Mark 6:30-34, 53-56 Sermon Commentary
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 Sermon Commentary
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 Sermon Commentary
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 Sermon Commentary
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 Sermon Commentary
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 Sermon Commentary
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 Sermon Commentary
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 Sermon Commentary
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 Sermon Commentary
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…
Sermon Commentary Library
Our weekly sermon commentaries are Lectionary-based, which across its three-year cycle, encompass a vast array of biblical texts. Filter the Sermon Commentary Library to search Scripture texts by book and chapter to find commentary, illustrations, and reflections to spark ideas.
Looking for something else? View our Heidelberg Catechism sermon resources and our Reformed Connections to the RCL section that traces Lectionary texts to specific parts of the Heidelberg Catechism and the Belgic Confession.