May 18, 2025: Jesus Teaches from the Boat Mark 4:1-20 Rev. Dr. Rhonda Abbott Blevins
Jesus Teaches from the Boat
Mark 4:1-20
Rev. Dr. Rhonda Abbott Blevins
May 18, 2025
Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he
got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the
land. 2 He began to teach them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to
them: 3 “Listen! A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell on a path, and the
birds came and ate it up. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil,
and it sprang up quickly, since it had no depth of soil. 6 And when the sun rose, it was scorched,
and since it had no root it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew
up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. 8 Other seed fell into good soil and brought forth
grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirty and sixty and a hundredfold.” 9 And he
said, “If you have ears to hear, then hear!” 10 When he was alone, those who were around him
along with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11 And he said to them, “To you has been
given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything comes in parables, 12 in
order that ‘they may indeed look but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand;
so that they may not turn again and be forgiven.’ ” 13 And he said to them, “Do you not
understand this parable? Then how will you understand all the parables? 14 The sower sows
the word. 15 These are the ones on the path where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan
immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. 16 And these are the ones
sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, they immediately receive it with joy. 17 But
they have no root and endure only for a while; then, when trouble or persecution arises on
account of the word, immediately they fall away. 18 And others are those sown among the
thorns: these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the cares of the age and the lure of wealth
and the desire for other things come in and choke the word, and it yields nothing. 20 And these
are the ones sown on the good soil: they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirty and
sixty and a hundredfold.”
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Today we’re in week 4 of our 8 (maybe 9?) week series entitled “Windows of Faith.” During
this series, we’re exploring the life of Jesus as told in the stained-glass windows of our
sanctuary. So far we’ve discussed “The Holy Family,” “The Boy Jesus in the Temple,” and
“Jesus Blesses the Children.” Today we’re exploring the story behind our stained-glass
window, “Jesus Teaches From the Boat.”
This is the second of two windows that consider Jesus’ ministry—what Jesus said and what
Jesus did. We discussed the first of the two windows focused on his three-year ministry last
week, with our focus on “Jesus Blesses the Children.” We considered that sometimes we, as
people of faith, focus on Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection, but fail to focus on what Jesus
said and did during his ministry.
Today we hold before us an image of Jesus teaching. This window is significant for us in at
least two ways: 1) like us, Jesus spent much of his time in and around the sea . . . the Sea of
Galilee. His ministry was largely focused in this small geographic region around the sea; 2)
this window reminds us to pay attention to what Jesus taught . . . what mattered enough to
him to teach to others. We are not just a people focused on celebrating Jesus’ birthday and
resurrection. No, we are followers of Christ, which means that we follow his teachings,
whether it was Jesus teaching on a hillside like the Sermon on the Mount, or Jesus teaching
in a Synagogue, or like our window depicts, Jesus teaching from a boat. If we are to follow
Jesus, we must focus on what Jesus taught.
That’s the impetus behind a movement called “Red Letter Christians.” “Red Letter
Christians” was co-founded by Rev. Shane Claiborne and Rev. Tony Campollo (who passed
away late last year). In their book, Red Letter Revolution, they pose the question, “What if
Jesus really meant what He said?” Why “Red Letter?” You may have held a copy of a Bible in
which the words that Jesus spoke are printed in red. The idea behind their book and their
movement is that what’s written in red, the things Jesus said, deserve our attention because
that’s what mattered most to Jesus.
Tony Campolo responded to a criticism they received about the work, printed in
Christianity Today. The criticism said, “You people act as though the red letters in the Bible
are more important than the black letters.” To which Campolo and Claiborne replied,
“Exactly! Not only do we say that the red letters are more important than the black letters
of the Bible, but Jesus said they were!” The book is described this way on the inside cover:
“Since the days of the early church, the followers of Jesus have privileged his words above
all others when determining how to navigate their lives faithfully. In our broken modern
world, such a stance is increasingly rare, even among Christians. Nonetheless, a passionate
group of Christians remains devoted to the notion that the words of Jesus direct us to a
better way of living and looking at the world.” Their book is dedicated “to all of us, young
and old, who want a Christianity that looks like Jesus again.”
Our stained-glass window depicting Jesus teaching holds up our high ideal that we believe
the “words of Jesus direct us to a better way of living and looking at the world.”
In short, Jesus’ teachings matter to us.
There are four aspects I would like to consider about the story of Jesus teaching from a
boat:
First, Jesus teaching from a boat was unconventional.
Other religious teachers of the day would teach from established places, namely, the
Temple or a Synagogue. While Jesus often taught in these places as well, we read
throughout the Gospels that Jesus taught wherever he happened to be. Listen again to Mark
4:1:
Again he began to teach beside the sea. Such a very large crowd gathered around him that he
got into a boat on the sea and sat there, while the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
This unconventional nature of where Jesus taught begs the question: what unconventional
places might we be called to share the Gospel?
It’s been just over five years now that the church throughout the world was called to find a
way to share the Gospel in unconventional ways when the whole planet shut down due to
COVID-19. Like so many other churches, we decided to hold online worship services, taking
the Gospel to the internet! Now I confess, it wasn’t comfortable. It required us to learn new
skills, like video editing for me, like zoom for some of you. But it also offered the
opportunity to be a little creative. At first, I would record my sermons at my home or here
at the church. But then I decided to film “on location,” walking a trail at a park and walking
a labyrinth while filming my message. And the result of this forced experiment in sharing
the Gospel in this unconventional way, and continuing to broadcast our worship services
online? There are many Sundays (especially during the summer) when our online
attendance is greater than our in-person attendance. Our snowbird population can remain
connected to us the entire year, not just the winter months when they’re here.
