Friday, November 20, 2015

Bonus Reading, Mark

The Scope of Jesus' Teaching      

Today's reading offers a glimpse of the popularity of Jesus' teaching.  At the beginning, Jesus is rejected by people from his hometown; the people cannot believe that a prophet has grown up in their midst.  Still, Jesus had a few disciples -- 12 -- whom he sent out to teach and act in his name.

People were coming to know the name of Jesus.  This did not escape the attention of King Herod, partially because some wondered if John the Baptist had somehow been reborn as Jesus.  (He had not.  John had been killed on Herod's order.)  In fact, Jesus' popularity had grown so much that when he miraculously fed a crowd that had listened to his teaching one day, there were 5000 people.  Quite a change for the person whose teaching was ignored in his own hometown.

Read Mark 6:1-44  (NIV)   (NRSV)   (CEB)
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