I see you- 4:1-2

Chapter 4
Is the 'again' referring back to 3:7? - he responds the same way, gets into a boat and sits there with the whole crowd on the land. It must have been still. If it was windy would the crowd just not come?
He began to teach them many things in parables- what was Mark's understanding of parables?
France, - “they tend to puzzle as much as enlighten, and are designed to shock and challenge rather than to offer reassuring explanations or illustrations of moral platitudes.” In LXX parable translates masal (includes not only or even primarily illustrative stories, but epigrams, proverbs, pictorial sayings, even riddles... He quotes Moule who says a parable is like a good modern political cartoon. (p183-184)
v3 Akouete – imperative- hear. France picks up on this. Interesting- being told to hear- then he tells a parable, which may not tell you very much if you don't 'hear' it very well. The NIV has listen! which is probably better English- but I imagine not a better translation- its somehow a bit more passive- and I think Jesus was after very 'active listening' (a pity to use an educational term- why is it so many educational terms have a cringe factor?- I think because there is a certain amount of priestcraft about them- too many priests using 'enlightened' vocabulary to say something relatively simple in a complicated way. - too many opinions and religion and not enough common sense.)
Avatars “I see you” onto something. The disciples didn't really 'hear' Jesus until after his death- and then they were given assistance by the Holy Spirit. Because 'hear' is an everyday word, perhaps it is easy to miss the depth with which Jesus uses it- 'Fully hear'. And the opposite to the educationalist priestcraft may operate with Jesus- He was saying profound things simply – so people often missed what he said.
In John Jesus talks about 'seeing the Father' – Jesus presented himself as a parable to his listeners- come hear, come see- it may seem like a riddle- but if you hear well enough, and open your eyes wide enough, you will know that the Father and I are one.