Mark has shown his readership the powers of Jesus then offered explanations for both the successes seed produced fruit - 4 8 and failures of his sowing and has shown God s work in the sowing of the kingdom and its invincible spread to include all nations Leaving all and followin

A couple weeks ago I attended a daily mass in a Manhattan church Pretty big church people spread out but enough people present so that everyone was just a couple pews from everyone else at most At the Sign of Peace many people just stood in place and gave a polite wave Often they were jus

Following upon the central parable of the sowing if you do not understand this parable how will you understand any other is the parable of the lamp This small parable about light meant to shine is interpreted by the notions of secret come to light Given the next words of Jesus meanin

Vineyards are one of the most powerful and pervasive symbols in the Bible with lots of stories involving them variously in both testaments The vineyard scenario is rich and malleable with changes able to be rung easily Today Isaiah s vineyard song the psalm snippet and Jesus parable all

We are at another occasion somewhat vaguely Mark joins disparate episodes into his coherent story Mark introduces us to a situation noted before where Jesus teaches large crowds so large that this time he teaches from a boat But new here is a use of parables those stories which are fictiti

Mark makes much use of shocking contrast as he presents the public life of Jesus Messiah and Son of God While Jesus pursues his life s goal of obedience to his Father others begin to define their relationships to him Crowds look on him with great favor and travel long distances to enjoy bot