Jesus is in Jerusalem.  It is the final week running up to his crucifixion.  He will criticize spiritual showiness while encouraging us to practice complete love and commitment to God.

Mark 12.pdf

Mark 12.mp3

The primary Parable of the Sower (as Jesus calls it in Matthew 13:18) is recorded by Matthew, Mark and Luke.  This other one, also called the Parable of the Growing Seed, is only in Mark.  I like to think of it as a further elaboration on the sower’s seed sown on good ground, which “yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred” (Mark 4:8).

²⁶ And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷ and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. ²⁸ For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But when the grain ripens, immediately

Jesus begins to attract more attention, both positive and negative.  His family begin to think he is crazy.  Religious leaders accuse him of being under demonic influence.

Mark 03.pdf

Mark 03.mp3

Heavenly Father,

We see Jesus having to endure being misunderstood by his family and accused of being evil by the religious leaders of his day.

We do not want to make those mistakes. We realize that if we reject Jesus, then there is no payment available for our sins against you.

Our relationship with you, through Christ, is and always needs to be the most important relationship in our lives.

It makes us your family and gives us the truest family we will ever have – the family of God.

Help us to be obedient and willing to do your will. Help us to respond well to whatever calling you place upon our lives.

And help us to see Jesus as Lord, the one who truly deserves our worship and complete obedience.

In Christ,

Amen.

Jesus’ family thought he was losing it.  The scribes were convinced he was evil.  Neither was right.  Jesus understood them far better than they understood him.

²⁰ Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat. ²¹ And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”

²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.” … ²⁸ “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter, ²⁹ but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”— ³⁰ for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”

³¹ And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside…