IV.

1. What is the one key idea of this chapter. Pay attention to the title of the chapter!
2. Write about two major ideas you want to remember. Write a short paragraph on each clearly stating the idea and then telling why you want to remember it.
3. One image that captures the chapter for you.
4. One significant question you have from this chapter. It can be intellectual or personal.
5. Do one of the "Living the Gospel" questions at the end of the chapter. Write out the question, reflect upon it and write out your answer.

1. The key idea of this chapter is "Called to Be Compassionate". It teaches what it means to be a disciple of Jesus, what you have to go through and experience. It teaches the obstacles of being His disciple. To be a disciple of Jesus, we must be compassionate as he was towards the lowly and the sick. The chapter, using Mark's gospel as a key tool, teaches us that Jesus' teachings revolve around compassion.
2. I want to remember the four main characters in Mark's Gospel. Jesus, the great teacher and savior, started by practicing what he expected his followers to do. The Jewish and political authorities were Jesus' opponents who collaborated against Jesus. The followers of Jesus were those who desired to be with Jesus. The crowds were just bunches of people who made no commitment to Jesus' teachings, but liked following him. I want to remember this because, again, there's the theme of the audience. It intrigues me how they react and behave towards the parables, miracles, and other teachings of Jesus Christ.

   I also would like to remember the techniques of Mark. Mark has two recurring techniques that he uses often. The first is that of framing one incident within another, like the Temple and the unbearing fig tree. It symbolizes that the Temple was not bearing fruit. Another technique is that of the threefold pattern. Mark has three seed parables, three popular opinions about who John the Baptitst is, three popular opinions about Jesus, three failures of the disciples to stay awake in the garden, and three denials of Jesus by Peter. I want to remember this because writing styles, to me, have a different affect upon audiences. I think that if you write with recurring styles, although they go unnoticed by common readers, they still have an almost subliminal affect on the story. Mark's framing technique is a bit more obvious, but his recurring threes is more of a subconscious thing. I read somewhere that three has a subconscious presence in the human mind, and if the person is given a choice of four numbers (not knowing they aren't supposed to pick three) odds are they will pick three because it is in human nature.

3. 
4. If being a disciple is all about faith, hope, and trust in God and Jesus, why did almost all of the Apostles get martyred?

   I think that although you have faith, trust, and hope in Jesus and God, you can never control what a human being is going to think and do. God gave us free will, which in turn allowed us to develop political societies and ways of thinking. This led to the persecution of the Christians.