Lent Gospel: Liberation – Day 16 – Mark 7:24-37

Lent Gospel is a campaign for people to read through the whole of Mark’s Gospel during Lent, in 40 short readings. Helpful notes on each day's reading are available from www.usefulbible.com/lent-gospel; and you can download the whole series in PDF or Kindle format (it's free - just right-click on the links then select ‘save as...’ to download). Of course, it doesn’t have to be for Lent... why not begin now?

 

 

Last part: Tradition – Day 15 – Mark 7:1-23

Liberation – Day 16 – Mark 7:24-37

Liberation

·       Read: Mark 7:24-37

Some of the problems that control people are obvious. And others are harder to spot.

For example, it doesn’t take long to work out if someone is unable to hear or to speak. But people find it much harder to understand if your child is apparently healthy, but suffers from a deep mental disturbance. And what if that child’s mind is healthy, but the problem is spiritual? Perhaps the child is never happy, always uneasy, unable to make friends.

Then there are problems of a different type entirely. Perhaps there is someone who can cure your child – but he is a prophet to Israel, and you are a foreigner. Perhaps he is a very holy man – but you hardly know his God.

Jesus rarely went outside the borders of Israel, and when he did so, it seems he had a very specific purpose in mind. Perhaps he went specifically to respond to the faith of this woman, and to show God’s kindness to this man.

What God did for them is a clear confirmation of the fact that God cares about people from every nation.

Next part: Adulteration – Day 17 – Mark 8:1-21

Index: Lent Gospel: Reading Mark's Gospel for Lent

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© 2012, Keith Simons.