This is a story that you know. This is one that we have all learned in Sunday school. Very familiar story. The plot is very interesting, but very simple. They have the crowds following them, like we've read about all through Mark so far. And what happens? Well, they need to get away. Well, what better getaway vehicle in the first century than a boat? Not everybody that's with them is going to have a boat. Not everybody, not many people are going to be able to fit into a boat in a crowd.

Okay, as we land here in verse 30, we're seeing a continuation of the basic theme that we've seen for the last several verses, right? Jesus is teaching in parables, and what does he use as a parable? Well, it's like a grain of mustard seed. We've been hearing a lot about seeds in the last, what, maybe 20, 30 verses? And Jesus is continuing that idea.

Alright, so what we're seeing and what we've read for today is actually a continuation of the thoughts that were prior to this in regards to the parables, the stuff that we saw last week, and particularly the idea that what Jesus is teaching is hidden. Remember, He was saying that those who have ears to hear are going to understand the parables, but those who don't aren't going to get it. And basically, the idea is that the Pharisees are going to be confused because they don't have the Spirit at work in them to help them to understand. And so, he's speaking in these parables to keep his message hidden.

As you have seen, as we read here, this is a continuation of what we read on Wednesday. This is an explanation of the parable. Now, I thought about grouping all of this together into one big group of texts. It's not that terrible long, but when I thought about it, I wanted to spend some time on the beginning part of this. We've already talked about what the parable means and this is great because this parable is explained to us by Jesus, so we know exactly what it means.

Today we land in the parable of the Sower. Now that's kind of an interesting title that's not in the text that is added later on. It doesn't have those headings, as you know, above the scripture to tell us that this is a parable of the sower. But that's what we know it as. And that's really kind of an interesting title when we stop and think about it though, isn't it?

As we come to this story that we see in verses 31 through 35, I'm reminded of the way that stories are told in movies and television shows. You know how it goes. The stories are sort of layered. You start out with something here and something is said and then you might even forget about a little bit. And then we come back to it and you think, ah, that's why that was mentioned earlier on in the story.

As I said when I started, this is an interesting passage. We come to this, and I'm actually going to start at the end. Usually we say, Let's start at the beginning. It's a very good place to start. But today we are going to start at the end because it's the most obvious thing that we are curious about. I believe we are always very naturally curious about this statement that whoever blaspheme against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness because we don't want to do it. We are very concerned about this passage. It's for that very reason. So, what does that mean?

Alright, so, as we land in verse 13 here, we're seeing a little bit different passage that we're looking at here today. But what do we have? We have a continuing of a particular theme that is that Jesus is the one with authority and now he is going to give that authority to his disciples. And we also see that Jesus has a huge following. This is a continuing, overriding, repetitious theme that's coming out of the text as we read through Mark.

As we watch the story of Jesus here in the Gospel of Mark continue unfold, we get to an interesting story where the Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus. He enters a synagogue on the Sabbath and there's a man there with a withered hand. And are the Pharisees concerned about this man and Jesus being able to heal him? No, they're concerned about catching Jesus doing this work of healing on the Sabbath day. Now, we have sort of had the idea of Jesus and the Sabbath introduced to us already in the Gospel of Mark, because Jesus and his disciples were picking grain, remember?

And so here we arrive in another passage that establishes the authority of Jesus. So, we know this story. This is rather well-known. If you've ever decided to read the Gospel of Mark, even if you didn't get all the way through, you probably got to this story, and it has some phrases that we know. So, what is happening here is the disciples are walking on the Sabbath day and they're going through some grain fields and they're hungry. Now, there was a provision in the law that said that people who were hungry, they couldn't just steal, but it wasn't stealing to pluck some heads of grain in order to eat.

Here we find one of the better known stories from the early part of Mark, the Calling of Levi, or the Calling of Matthew. Well, what happens here? Jesus goes out and he sees this crowd and he walks by Levi and he's sitting at a tax booth. He was out collecting taxes and Jesus said to him, Follow me. And what does Matthew do?

What does Levi do? He rises up and follows Jesus. He does something. He gets up and goes after Jesus. He hears the call from Jesus and he follows him.

As we have seen already in just one chapter of Mark, this book, this gospel, is clarifying and helping to define who this Jesus the Messiah is. We've seen the authority that he has that he's able to heal, that he teaches in a way that the other people do not teach. He teaches with authority. And so we see that Jesus has returned home. He's returned to where he started out this whole ministry at, and people are coming and looking for Him, and what does he do?

Another story of something that Jesus is doing, and another story that is telling us about his authority to do his ministry. Now, this is a different one because it involves cleansing a leper. We see that Jesus does something that's rather outlandish. For us, we might jump over it because we just don't think this way. But when Jesus heals him, he touches him. That would have been outrageous. You weren't supposed to touch a leper in fear that you yourself will become ritually unclean.

As I start out today, I know that you know what I'm going to say first. The words immediately are here again. Right away, we see this idea of the urgency, the continued idea that the message of Jesus is of utmost importance. It is primary. And so, what is happening in this passage that is so important that we understand? Why did Mark include this in the Book of Mark? Well, Jesus goes to the home of Simon and Andrew, and they find that Peter's mother-in-law is ill.