Throughout the gospels we’re told of how large crowds would follow Jesus.  The word crowd appears in 14 of Mark’s 16 chapters.  In the short passage we’re looking at this week (Mark 3:7-35) we are told of two different times where Jesus encountered crowds.  On one occasion there were so many people crowding around Jesus and his […]

‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’, so goes the opening lines of the hymn authored by Charles Wesley but is he? On any impartial reading of the gospels, the answer is ‘yes and no’. Last week, we saw vividly Jesus’ gentleness and compassion for the leper and his suffering. Who could forget his tender response to […]

In Mark 1:40-41, we read, “A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. ‘If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,’ he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. ‘I am willing,’ he said. ‘Be healed!’ (emphasis mine). Mark tells us Jesus wasn’t just […]

Right at the start of his gospel, Mark unequivocally makes the claim that Jesus is not only the “Christ”, or the “Messiah” but even more provocatively, He is the “Son of God”. The Messiah was understood by most Jews to be a powerful political leader who would deliver Israel from its oppressors but he would […]

Leanne and I have our son and his family living with us as they renovate a recently purchased house. So, we are living with and around a five-year-old, a two-year-old and an 11-week-old. It’s wonderful!! But we are regularly reminded of what it was like when we were a young family. The five-year-old gets distracted […]