Mark

No. 3 Mark 1:1-8
Mark is the shortest and, most scholars think, the earliest of the four Gospels, the accounts of Jesus's life written in the decades after it. It skips the birth entirely. There is no manger, no genealogy....
No. 29 Mark 2:6-11
Early in Mark's Gospel, Jesus is teaching in a crowded house in Capernaum. Four men carry a paralyzed friend to him, cannot get through the crowd, and dig through the roof to lower him down. Jesus looks at the...
No. 47 Mark 8:6-12
Jesus has been teaching a crowd of four thousand in Gentile territory for three days, and they have nothing left to eat. He takes seven loaves and a few small fish, gives thanks, and has the disciples pass...
No. 57 Mark 8:30-38
This is the turning point of Mark's Gospel. Peter has just said out loud that Jesus is the Messiah, and Jesus immediately tells the disciples to keep it quiet. Then he explains what being the Messiah means:...
No. 86 Mark 11:27-33
Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem, overturned the tables of the money changers in the temple, and come back the next day to teach in the same courts. This passage is the official delegation arriving: chief...
No. 107 Mark 4:33-41
Mark has spent the chapter on parables, and this passage is the hinge from teaching into action. Jesus explains everything privately to his disciples, then says, at evening, let us cross to the other side....
No. 134 Mark 10:17-21
A man runs up to Jesus in the road, kneels, and asks what he must do to inherit eternal life. Mark gives the details: he ran, and he knelt. This is eagerness, in public, from someone the passage will shortly...
No. 174 Mark 1:14-18
This passage is the beginning of Jesus's public work in Mark, and the timing marker matters: after John was arrested. The man who prepared the way has been taken by Herod, and that is when Jesus goes into...
No. 233 Mark 14:37-42
This is Gethsemane, late on the last night of Jesus' life. He has taken Peter, James, and John a little apart and asked them to stay awake and keep watch while he prays in the worst distress he has ever known,...
No. 292 Mark 2:23-28
Jesus and his disciples are walking through grain fields on the Sabbath, and the disciples pull off some heads of grain to eat as they go. The Pharisees pounce immediately. Plucking grain is work, work is...
No. 322 Mark 13:12-23
This is part of Jesus' hardest and most frightening discourse, spoken to his disciples about coming catastrophe. He describes families torn apart, betrayal to death, being hated for his name, and a tribulation...
No. 330 Mark 3:1-6
Jesus walks into the synagogue and there is a man there with a withered hand. But the man is not really the center of the scene at first; the watchers are. People are watching Jesus closely, the text says, to...
No. 439 Mark 5:30-34
A woman who has bled for twelve years, and has spent everything on doctors who could not help her, works her way through a jostling crowd to touch the edge of Jesus' cloak, believing that even that will heal...
No. 468 Mark 11:12-17
Mark tells this story in a deliberate sandwich. First, Jesus, hungry, comes to a fig tree covered in leaves, a tree that from a distance looks full of promise, but when he reaches it he finds nothing but...
No. 473 Mark 4:1-9
Jesus sits in a boat and teaches the crowd on the shore with the most famous of his parables: a farmer goes out to sow, scattering seed across his field, and the seed lands on four different kinds of ground....
No. 496 Mark 10:27-31
This comes right after the rich man walked away from Jesus, unable to part with his wealth, and Jesus told his stunned disciples how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom. When they ask, then who can be...
No. 571 Mark 15:1-5
Jesus has been handed over to Pilate, and the chief priests are hurling accusation after accusation at him. Pilate asks the one question he cares about, are you the King of the Jews, and Jesus gives only a...
No. 579 Mark 15:6-12
At the festival Pilate had a custom of releasing one prisoner the crowd chose, and Mark makes sure we know exactly who the alternative to Jesus was. There was a man called Barabbas, he writes, imprisoned with...
No. 624 Mark 1:25-31
In a single busy stretch, Mark shows Jesus' authority on full display. In the synagogue he silences and casts out an unclean spirit with a word, and the people are astonished: he commands even the unclean...
No. 625 Mark 13:32-37
Jesus is speaking about his return, and he begins by admitting a limit: no one knows the day or the hour, not the angels, not even the Son in his earthly ministry, only the Father. And from that uncertainty he...
