The Gospel According To MarkSample

Jesus’ Ministry in the Region of Galilee: Mark 3:7-4:34

At this stage, Jesus preached and demonstrated the nearness of God’s kingdom in new areas, moving beyond Capernaum to the rest of the surrounding region. As he preached repentance and faith in these areas, he continued to attract crowds, and to inspire strong opposition. 

This section begins with Jesus’ withdrawal from the crowds in Mark 3:7-12. This paragraph sets the tone for the entire section by emphasizing that Jesus’ fame was spreading everywhere, despite his attempts to minimize it. And the resulting crowds that gathered around him made it difficult for him to minister. This difficulty appears to be one reason that Jesus extended his ministry to other areas of Galilee.

The next section of this narrative reports Jesus’ appointment of twelve of his followers to be his special disciples, as we read in Mark 3:13-19. Jesus chose these twelve disciples to help him preach the gospel and perform miracles. But Mark also reminded his readers that one of these disciples would eventually betray Jesus. Opposition to Jesus would come not just from his enemies, but even from his closest followers.

After this, Mark reported the opposition Jesus faced from teachers of the law and from his own family, as we see in Mark 3:20-35. This narrative demonstrates that as Jesus proclaimed the gospel of the kingdom with miraculous power, he faced opposition from all sides. Rather than receiving him as the Messiah, the teachers of the law believed he was possessed by the devil, and his own family believed he had lost his mind.

Following this, Jesus proclaimed the gospel through parables about the kingdom of God in Mark 4:1-34. Jesus commonly taught in parables when he was surrounded by unbelievers. He did this in order to reveal God’s kingdom to those who believed, and to hide it from those who did not. As he told his disciples in Mark 4:11-12:

The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!”

Sadly, sometimes Jesus’ parables also confused his disciples. But when this happened, Jesus explained his meaning in private to make sure they understood.

The main point of the parables in this section of Mark’s narrative is that God would bring in the fullness of his kingdom only after a long process of slow growth through the spread of the gospel. Jesus was bringing God’s kingdom to earth. But he was doing it in a prolonged way that would often require his followers to face suffering and opposition, just as he had.