In 2:13, as occurs often in the first half of the Gospel, Mark describes Jesus teaching beside the Sea of Galilee. The frequent references to crowds going out to him (1:32, 45; 2:13; 3:8; 4:1) may symbolize that discipleship entails leaving behind some of life’s comforts and securities. “Teaching,” which occurs some fifteen times in Mark, indicates the essential role that instruction plays in Jesus’s ministry, and the large crowds that attend it indicate the public …