Jesus teaching from a boat was unconventional; how might we find unconventional ways
to share the Gospel as well?
Second, Jesus teaching from a boat was practical.
Now, remember that Jesus didn’t have the luxury of a sound system, and the scriptures tell
us that the crowd had become very large. And as anyone who lives across the water from
The Clearwater Sound can attest, water is a natural amplifier of sound. When Jesus taught
from the boat, he was using the water as a premodern amplification system.
And our job today, as followers of Jesus, is to amplify his message . . . to find creative ways
to teach the things that were important to Jesus . . . the “red letters” if you will. The
contemporary church in America focuses so much energy on things Jesus never discussed.
We would do better to amplify what Jesus actually taught rather than what the politicians
use to drive wedges between us.
Jesus teaching from a boat was practical; how might we find practical ways to amplify that
which was important to Jesus?
Third, Jesus teaching from a boat was liminal.
By “liminal” I mean that Jesus was between places. He wasn’t on the land. He wasn’t exactly
out to sea. He was between places. He was preaching from the margins.
Here we find Jesus preaching from the margins, but throughout the Gospels, we often find
Jesus centering those living on the margins of society. We think about him healing the
lepers, or talking to the Samaritan woman. We think about his embrace of tax collectors, or
how he welcomed the little children (like we discussed last Sunday). When we look at what
Jesus taught and what Jesus did during his three-year ministry, we are challenged to move
beyond our comfortable holy space into the edges of society.
We don’t have a lot of lepers these days, but we have far too many people without
access to quality healthcare.
We don’t have too many Samaritan women near us, but we have immigrants and
refugees—people villainized because of their ethnicity or where they were born.
I guess we have tax collectors, I don’t know any personally. But it wouldn’t take too
much creativity to find people whom society looks down upon because of their
profession.
Jesus teaching from a boat was liminal; how might we increase our ministry to the people
in liminal, marginal spaces in our society?
Fourth, what Jesus taught from the boat was accessible.
Listen again to Mark 4:2: “He began to teach them many things in parables.” Later, when he
was alone with the disciples, they asked him about the parables. Jesus told them in Mark
4:12: “And he said to them, ‘To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for
those outside everything comes in parables.’ ”
Parables are just stories. There is great power in story. Jesus knew this; this is why he so
often spoke in parables to the people.
Occasionally, someone will come our way here at Chapel who prefers expository
preaching—the style of preaching that takes the Bible verse by verse, explaining every jot
and tittle. Now, there’s nothing wrong with that kind of preaching style, I just don’t think
it’s as effective as narrative, story-based preaching. To me, if story was good enough for
Jesus, then story is good enough for me!
The particular story or parable Jesus told that day was the parable of the sower, which is
depicted in one of the stained-glass windows in our narthex. This story was accessible, in
that it was an agrarian story for an agrarian people. The message was simple: God’s word
has been sown in each of us, but not everyone is “fertile ground.” God’s word (like Jesus’
message that day) is accessible to each person. But sometimes we have to weed out the
cares of this world and the lure for wealth and desire for other things in order for God’s
word to flourish in us.
What Jesus taught from the boat was accessible; how might we more fully access God’s
word which has been planted in us?
Jesus teaching from the boat was unconventional, it was practical, it was liminal, it was
accessible. As we continue our journey through the “Windows of Faith” series, this
particular window challenges us to move beyond simply admiring Jesus to actively
following his teachings.
When we look at the crowds gathered on the shore in our stained-glass window, we see
people at undoubtedly at different stages of their faith journey. Maybe some came out of
curiosity, some for healing, some seeking wisdom. But Jesus didn’t invite them to stay as
shoreline spectators forever. The progression of true discipleship moves us from the safety
of the shore into the boat with Jesus.
Now notice the two people in the boat with Jesus. Perhaps these are two of Jesus’ disciples.
These two aren’t standing with the crowds; they are in the boat with Jesus, experiencing his
ministry from a different perspective. This is the natural progression of faith that our
Windows of Faith series invites us to consider:
First, we admire Jesus from a distance—celebrating his birth as we saw in “The Holy
Family” window, marveling at his wisdom as a boy in the temple, being touched by his
compassion for children in last week’s window.
But now, this window of Jesus teaching from the boat asks us a profound question: Are we
content to stand on the shore, or are we ready to get into the boat? Are we satisfied being
admirers of Jesus, or will we become amplifiers of his message?
The “Red Letter Christians” have it right—following Jesus means taking his words
seriously. It means moving from passive appreciation to active participation. It means
allowing the seed of his teaching to find good soil in our lives, producing a harvest thirty,
sixty, or even a hundredfold.
As a church by the sea, we have a daily reminder of this calling. Each time we look out at
the water, we can remember Jesus teaching from that liminal space between worlds. We
can ask ourselves:
Am I willing to share the Gospel in unconventional places?
Am I actively amplifying what was important to Jesus?
Am I reaching out to those in the margins?
Am I allowing God's word to take deep root in my life?
Our stained-glass windows aren’t just beautiful art—they’re invitations to discipleship.
May God grant us courage to follow Jesus more fully! May we move from being shoreline
spectators to faithful followers. May we find our place among the “Red Letter Christians”
who care about the things Jesus cared about. And may we do more than care, may we act.