lahuizengaFeb 25, 20194 min"I believe; help my unbelief!"One of my favorite Gospel passages, the story of the demon-possessed boy with the despairing father, is the Gospel reading for today. Exc...
lahuizengaFeb 14, 201910 minEarly Jews and Christians on Abortion and InfanticideJewish Witnesses: Josephus (fl. 75-95 A.D.) “The Law orders all the offspring to be brought up, and forbids women either to cause abortio...
lahuizengaJan 14, 20199 minTesting, Kingdom, Gospel, Call: Mark 1:12–20"The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the...
lahuizengaNov 18, 20188 minIs It Over Yet? Mark 13 and the End of the WorldMark 13 is a well-constructed intercalation in which Jesus teaches four of his disciples privately about the destruction of the Temple an...
lahuizengaNov 11, 20183 minThe Widow's Mite in Mark's GospelWe come now to the grand conclusion of Jesus’s public controversy in the Temple. Mark sets the scribe and the widow in contrast, certainl...
lahuizengaOct 28, 20183 minBlind BartimaeusIn closing the discipleship section, Mark presents Bartimaeus as the most powerful paradigm of discipleship on offer. The discipleship se...
lahuizengaOct 21, 20186 minGlory vs the Cross: Mark 10:35–45The discipleship section comes toward a close with the third Passion prediction, after which the disciples, far from acting like children...
lahuizengaOct 15, 20185 minOn Mark's Rich Young ManIn this passage, the discipleship section turns again to the theme of eternal life (raised at its outset by Jesus in his call to the Cros...
lahuizengaOct 7, 20187 minMarriage and Children: Mark 10:2–16In Mark's preceding material, Jesus has taught the Twelve—celibates, the first clergy—about the radical demands of discipleship as he tra...
lahuizengaSep 9, 20182 minMark 7:31–37: Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary TimeJesus remains in Gentile territory. The route outlined in Mark 7:31 (from Tyre through Sidon and then, presumably, around the north and e...
lahuizengaAug 29, 20184 minThe Passion of St. John the BaptistThe relating of John the Baptist’s death is the B section of a sandwich, the main panel of this iconic triptych. The sandwich means might...
lahuizengaJul 26, 20184 minThe Transfiguration of the LordThe Transfiguration in Mark’s Gospel is many things. It fulfills and explains Jesus’s cryptic words in Mark 9:1, it reveals Jesus as the ...
