February 03rd, 2024

This Sunday is usually called the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany. And the gospel reading for this Sunday [Mark 1:29-39] continues on where it left off last Sunday. But since this next Sunday will be celebrating Jesus’ transfiguration, the gospel reading for that Sunday will be from a significantly different place.

In the readings of this website, we are in the middle of what is usually called ‘chapter four’, a little farther ahead in the Gospel according to Mark when compared to the gospel reading. We are continuing on, going in order from the very beginning to the very end of that gospel account. But we will be very much behind the text on the next Sunday, when the gospel reading will be from chapter nine. Either way, the hope is that seeing and reading this work in the order that it was originally given will be helpful to you.

The progression within the Gospel according to Mark is significant, especially since the endpoint is incredibly significant. Somewhat early in the work, the writer describes that ‘all the crowd’ was coming toward Jesus (Mark 2:13), and then, later in the work, a crowd ‘again’ comes together (Mark 3:20). Finally, a crowd is described as being ‘greatest’ (Mark 4:1). More people are hearing about Jesus.

One of first parables that Jesus gives, usually called the Parable of the Sower, shows the remarkable range of responses to the seed of Jesus and his words. Jesus is significant, and his words, therefore, are also significant. And there are significantly different responses that can happen as a result of Jesus’ words.

It is interesting in the text below that what follows after Jesus gives all those words, in the middle of the storm, his followers accuse Jesus of not caring. (It is also interesting to note that those who are with Jesus at this point in time are not specifically indicated as disciples within any part of that text.) Those who are with Jesus in the storm struggled to see a caring Jesus; and Christians who were being killed for following Jesus may have the same struggle; and the present-day followers of Jesus who are in difficult situations may continue to do the same thing. This gospel account presses on to find an answer as to who this Jesus truly is. And if he is truly the Son of God (as is indicated in Mark 1:1 in many manuscripts and in Mark 1:11 in all the manuscripts), how is he going to show that?

The particular situation that each one of us is in, that situation is known completely to the God of all creation. But that fact can often lead one to a greater focus on God’s power instead of his love. And people often put Jesus’ power into that same category since he is called the Son of God.

A focus on power of God can lead to a focus on the power of ourselves in many situations. That God is powerful is not yet good news. To give a simple example, Jesus could have often said to his followers to ‘Listen up.’ That is a straight imperative or command, and that would fit with Jesus having power. Instead of a focus on power, Jesus just says, ‘If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.’ That is a very gentle imperative, and it shows that, with Jesus, there is something else more important than power.

What follows, therefore, is an attempt at a somewhat-literal translation of the rest of so-called chapter four of the Gospel according to Mark (4:21-41); and where some action in the past is described in the present, those verbs (called ‘historical presents’) are in bold print; and it may be helpful to have other texts nearby, to help with the understanding of some of the more difficult parts of the text (and there are parts that are not in some translations):

And he was saying to them, “It does not come, does it, the lamp, that under the bushel it may be placed or under the bed? It does, does it not, that upon the lampstand it may be placed? For not, it is hidden, if not that it may be manifested; nor it became hidden away, but on the contrary, that it may come into the open.”

“If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”

And he was saying to them, “See what you hear. In what measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and it will be added to you. For the one who has, it will be given to him, and the one who not he has, even what he has will be taken from him.”

And he was saying, “Thus is the kingdom of the God, as a man throws the spore upon the earth, and he sleeps and he rises, night and day, and the spore sprouts and grows, as not he knows, himself. Automatically the earth bears fruit, first grass, then an ear, then full grain in the ear. Now when it gives over, the fruit, immediately he sends out the sickle, because it has come, the harvest.”

And he was saying, “How may we liken the kingdom of the God, or in what, it, a parable, may we place? As a kernel of mustard, which, when it is sown upon the earth, smaller being of all the seeds, the ones upon the earth, and when it is sown, it comes up and it becomes greater of all the vegetables, and it makes branches, large, so as to be able, under the shade of it, the birds of the heaven to put up a tent.”

And in such parables, to many, he was speaking to them the word, just as they were able to hear; now without a parable, not he was speaking to them, now according to his own, to the own disciples, he was unloosing all.

And he says to them, in that, the day, evening having happened, “Let us go through, into the other side.” And having left the crowd, they take along him, as he was, in the boat, and other boats were with him.

And it happens, a squall, large of wind, and the waves were throwing upon, into the boat, so as already to be filled, the boat. And he, himself, was in the stern, upon the pillow, sleeping. And they raise him, and they say to him, “Teacher, you do care, do you not, that we are perishing?”

And having been raised completely, he rebuked the wind, and he said to the sea, “Be quiet; be muzzled.”

And it dropped, the wind, and it happened, a calm, large. And he said to them, “Why cowardly are you? Not yet do you have faith?”
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And they feared a fear, large; and they were saying toward one another, “Who, then, this one is, that also the wind and the sea listen to him?”