This week's study is on the parables in Mark 4. The Gospel of Mark has the fewest parables of any of the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). For many years scholars have argued over the meaning and interpretation of Jesus’ parables: How to interpret what they mean, why Jesus used them, what kind of lessons they were intended to reveal, and how literally they were to be taken, or whether they were purely allegory, and so forth. Obviously we are not going to solve all these issues in this week’s lesson. Instead, we are going to look at them and, by God’s grace, come away with an understanding of the points Jesus made through these parables.

Mark 2:1–3:6 contains five stories that illustrate Jesus’ teaching in contrast to the teaching of the religious leaders. The stories are in a specific pattern in which each successive story links to the one before via a topical parallel. The final story circles around and reconnects with the first one. Each one of these stories illustrates aspects of who Jesus is, as exemplified by the statements in Mark 2:10, 17, 20, 28. The lessons for Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday will delve deeper into the meaning of these accounts and Christ’s statements in them.

Mark 3:20–35 is the subject for study on Wednesday and Thursday. What we will see, too, is an example of a technique the Gospel writer uses that is called “sandwich stories.”

Each Gospel introduces the beginning of Jesus’ ministry in a particular way. Matthew presents Jesus as calling disciples and then preaching the Sermon on the Mount. Luke tells the story of Jesus’ inaugural sermon on a Sabbath in the synagogue in Nazareth. John recounts the calling of some of the early disciples and the wedding at Cana, where Jesus performs His first sign. The Gospel of Mark recounts the calling of four disciples and describes a Sabbath in Capernaum and what followed.

This “Sabbath with Jesus” at the beginning of Mark gives the reader a sense of who Jesus is. In the entire section for this week’s lesson, there are very few of His words recorded: a brief call to discipleship, a command to a demon, a plan to visit other locations, and the healing of a leper with instructions to show himself before a priest to be clean. The emphasis is on action, particularly healing people.