Mark

Sunday Reflection – June 30, 2024

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Jairus’ daughter and the woman with a hemorrhage

Mark 5 21 Once again Jesus got into the boat and crossed Lake Galilee. Then as he stood on the shore, a large crowd gathered around him. 22 The person in charge of the synagogue was also there. His name was Jairus, and when he saw Jesus, he went over to him. He knelt at Jesus’ feet 23 and started begging him for help. He said, “My little daughter is about to die! Please come and touch her, so she will get well and live.” 24 Jesus went with Jairus. Many people followed along and kept crowding around.

25 In the crowd was a woman who had been bleeding for twelve years. 26  She had gone to many doctors, and they had not done anything except cause her a lot of pain. She had paid them all the money she had. But instead of getting better, she only got worse.

27 The woman had heard about Jesus, so she came up behind him in the crowd and barely touched his clothes. 28 She had said to herself, “If I can just touch his clothes, I will be healed.” 29 As soon as she touched them, her bleeding stopped, and she knew she was healed.

30 At that moment Jesus felt power go out from him. He turned to the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

31 His disciples said to him, “Look at all these people crowding around you! How can you ask who touched you?” 32 But Jesus turned to see who had touched him.

33 The woman knew what had happened to her. So she came trembling with fear and knelt down in front of Jesus. Then she told him the whole story.

34 Jesus said to the woman, “You are now well because of your faith. May God give you peace! You are healed, and you will no longer be in pain.”

35 While Jesus was still speaking, some people came from Jairus’ home and said, “Your daughter has died! Why bother the teacher anymore?”

36 Jesus heard what they said, and he said to Jairus, “Don’t worry. Just have faith!”

37 Jesus did not let anyone go with him except Peter and the two brothers, James and John. 38 They went home with Jairus and saw the people crying and making a lot of noise. 39 Then Jesus went inside and said to them, “Why are you crying and carrying on like this? The child isn’t dead. She is just asleep.” 40 But the people laughed at him.

After Jesus had sent them all out of the house, he took the girl’s father and mother and his three disciples and went to where she was. 41-42 He took the twelve-year-old girl by the hand and said, “Talitha, koum!” which means, “Little girl, get up!” The girl got right up and started walking around.

Everyone was greatly surprised. 43 But Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone what had happened. Then he said, “Give her something to eat.”

Kids Korner: Jairus’ daughter (June 30th)

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Read Mark 5:21-43 with your family.

Jairus’ daughter is one of the few stories in the entire Bible that is about a little girl. Her father was an important person in the synagogue, and he knew enough about Jesus to ask for help.

Along the way to Jairus’ house, another woman stopped Jesus and asked for help.

Both the daughter of Jairus and the older woman were healed simply by having faith.

Faith changes things. It can sometimes feel so hard to believe in something outside ourselves, and often like Jairus and the older woman, we are only pushed into faith when there is nothing else to try. However, Jesus encourages us to have faith at all times.

Having faith gets easer the more we practice. And our practice is as simple as asking God to be part of our everyday lives, the good parts and the bad parts. Eventually we will see God active in our lives and we will get into a habit of thanking God for always being with us.

Faith grows over time, and it’s never too early or too late to start.

Sunday Reflection – Easter Sunday, March 31, 2024

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The tomb was empty

Mark 16 After the Sabbath, Mary Magdalene, Salome, and Mary the mother of James bought some spices to put on Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on Sunday morning, just as the sun was coming up, they went to the tomb. 3 On their way, they were asking one another, “Who will roll the stone away from the entrance for us?” 4 But when they looked, they saw that the stone had already been rolled away. And it was a huge stone!

5 The women went into the tomb, and on the right side they saw a young man in a white robe sitting there. They were alarmed.

6 The man said, “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth, who was nailed to a cross. God has raised him to life, and he isn’t here. You can see the place where they put his body. 7  Now go and tell his disciples, and especially Peter, that he will go ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there, just as he told you.”

8 When the women ran from the tomb, they were confused and shaking all over. They were too afraid to tell anyone what had happened.

Kids Korner: The tomb is empty (Easter Sunday, March 31st)

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Read Mark 16:1-8 with your family.

One of the strangest parts of the story of Easter Sunday found in the Gospel of Mark, is that the women ran away when they heard about Jesus being alive again, because they were scared.

In every other gospel the women run to tell people, but in Mark they just run away.

That’s because the Gospel of Mark was written like a Greek play where the audience who first heard the story and those of us today who are hearing it again, are expected to finish the story. We are the ones who are now supposed to tell everyone that Jesus has risen!

Christ has Risen! Christ has risen indeed! Hallelujah!!

Sunday Reflection – Palm Sunday, March 24, 2024

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Jesus in Jerusalem

John 12 12 The next day a large crowd was in Jerusalem for Passover. When they heard that Jesus was coming for the festival, 13  they took palm branches and went out to greet him. They shouted,

“Hosanna!
God bless the one who comes
    in the name of the Lord!
God bless the King
    of Israel!”

