Although they’re drawn as Generic Bearded People here, most of the Main Twelve were very likely teenagers. When you keep that in mind, a lot of their behavior (including all the self-satisfaction in Mark 4) suddenly falls into place.
…this is one of those “too big and involved of a project to fit the amount of time I’ve reserved for Master’s Edition touch-ups” situations, or else I’d redraw them all younger.
Nahumville.
Josh: Okay, how many of you have parents who fish?
Kids: Ooh! Me! Me, me!
Josh: Great! Now, imagine a fisherman, but with the biggest net in the world . . .
María: Josh!
Josh: María! Saxon found you! Let me just finish this story, then we can talk!
Disciple 1: What, first he’s talking with the kids, next some woman?
Disciple 2: When is he going to get back to explaining his real teachings?
Disciple 1: The serious ones? The manly ones?
María: Teachings? Josh? That Josh?
Disciple 2: Of course!
Disciple 1: He is brilliant. You probably wouldn’t understand.
Also, no, no, let the children come.
I don’t know how significant that was in the original text, but the church my parents made me go to made a very big deal about that one. So big, all of the legitimately worthwhile sermons were for the kids, and the “the sermon” sermon was political crud.
To be clear, this isn’t to say that none of the sermons for the kids were political. Many of them were. It’s just that, all of the ones that were actually in keeping with “the good book” were for the kids.
Old people generally don’t want to learn new things. On the other hand, some men can have full beard in 19.