No. 627 Mark 14:66-72
Just hours after swearing he would die before he denied Jesus, Peter is in the high priest's courtyard, warming himself by a fire, when a servant girl recognizes him. You were with Jesus, she says. And Peter,...
No. 719 Mark 1:38-45
Mark's Jesus is in a hurry. After a night of healing crowds at Capernaum, the disciples find him and say everyone is looking for him, and instead of going back to the crowd he says, let us go on to the next...
No. 843 Mark 15:35-39
Mark's whole Gospel has been building toward a question of who Jesus really is, and it gets its clearest human answer at the worst possible moment, from the least likely person. Jesus hangs dying, mocked by...
No. 845 Mark 16:1-7
Three women walk to the tomb at dawn on Sunday, carrying spices to anoint a dead body, and the whole way there they are worrying about a practical problem. Who will roll away the stone for us from the...
No. 886 Mark 1:32-37
It is the first burst of Jesus' public ministry in Mark. At sundown the whole town brings its sick and demon-oppressed to the door, and Jesus heals many and casts out many demons late into the night. Then,...
No. 890 Mark 2:1-5
Jesus is back in Capernaum, at home, and the crowd packs the house so tightly there is no room even at the door. Four men arrive carrying a paralyzed friend on a mat and cannot get through. So they climb up,...
No. 909 Mark 14:43-47
This is the arrest in Gethsemane. While Jesus is still speaking, Judas arrives, one of the twelve, leading an armed crowd with swords and clubs sent from the chief priests and elders. He has given them a...
No. 996 Mark 9:17-21
A desperate father has brought his son to Jesus' disciples, but they could not help. The boy is seized by a spirit that throws him down, makes him foam and grind his teeth, and leaves him rigid. When the...
No. 1045 Mark 10:1-9
The Pharisees come testing Jesus with a hot-button question: is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? Jesus turns it back: what did Moses command you? They cite the permission Moses gave for a certificate...
No. 1077 Mark 12:24-28
The Sadducees, who deny the resurrection, have tried to trap Jesus with a riddle about a woman married to seven brothers in turn: whose wife will she be in the resurrection? Jesus tells them they are mistaken...
No. 1091 Mark 15:40-47
At the cross, when the disciples have fled, a group of women stand watching from a distance, women who had followed Jesus and served him in Galilee and come up with him to Jerusalem. Then Joseph of Arimathea,...
No. 1111 Mark 14:12-16
On the day of Passover, the disciples ask Jesus where they should prepare the meal. He gives them oddly precise instructions: go into the city, and a man carrying a jar of water will meet you; follow him, and...
No. 1129 Mark 7:1-5
The Pharisees and scribes come from Jerusalem and immediately find fault: some of Jesus' disciples are eating with unwashed hands. Mark pauses to explain to his readers the whole apparatus of ceremonial...
No. 1131 Mark 14:32-36
In the garden of Gethsemane, on the night of his arrest, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John and begins to be deeply distressed and troubled. My soul is very sorrowful, he tells them, even to death; stay here...
No. 1164 Mark 9:22-27
The desperate father of the boy with the destructive spirit makes his plea: it has often thrown him into fire and water to destroy him; but if you can do anything, have compassion and help us. Jesus catches...
No. 1173 Mark 11:18-26
The morning after Jesus cursed the barren fig tree, the disciples find it withered to the roots, and Peter points it out. Jesus turns it into a lesson on prayer: have faith in God; whoever says to this...
No. 1220 Mark 7:6-13
Jesus answers the Pharisees who criticized his disciples for unwashed hands by quoting Isaiah: this people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain they worship me, teaching as...
No. 1268 Mark 9:28-32
After Jesus casts out the spirit the disciples could not, they ask him privately why they failed. This kind, he tells them, can come out only by prayer. Then, traveling quietly through Galilee, Jesus turns...
No. 1269 Mark 5:15-19
Jesus has freed the man possessed by a legion of demons, and now the townspeople find him sitting, clothed, and in his right mind. But instead of rejoicing, they are afraid, and they beg Jesus to leave their...
No. 1308 Mark 7:29-37
Two healings sit together here. First, Jesus tells the Syrophoenician woman that her faith has prevailed and her daughter is freed; she goes home to find it so. Then, back near the Sea of Galilee, they bring...
