Mark 9:30-50 Do you take sin seriously? Jesus certainly does. Consider Mark 9:42-48, where Jesus says that it is better to discard offending body parts and enter the Kingdom of God maimed rather than to be thrown whole into hell. A little thought about all this should readily tell us that Jesus is not to …
Category Archives: RTB 2025 – Search the Scriptures, Part 2
March 25 / Mark 9:1-29
Mark 9:1-29 “…But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” And Jesus said to him, “‘If you can’! All things are possible for one who believes.” Immediately the father of the child cried out and said, “I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:22b-24 Who among us cannot relate to this …
March 24 / Mark 8:27-38
Mark 8:27-38 Today’s reading has long been seen as the pivotal passage of the Gospel of Mark, first with Peter’s confession of Jesus as the Christ (or the Messiah, the Anointed One) (Mark 8:29), and then with Jesus’ teaching about his approaching suffering, death, and Resurrection. (Mark 8:31) The notion of a suffering Messiah is …
March 23 / Mark 8:1-26
Mark 8:1-26 Dear RTB’ers, Today will be my last post for a while. I am having shoulder replacement surgery tomorrow morning and will be out of action for a while. I’ll be in a sling for about a month and then a few more months of recuperation and rehab. John S. has said that he …
March 22 / Mark 7:24-37
Mark 7:24-37 Dear RTB’ers, Fairly early on in my “active” Christian walk I was reading through I Corinthians for the first time and in chapter 11 I saw Paul’s words, very similar to the words that our priests speak at the elevation of the host and the cup: that the Lord Jesus on the night …
March 21 / Mark 7:1-23
Mark 7:1-23 Dear RTB’ers, Jesus is quoting Isaiah 29:13, This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me; in vain do they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men. (v. 7) Putting myself into this “story” (this Isaiah verse), I split the verse in half at the semicolon and …
March 20 / Mark 6:30-56
Mark 6:30-56 Dear RTB’ers, The feeding of the five thousand is one of only two incidents outside of Holy Week that is recorded in all four gospels, the other being Jesus’ baptism. I can imagine that the Jewish people who were there and were part of this miracle would later recall their ancestors wandering in …
March 19 / Mark 6:6b-30
Mark 6:6b-30 Dear RTB’ers, We never know the exact time frame for Jesus in Mark’s gospel, or in any of the other gospels, for that matter. But it was only a few days ago (Mark 3:13, ff.) that we saw His twelve apostles named. So, one wonders how long they had been with Jesus before …
March 18 / Mark 5:21-6:6a
Mark 5:21-6:6a Dear RTB’ers, I have often suggested in my posts that anyone reading our text put him/herself into the story. Today’s reading has quite a cast of characters: people in the crowd beside the sea; Jairus, the synagogue official, whose daughter is dying; the woman with the 12-year hemorrhage; one of Jesus’ skeptical disciples …
March 17 / Mark 4:35-5:20
Mark 4:35-5:20 Dear RTB’ers, Jesus calming the storm. At Avanza for many years we used the Jesus Storybook Bible (JSB) for devotionals with the kids. An interesting line comes from the JSB in this incident of Jesus calming the storm. The book has Jesus speaking His calming words, “Peace! Be still!”, and the wind and …