, secrets, haves, and have nots

²¹ Should you put a candle under a bushel or bed, or on a candlestick?

²² Nothing will be hidden or kept secret. Everything will be exposed.

²⁵ Those who have will be given more. And those who have not will have what little they have taken from them.

More seeds

²⁶ The kingdom of heaven is like a man who planted seeds in the ground.

²⁷ He went to sleep, and the next morning the seeds sprouted.

²⁸ And soon the plants were ready to harvest.

²⁹ So he harvested them.

A mustard seed

^30-31The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth.

³² But it grows to become the largest of all herbs, with branches that are large enough for birds to nest.

Jesus calms a storm

³⁵ That evening, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let’s go to the other side.”

³⁷ While they were crossing, a storm came up and swamped the boat that Jesus was in.

³⁸ Jesus was asleep, so they woke him up, saying, “We're all going to die. Don't you care?”

³⁹ Jesus woke up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, saying, “Be quiet.” And it was calm.

⁴¹ And they were all afraid, saying to one another, “What kind of man is this that even the wind and sea obey him?”