May we, like John, constantly speak the truth, boldly rebuke vice, and patiently suffer for the truth’s sake.
Sermons on Mark (Page 2)
By bringing the disciples along to observe his own drubbing down at the hands of his hometown community, Jesus is teaching them that his and theirs is a ministry in which they will experience rejection, even humiliation, and when that happens, they will literally dust themselves off and get back to work.
They also have this in common: that the healing power experienced by Jairus and his daughter and by the bleeding woman is, in both stories, activated by their faith.
Trusting Jesus is joyful.
In every person that has strong Christian faith, every person, it has started out small, like a mustard seed.
…Now here comes Jesus proclaiming a new kind of family defined as those who seek to do God’s will, regardless of their family or kinship background.
Today we celebrate the day above all days in our faith. This is the day we remember and proclaim the foundational event of our faith: the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
This is the night. This is the night when we gather as God’s people to hear the stories of salvation history. The stories that teach us who we are, who’s we are, what we believe, what our God is like.
The horror and violence inflicted on Jesus showed the depth of human evil but also the ultimate defeat of human power. God’s love, as revealed in Jesus, can never be silence, never be killed, and it is that love that restores humanity.
To take up our cross is to suffer the consequences of faithful living, which may indeed be painful and challenging.