14 Jesus found a donkey and rode on it, just as the Scriptures say,

15 “People of Jerusalem,
    don’t be afraid!
Your King is now coming,
and he is riding
    on a donkey.”

16 At first, Jesus’ disciples did not understand. But after he had been given his glory, they remembered all this. Everything had happened exactly as the Scriptures said it would.

Kids Korner: Hosanna!! (Mar. 24th)

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Read Mark 11:1-11 with your family.

There are a lot of ideas about who Jesus was 2000 years ago and who he is today. People have ideas about God… some of them about a God who love us, and some of the ideas are that God is always judging us.

Our story of Palm Sunday reminds us that people misunderstood Jesus as Messiah 2000 years ago just like they do today.

The people in Jerusalem were expecting the Messiah to be a king, like King David, who would have armies and huge parades of soldiers. He would be dressed in the richest, most colourful clothing they could find, and when he entered Jerusalem it would be to tell the Romans to get out of Judea and Galilee. The Messiah was supposed to save the people from the Romans and restore the Hebrew people to independent government and no more foreign taxes or soldiers.

However, that was not who Jesus was, and it is understandable that the people who didn’t know Jesus were disappointed.

Instead of riding a big horse like a king, Jesus rode a small donkey. Instead of wearing rich clothes, he looked like everyone else. Instead of a big parade, he had his followers and children waving palm branches walking beside him. And when Jesus came, he did not tell the Romans to get out. Instead he told the leaders in the Temple to smarten up and behave the way God wanted them to behave.

Jesus was not the Messiah they had been expecting.

Sunday Reflection – Lent II, February 25, 2024

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Jesus predicts his death

Mark 8 31 Jesus began telling his disciples what would happen to him. He said, “The nation’s leaders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the Law of Moses will make the Son of Man suffer terribly. He will be rejected and killed, but three days later he will rise to life.” 32 Then Jesus explained clearly what he meant.

Peter took Jesus aside and told him to stop talking like that. 33 But when Jesus turned and saw the disciples, he corrected Peter. He said to him, “Satan, get away from me! You are thinking like everyone else and not like God.”

34  Jesus then told the crowd and the disciples to come closer, and he said:

If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross and follow me. 35  If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me and for the good news, you will save it. 36 What will you gain, if you own the whole world but destroy yourself? 37 What could you give to get back your soul?

38 Don’t be ashamed of me and my message among these unfaithful and sinful people! If you are, the Son of Man will be ashamed of you when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.

Kids Korner: Don’t say that (Feb. 25th)

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Read Mark 8:31-38 with your family.

Sometimes we have friends who support us in everything we do without a problem. Sometimes we have friends who support us even if they think we are making a bad choice.

And sometimes we have friends who try to talk us out of things because they are afraid we will get hurt.

In this story before Jesus and his followers get to Jerusalem, Peter was trying to talk Jesus out of doing things that would hurt and probably kill him. The language Jesus used “Get behind me, Satan”, sounds really harsh, but what it really meant was “stop tempting me”.

Jesus knew what he had to do, and he knew that the people in Jerusalem would be angry once he was finished. So Jesus needed all his strength and the support of his friends to do the job. Anyone who questioned what Jesus was going to do was just too hard for Jesus to deal with.

Jesus was never angry at Peter, he just needed Peter to understand how hard it was already, and Jesus simply could not hear the thought of doing something differently.

Sunday Reflection – Lent I, February 18, 2024

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Baptism & Temptation

Mark 1 9 About that time Jesus came from Nazareth in Galilee, and John baptized him in the Jordan River. 10 As soon as Jesus came out of the water, he saw the sky open and the Holy Spirit coming down to him like a dove. 11  A voice from heaven said, “You are my own dear Son, and I am pleased with you.”

12 At once God’s Spirit made Jesus go into the desert. 13 He stayed there for 40 days while Satan tested him. Jesus was with the wild animals, but angels took care of him.

14 After John was arrested, Jesus went to Galilee and told the good news that comes from God. 15  He said, “The time has come! God’s kingdom will soon be here. Turn back to God and believe the good news!”

Kids Korner: Baptism & Temptation (Feb. 18th)

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Read Mark 1:9-13 with your family.

The Gospel of Mark doesn’t give us story details like the Gospels of Matthew and Luke. We read the outline of a story, and then move on. The Gospel of Mark is very fast.

In this scripture lesson we have both Jesus’ baptism and then Jesus going out to the desert to be tempted.

One of the things many new Christians do is get very excited about doing all sorts of things with their church community, and then they usually get tired or frustrated and quit both the activity and their faith community.

This story shows us that taking our time to think more about what we believe and why, is a better way to grow as a Christian before we get involved in all the activities of our church.

Faith doesn’t just happen at baptism and then it’s there for life. Faith is something we have to keep practicing so it can grow.