Offering grace to the world
Proper 17B | Mark 7:1-23
The last time we were in the gospel of Mark, it was mid-July. I had to look it up! That feels like forever ago! We had summer camps, vacation trips, and the Summer Olympics was still a week away! That’s how long it’s been!
And we just pick up this morning where we left off. We all remember right? Right?
Year B is tricky because we have both Mark and John to cover, so there are two stories to work through. And they aren’t incompatible—just different.
In Mark’s gospel, there is a bit of narrative development happening. We read a lot of healing stories, but they escalate quickly to mass healings, healing without Jesus touching, even to his raising children from the dead. Jesus exorcizes demons and that escalates to exorcizing a legion of demons. Jesus’s power over the environment escalates as he stills storms, feeds thousands, and walks on water. And the disciples’ fear of Jesus escalates with each new vision of power. All of this is culminating and combining with his sending his disciples out in pairs to do this same, incredible stuff.
So when we say that there’s a lot going on here, we mean it…
The full text may be found here.
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