In Chapter Four, we hear the Parable of the Sower and learn about the purpose of the parables. Then Jesus tells those around him, and the twelve, about the lamp under the basket and what it illustrates as well as the Parable of the Seed Growing and the Parable of the Mustard Seed.
The chapter ends with Jesus calming a storm, He rebuked the wind and the sea saying, “Peace! Be still!”
Reading Mark in Advent is an 18-part podcast series that sees us upload a chapter of Mark’s Gospel each weekday of the season.
With a global pandemic sweeping the world and lockdowns and restrictions placed on our everyday living – not to mention patterns of worship and prayer – this is very much “the Word in Lockdown”.
But the Word of God is never locked down, isolated and contained. As Pope Francis says:
“The word of God is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12); it does not die, nor does it age, but it remains for ever (cf. 1 Peter 1:25). It stays young in the presence of all that passes away (cf. Matthew 25:35) and preserves those who put it into practice from inner aging.”
