Home » New Testament »
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56
Proper 11B
At first, these verse selections seem odd; why leave out the feeding of the five thousand-plus? If you’ve looked ahead at the lectionary then you know that the loaves and fishes miracle is next week as we transition to John 6, so what do these handful of verses bring to the fore? There are some…
Mark 6:14-29
Proper 10B
It’s been a while since the lectionary has included a story about John the Baptist, and here it’s more of a memory than anything else. Herod thinks of John because of the stories coming out about Jesus’s disciples. They’ve just returned from their missionary journey and they displayed a lot of familiar influence. Not only…
Mark 6:1-13
Proper 9B
There are many reasons to go home, and there are plenty of reasons some of us would rather not. Being fully differentiated, Jesus didn’t have the same baggage as some of us do related to our hometowns, but that doesn’t mean the welcome wagon rolls out for the Son of Man. Nazareth was a small…
Mark 5:21-43
Proper 8B
We have another one of Mark’s story sandwiches, but in this one, the connections are quite obvious: healing that results in restoration, and faith. The daughter of Jairus and the woman who had been hemorrhaging blood for so long represent two different kinds of backgrounds. One is part of a family, another is alone. One’s…
Mark 4:35-41
Proper 7B
What an interesting detail Mark gives us when he narrates the story of Jesus calming the storm. He says that the disciples “took him [Jesus] with them in the boat, just as he was.” Just as he was… The disciples took Jesus just as he was. Which, apparently, was a tired man because the next…
Mark 4:26-34
Proper 6B
Mark chapter 4 has three different parables about seeds. The first parable is the well-known story about the sower who sows his seed in four different kinds of soil (v 1-9). While with his disciples a little later on in the day, Jesus tells his disciples that the sower and the soil story is about…
Mark 3:20-35
Proper 5B
Jesus goes home, but he is not alone. Presumably, along with the disciples, the crowd that has quickly started to gather around Jesus in the first three chapters of Mark have also come. Mark has made multiple references to this crowd. First, Jesus’s fame was spreading and the crowds came looking for healing (1.28-33). Then,…
Mark 2:23-3:6
Proper 4B
Comments, Questions, and Observations These two Sabbath stories are far from unique in the gospels; time and time again, Jesus upends the rules established for right observance. Each time he does so, he is embodying what he said in Matthew 5.17-20: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets;…
Mark 16:1-8
Easter Day B
Mark’s Easter story is a shocker. Even though it’s the earliest written of the gospel accounts, it has the least amount of details and Jesus himself is merely talked about in the passage. And once you’ve become accustomed to the John’s intimate garden encounter between Mary and Jesus or the women’s quick obedience in Matthew…
Mark 8:31-38
Lent 2B
Though it is not included in the lectionary selection, it is worth looking at the verses prior to our text. Seeing Peter go from acknowledging the truth about Jesus, the Christ, to doing what he does here, well, it’s quite the lenten journey. Clearly, Peter does and doesn’t get it. His mental model of what…
Content related to Mark