Mark’s account of Christ’s eschatological discourse reaches its climax with an apocalyptic vision and Christ’s announcement of the imminence of the parousia, the second coming of Christ, who is now called, following Daniel, the Son of man [ … ]

In Jerusalem, in the Temple, Jesus continues to teach his disciples, and to correct their understanding of what is truly of value in God’s eyes. The disciples continue to think in very worldly and material ways; they are still the same men who, on the occasion of the multiplication of loaves and fishes, asked the Lord: ‘Shall we go and buy two hundred pennyworth of bread, and give them to eat?’ It seemed a lot of money to spend [ … ]

The blind man, Bartimaeus, hears the noise of Christ’s passing and has to ask to find out what is happening. The clamour of the crowds following Jesus must have been striking and intense. This is a great, jubilant procession. Christ is passing by and too he is leading the way for us [ … ]

The rich young man has recognized what Jesus has to offer him. Moved with great enthusiasm, he runs to Jesus to ask him what he must do. To this, Jesus reminds the young man of the Ten Commandments [ … ]

John tells Jesus that he and other disciples have forbidden a man from casting out devils in Jesus’ name, and Jesus tells him that he was wrong to do this. The man was doing good, irrespective of his not belonging to the community of disciples following Jesus. There is no call for exclusivity, so long as people are working faithfully for and toward the good. Jesus displays an ecumenical attitude here. Different faiths, different churches, can peacefully co-exist and work alongside each other for the greater good [ … ]

Jesus has a different way of teaching his disciples from that with which he speaks to the many. As he forms them for their apostolic work, so much of what they learn will come from being close to Jesus, living with him, sharing a way of life. We may think of a whole culture, a whole way of thinking and doing and being, being transmitted through a lived and community relationship, rather than, say, of the sort of education which divides the world up into classes and has a textbook and a teacher for each. Christ is no mere teacher in this sense: he is the Master; he is the Way [ … ]

Our verses begin with Jesus asking two questions. The first gives us a sense of the rumour and speculation surrounding Jesus as he preaches. The crowds see Jesus as a prophet, wondering if he might be one of the prophets returned. Jesus’ next question, ‘But whom say ye that I am?’ is a call to his disciples for faith and clarity, and Peter obliges, affirming that Jesus is the Messiah. Once more, Jesus charges his disciples to keep this knowledge secret. It is not yet time for our Lord to reveal himself, perhaps because the social situation is too dangerous, perhaps because the multitudes are not yet ready to receive such spiritual truth – we do not know [ … ]

The apostles have returned exhausted and energized to Jesus. They have succeeded in their mission and they are full of the glory of what they have accomplished. They long to tell Jesus all that they have done in Jesus’ name. This is a triumph for the disciples. They long to share [ … ]

It is all too common in our time to see a beautiful gift or initiative rejected by those who are set against anything new and good. Imagine a child standing up in the midst of a small community filled with hatred, whatever form that hatred might take, and that child saying that there is an alternative to hatred, called love. That child could possibly be killed for so doing [ … ]

Reading Mark’s Gospel, we have a wonderful sense of just how active and mobile Jesus’ ministry around Galilee was. The words ‘immediately’ and ‘straightway’ recur again and again. There is joy and purpose in these words. There is the sense of astonishment people experienced listening to Jesus. And there is the touch of danger, the revolutionary energy of Jesus, and the plots of his enemies [ … ]

Jesus family and friends have worried in earlier verses about Jesus’ sanity. His friends have tried to seize him, to save him from himself. Now his mother and his brothers come to find him. It seems natural to assume they are still very concerned, and that there has been what they perceive to be a breach in the family, which may be linked in some way to Jesus’ move to Capernaum [ … ]

Just a few days earlier, the chief priests and the scribes and the elders have looked for a way to destroy Jesus, but they have not been able to do so because of the many people who have heard Jesus’ teaching and marvelled at it. Now they come to Jesus to try to trap him again [ … ]

As Jesus walks ahead of his disciples on the road to Jerusalem, the people who follow Jesus are amazed and afraid. This is the response of the people, not merely to a great teacher or to a nice man, but to God among them. So often in the Bible, the response of a person to God or to one of God’s messengers, the angels, is just this: they are amazed and they are afraid. Mark’s Gospel is telling us here that, on his way to his Passion, his brutal death, Jesus is God become man [ … ]

Mark’s account of the cleansing of the Temple is framed by the episode of Jesus’ encounter with the barren fig tree. In Matthew 21, the two are also proximate. The juxtaposition helps us more fully to understand both the cleansing of the Temple and the cursing of the fig tree [ … ]

Jesus has told the rich young man that, to be perfect, he must do more than obey the commandments; additionally, he must give everything away and follow Jesus; he must sell it all, give the money to the poor, and pursue a life of total gratuity with Jesus [ … ]

Jesus has told his disciples for the first time that he must go to Jerusalem to suffer and die. In today’s Gospel verses, Jesus calls the multitudes also, to tell everyone about what it means to follow Jesus, to live a Christian life. While the Passion draws closer, the sign of the crucifixion looming prominently over these verses, we are enjoined in our own lives to deny ourselves and to take up our cross to follow Jesus [ … ]

The Sadducees deny the resurrection, because they are rich and so proclaim the false belief that the Messianic Kingdom has already arrived, their riches being their reward for living according to the Law. In order to challenge Jesus, they present him with a fictional case of a widow passed from brother to brother, according to the Levirate Law, hoping to make the resurrection look ridiculous [ … ]

In today’s Bible verses, the confrontation continues between Jesus and the Jewish authorities, who now send Pharisees and Herodians, themselves mutually hostile, to seek to provoke and condemn Jesus [ … ]

Jesus has performed the second miracle of the loaves and fishes, following which the Pharisees have come to him, demanding to see a sign from heaven to prove that he is the Messiah. Jesus rejects and departs from the Pharisees, and now warns his disciples to be wary of them [ … ]