No. 1377 Mark 1:9-13
Mark tells the beginning of Jesus' ministry with breathless speed. Jesus comes from Nazareth and is baptized by John in the Jordan; and as he comes up from the water, he sees the heavens torn open and the...
No. 1462 Mark 4:21-25
Jesus gives a cluster of short sayings about hearing and light. A lamp, he says, is not brought to be put under a basket or a bed, but on a stand; and nothing is hidden except to be revealed, nothing secret...
No. 1487 Mark 6:21-25
On his birthday, Herod throws a banquet for his nobles and officers. The daughter of Herodias dances and pleases him and his guests, and the king, carried away, makes an extravagant oath: ask me whatever you...
No. 1514 Mark 6:26-36
After the death of John the Baptist, the apostles return to Jesus from their mission, gathering to tell him all they had done and taught. So many people are coming and going that they have no leisure even to...
No. 1524 Mark 9:33-37
On the road the disciples had been arguing, and when they reach Capernaum Jesus asks what they were discussing. They fall silent, ashamed, for they had been disputing which of them was the greatest. Jesus sits...
No. 1540 Mark 14:22-26
On the night before he died, as they were eating the Passover meal, Jesus took bread, blessed it, broke it, and gave it to his disciples: take, eat; this is my body. Then he took the cup, gave thanks, and gave...
No. 1551 Mark 15:29-34
On the cross Jesus is mocked from every side. Passersby wag their heads: you who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself, come down. The chief priests and scribes jeer: he saved...
No. 1652 Mark 14:6-11
A woman pours out costly ointment on Jesus, and when some grumble at the waste, Jesus defends her: leave her alone; she has done a good work for me. You will not always have me, he says; she has done what she...
No. 1655 Mark 8:20-24
After feeding the crowds, Jesus presses the disciples about their dullness: do you not yet understand? Then at Bethsaida a blind man is brought to him. Jesus takes him by the hand, leads him out of the...
No. 1713 Mark 3:20-27
The crowds press in on Jesus so that he cannot even eat, and the reactions turn hostile. His own family, hearing of it, come to seize him, saying he is out of his mind. The scribes from Jerusalem accuse him of...
No. 1783 Mark 12:12-16
Jesus' enemies, unable to seize him openly for fear of the crowd, send Pharisees and Herodians to trap him with a question. They begin with flattery: Teacher, we know that you are honest and show partiality to...
No. 1807 Mark 5:35-43
As Jesus is on his way to heal Jairus's dying daughter, word comes: the child is dead; why trouble the teacher any further? It seems too late; the situation is finished. But Jesus, overhearing, says to the...
No. 1856 Mark 10:37-41
James and John come to Jesus with a request: grant that we may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory. You do not know what you are asking, Jesus tells them. Are you able to drink the...
No. 1942 Mark 16:14-20
The risen Jesus appears to the eleven, rebukes their unbelief, and commissions them: go into all the world and preach the good news to the whole creation. He promises signs will accompany those who believe, is...
No. 1980 Mark 14:54-59
As Jesus is taken to the high priest's house for trial, Peter follows, but the text notes how: he followed from a distance, keeping back, until he came into the courtyard, where he sat with the guards and...
No. 1984 Mark 12:17-23
Asked whether it is lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, Jesus calls for a coin and asks whose image it bears. Caesar's, they answer. Then, he says, give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things...
No. 2057 Mark 9:1-6
Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain by themselves, and there he is transfigured before them. His clothing becomes dazzling white, whiter than any launderer could make it; Moses and Elijah...
No. 2073 Mark 14:1-5
Two days before the Passover, as the authorities plot to kill Jesus, a very different scene unfolds at Bethany. As Jesus reclines at table, a woman comes with an alabaster jar of pure nard, an ointment of...
No. 2105 Mark 11:7-11
Jesus enters Jerusalem to the acclaim of crowds who spread their garments and branches on the road and cry, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! It is a moment of triumph, the King...
No. 2111 Mark 6:37-44
Faced with a hungry multitude of thousands in a remote place, the disciples want Jesus to send the people away. But he tells them, you give them something to eat. They protest that it would take a fortune to...
