In the course of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus cast down many demons. But this incident is one of the more remarkable, as well as one of the most memorable. “And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of …
Fear of Not Drowning
In this portion of our gospel we will consider the role of light in the world, and then two more examples of Christ’s teaching light. In the last part of the chapter, we see Christ command the wind and waves, and the disciples respond to this with the question that the gospel of Mark was …
A Sower Went Out to Sow His Seed
The teaching of Jesus is characterized by the parable. He teaches with concrete images, not abstractions, common situations, not convoluted hypotheticals. The first extended parable in this gospel is that of the sower, and, as we shall see, it is the key to the subsequent parables. Again, the setting of His teaching is by the …
Lord of Lords or Lord of Flies?
In this passage, some scribes from Jerusalem are guilty of an enormity, and Jesus pronounces that those who accept this line of argument are in danger of a fearful judgment — that of eternal damnation. “And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth …
The Disciples
The Bible teaches us that the twelve apostles are in an important sense foundational to the Church. We are the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Himself as the cornerstone (Eph.2:20). We too often think of only the cornerstone, forgetting the rest of the foundation. “But Jesus …
Withered Sabbatarian Hearts
The last two controversies of the five we have been considering are sabbath controversies. The nature of these controversies illustrates a perennial problem among those who take the words of God seriously. That problem is one of arbitrary selectivity. “And it came to pass, that he went through the corn fields on the sabbath day; …
New Wine
We have seen that there are a series of five conflicts at the beginning of Mark’s Gospel. We come now to consider the second and third of them. As you recall, the first concerned the authority of Christ to forgive the sins of the paralytic. We come here to the problem of associating with disreputable …
Follow the Lord, Follow the Argument
Through the first half of the book, Mark repeatedly asks a question in various ways. That question is, “Who is this man?” The question is finally answered in Mark 8:29. Jesus is the Christ. Now in this section, the question begins to be built up and posed through various conflicts. “And again he entered into …
Deliver Us From the Obvious
When the Lord is pleased to reveal His wisdom to us, we must take very great care not to add our own improvements. “And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed” (Mark 1:35-45). In the book of Mark, Jesus is …
The Holy One of God
We begin here with Christ’s teaching ministry. This leads directly to a public exorcism in the synagogue, followed by a private healing at Simon and Andrew’s house, and then, when the word got around, many healings and exorcisms at the front door of that house. “And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the sabbath …