Tag: gospel-of-mark

  • Preaching Paths 27 October 2024

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Bartimaeus is the only healed person in Mark’s Gospel whose name we learn (Mark 10:46-52). The brief, dramatic story of Jesus pausing in his march to Jerusalem to restore Bartimaeus’ sight is compelling in its own right; yet, we only begin to discern the key role it…

  • Preaching Paths 20 October 2024 Proper 24B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary A first step toward reliable interpretation of today’s gospel text, Mark 10:35-45, will be to expand the limits of the lection to include vv 32-34. Doing so makes clear that we have before us the third instance of a threefold literary structure in Mark: 1) Jesus predicts…

  • Preaching Paths 13 October 2024 Proper 23

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary In today’s Gospel reading, Mark 10:17-31, Jesus is met on his way to Jerusalem by a man eager to “inherit eternal life.” Addressing Jesus as “good Teacher,” he respectfully asks for instruction. Jesus replies, first, with a question: “Why do you call me ‘good?’ God alone is…

  • Preaching Paths 14 July 2024 Proper 10B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Today’s Gospel reading, Mark 6:14-29, opens with a report of various speculations about Jesus’ identity (vv 14-16). The dramatic, skillfully crafted story of the execution of John the Baptist by Herod Antipas functions as “back-story,” explaining Antipas’s belief that Jesus is John the Baptist come back to…

  • Proper 8 (13) Sixth Sunday after Pentecost, 30th June 2024

    Mark 5:21-435:21 When Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered around him; and he was by the sea. 5:22 Then one of the leaders of the synagogue named Jairus came and, when he saw him, fell at his feet 5:23 and begged him repeatedly, “My little daughter…

  • Proper 6 (11) Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, 16th June 2024

    Mark 4:26-344:26 He also said, “The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 4:27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 4:28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full…

  • Proper 4 (9) Second Sunday after Pentecost, 2nd June 2024

    Mark 2:23-3:62:23 One sabbath he was going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. 2:24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” 2:25 And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did…

  • Resurrection of the Lord, 31st March, 2024, Easter Day

    Mark 16:1-816:1 When the sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they might go and anoint him. 16:2 And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. 16:3 They had been saying to one…

  • Preaching Paths 31 March 2024 Easter Yr B

    Sally A. Brown, Professor Emerita, Princeton Theological Seminary Mark’s gospel ends with Easter morning (Mk 16:1-8). Three women carry burial spices to the tomb “early in the morning, when the sun had risen.” They are relieved, at first, when they see from a distance that the immense stone closing the tomb has been rolled aside. …

  • Liturgy of the Palms, 24th March 2024

    Mark 11:1-1111:1 When they were approaching Jerusalem, at Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples 11:2 and said to them, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately as you enter it, you will find tied there a colt that has never been ridden; untie it and…