No. 2114 Mark 5:20-29
In the press of a crowd around Jesus comes a woman who had suffered a flow of blood for twelve years. She had endured much under many physicians, spent all she had, and instead of getting better had grown...
No. 2178 Mark 9:38-50
Jesus speaks with startling seriousness about dealing with sin. If your hand causes you to stumble, he says, cut it off; it is better to enter life maimed than to keep both hands and be thrown into hell. And...
No. 2231 Mark 1:19-24
As Jesus walks by the Sea of Galilee, he sees James and John in their boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets. He calls them; and immediately they leave their father in the boat with the hired...
No. 2267 Mark 12:29-33
When asked which commandment is the greatest, Jesus answers with two. The first: hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your...
No. 2434 Mark 8:13-19
In the boat, Jesus warns the disciples to beware the yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod. They miss it entirely, muttering among themselves that it must be because they forgot to bring bread, having only one...
No. 2499 Mark 8:25-29
Mark places two openings of the eyes side by side. First a blind man is healed in stages, seeing people like walking trees before a second touch makes everything clear. Then, on the road to Caesarea Philippi,...
No. 2531 Mark 11:1-6
As Jesus approaches Jerusalem, he sends two disciples ahead with an odd errand: go into the village, find a colt tied there that no one has ridden, and untie it. If anyone asks why, say, the Lord has need of...
No. 2615 Mark 7:24-28
In Gentile territory, a Greek woman whose little daughter is tormented by an unclean spirit falls at Jesus's feet and begs him to help. His answer sounds like a closed door: let the children be fed first; it...
No. 2754 Mark 8:1-5
A large crowd has stayed with Jesus three days in a remote place, and their food has run out. Jesus turns to his disciples: I have compassion on them, because if I send them home hungry they will faint on the...
No. 2762 Mark 3:7-12
Jesus withdraws to the sea, but there is no getting away from the crowds. They come from Galilee, Judea, Jerusalem, from beyond the Jordan and the coasts of Tyre and Sidon, so many pressing to touch him that...
No. 2775 Mark 14:27-31
On the way to Gethsemane, Jesus tells the Twelve that all of them will fall away tonight, and he quotes the prophecy: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. But he adds a promise in the...
No. 2790 Mark 9:7-11
On the mountain a cloud overshadows Peter, James, and John, and a voice comes out of it: This is my beloved Son. Listen to him. Then, as suddenly as it began, it is over, and they look around and see no one...
No. 2837 Mark 4:10-20
Jesus explains the parable of the sower to those closest to him. The seed is the word of God, and it meets four kinds of ground. On the path, it is snatched away at once. On rocky soil it springs up fast but...
No. 2843 Mark 15:21-28
Mark tells the crucifixion plainly, almost without comment, and the bare details carry it. A passerby, Simon of Cyrene, is forced to carry the cross. They bring Jesus to Golgotha, offer him wine mixed with...
No. 2912 Mark 15:13-20
This scene should be read slowly. The crowd cries, Crucify him, and Pilate, wanting to please them, releases Barabbas and hands Jesus over to be flogged and crucified. Then the soldiers take him inside, dress...
No. 2954 Mark 16:8-13
The women flee the empty tomb trembling and afraid, saying nothing at first. Then the risen Jesus appears first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven demons, and she goes and tells the mourning...
No. 3067 Mark 6:12-20
The disciples go out preaching repentance, casting out demons, healing the sick. When King Herod hears of it, his guilty conscience leaps: John the Baptist, whom I beheaded, has risen from the dead. For Herod...
No. 3139 Mark 7:14-23
Jesus calls the crowd and tells them plainly: nothing that goes into a person from outside can defile him; it is what comes out of a person that defiles him. Privately he explains to the puzzled disciples:...
No. 3171 Mark 2:12-16
As Jesus passes the tax booth, he sees Levi sitting there and says two words: follow me. And Levi rises and follows him. Soon Jesus is reclining at Levi's table, surrounded by many tax collectors and sinners....
No. 3297 Mark 10:22-26
The rich man walks away sorrowful, unwilling to part with his great possessions, and Jesus turns it into a hard teaching: how difficult it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God, harder than...
No. 3302 Mark 3:13-19
Jesus goes up the mountain and calls to himself those he wanted, and they come to him. He appoints twelve, and Mark states the purpose in a striking order: that they might be with him, and that he might send...
