Pundayschool · Passage · New Testament

Mark: devotionals and study guides

The Gospel that moves fastest and watches closest, from a parable about a weed nobody pulled to two small coins nobody else in the room noticed. Pundayschool has landed in Mark twice: on the thorns that choke the word before it produces anything, and on the widow whose gift outweighed every louder one.

2 passages covered · Mark 4:18-20, Mark 12:43-44 · free devotionals and study guides

In short

Mark's Gospel moves quickly through the life and teaching of Jesus. Pundayschool has covered two passages from it: Mark 4:18-20, where worries, wealth, and other desires choke the word like thorns around a plant, in The Weed We Never Pulled; and Mark 12:43-44, where a poor widow's two small coins outweigh every louder gift, in The Widow's Quiet Coin. Each comes with a free devotional and small group study guide.

The passage

Episode 33 · Mark 4:18-20

The Weed We Never Pulled

A pot gets moved four times this year: better light, a new windowsill, a new group, a new plan, a new podcast, third playlist this year. Still nothing. Must be the seed, never us. But wrapped once around the stem, in the same soil the whole time, is a weed, never once pulled. Mark 4:18-20: the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word - not the window, not the seed, the weed. So today, don't move it again. Reach in, and pull the one thing that's actually choking it.

Read the devotional Open the study guide

Episode 20 · Mark 12:43-44

The Widow's Quiet Coin

A whole jar of coins hits the offering box like a waterfall, and we are on our feet before the last coin lands. It is a real gift, and it will do good. Then someone else gets up, slowly, and tips two small coins in without a sound. Nobody looks up. Not even us. Standing ovation for the big gift. Silence for the last coin. Then Mark 12 tells us what Jesus saw watching the same giving line: heaven does not measure by volume. It hears the quiet gift first.

Read the devotional Open the study guide

Two passages so far. When another episode lands in Mark, it will be filed on this page.

One verse to hold

"The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful."

Mark 4:19, NIV

Questions people ask

What is Mark 4:18-20 about?

This is Jesus explaining his own parable of the sower. Seed sown among thorns pictures someone who hears God's word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things grow up alongside it and choke it out before it produces anything. Seed on good soil pictures someone who hears the word, accepts it, and actually produces a crop.

How does The Weed We Never Pulled use Mark 4:18-20?

The episode pictures a plant moved from spot to spot, new light, new routine, new plan, while the same weed stays wrapped around its stem all year, never once pulled. Mark 4:18-20 lands as the correction: the problem was never the surrounding conditions, it was the one thing already growing in the same soil.

What is Mark 12:43-44 about?

Jesus watches people give at the temple treasury and tells His disciples that a poor widow's two small copper coins outweighed every larger gift given that day, because the rich gave out of their surplus while she gave everything she had to live on.

Why does Mark 12:43-44 matter?

It resets the whole idea of a generous gift: not by size or by how many people saw it, but by what it actually cost the giver. It sits between two other hard sayings in Mark, a warning about leaders who devour widows' houses and a prediction that the temple itself will fall, framing the widow's quiet gift as the one thing in the chapter that truly lasts.

How does The Widow's Quiet Coin use Mark 12:43-44?

The episode turns the verse into a modern giving moment: a loud gift gets a standing ovation, while a small, costly gift lands without a sound and nobody looks up. Mark 12:43-44 lands as the correction: heaven does not measure by volume, it hears the quiet gift first.