No. 3322 Mark 14:17-21
At the Last Supper, in the intimacy of a shared meal, Jesus speaks piercing words: one of you will betray me, one who is eating with me. And notice the disciples' response. They do not point fingers at one...
No. 3340 Mark 6:45-56
The disciples strain at the oars against a contrary wind, and in the darkest part of the night Jesus comes to them, walking on the sea. When they cry out in terror, thinking him a ghost, he speaks the words...
No. 3356 Mark 12:34-44
Two contrasts close this scene in the temple. Jesus warns against the scribes who love long robes, prominent seats, and greetings in the marketplaces, who make long prayers for show while devouring widows'...
No. 3447 Mark 6:7-11
Jesus sends out the Twelve with striking instructions: take nothing for the journey, no bread, no bag, no money in your belt, only a staff and sandals. He deliberately sends them out dependent, unable to rely...
No. 3452 Mark 12:1-11
Jesus tells a pointed parable: a man plants a vineyard and rents it to tenants, but when he sends servants to collect his share of the fruit, they beat and kill them, one after another. Finally he sends his...
No. 3500 Mark 5:1-8
Jesus crosses the sea and is met by a man in utter torment, living among the tombs, so violent that no chains could hold him, crying out night and day and cutting himself with stones. He is a picture of a life...
No. 3512 Mark 13:7-11
Jesus prepares his followers for a hard road: wars, earthquakes, famines, and persecution before the end. But notice how he frames these troubles. They are the beginning of birth pains, not the throes of death...
No. 3529 Mark 3:28-35
Jesus makes a startling statement: all sins can be forgiven, even blasphemies, but blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven. This saying has troubled many, but the context makes its meaning...
No. 3609 Mark 14:48-53
As the armed crowd seizes Jesus, he points out the cowardice of it: have you come out as against a robber, with swords and clubs, to capture me? Day after day I was with you in the temple teaching, and you did...
No. 3610 Mark 4:26-32
Jesus gives two parables of the kingdom, both about seeds and growth. In the first, a man scatters seed and goes about his life, sleeping and rising, and the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how; the earth...
No. 3736 Mark 9:12-16
Coming down from the mountain of transfiguration, Jesus speaks of a mystery: yes, Elijah comes first to restore all things, and yet it is written that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be treated with...
No. 3773 Mark 10:10-16
Jesus first speaks soberly of the seriousness of marriage, that God intends it to be lasting, not lightly broken. Then, when people bring little children to him and the disciples try to turn them away, Jesus...
No. 3850 Mark 5:9-14
Confronted by a man possessed by a whole legion of unclean spirits, Jesus speaks with an authority that even these massed powers of evil cannot resist. They do not fight him; they beg him. Name yourself, he...
No. 3889 Mark 10:42-52
As Jesus leaves Jericho, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus hears that he is passing by and begins to cry out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me! The crowd tries to silence him, rebuking him and telling him...
No. 3956 Mark 6:1-6
Jesus returns to his hometown of Nazareth and teaches in the synagogue, and at first the people are astonished at his wisdom. But astonishment quickly curdles into offense: isn't this just the carpenter,...
No. 4004 Mark 2:17-22
Challenged about why his disciples do not fast like others, Jesus gives two vivid pictures. You do not sew a patch of unshrunk cloth onto an old garment, he says, or it will tear; and you do not put new wine...
No. 4021 Mark 14:60-65
On trial before the high priest, Jesus at first stays silent under the false accusations, offering no answer. But then the high priest asks the direct question: are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And...
No. 4141 Mark 10:32-36
As Jesus walks resolutely toward Jerusalem, going ahead of his amazed and fearful disciples, he tells them plainly, for the third time, what awaits him there: the Son of Man will be handed over, condemned,...
No. 4232 Mark 13:1-6
As they leave the temple, a disciple marvels at its grandeur: Teacher, look, what wonderful stones and buildings! The temple was an imposing structure of its day, seemingly permanent. But Jesus says something...
No. 4238 Mark 13:24-31
Jesus describes his return in glory: after a time of great distress, the Son of Man will come in clouds with great glory. And then he tells what he will do: he will send out his angels and gather his chosen...