Big Expectations; Little Miracle [Epiphany 5B - Mark 1:29-39]
The Rev. Jeremiah Williamson Mark 1:29-39 Big Expectations; Little Miracle The author of the Gospel of Mark sets the bar incredibly high from the get-go. Verse one of this book is a theologically dense sentence fragment and the lens through which every moment in Jesus’ life is meant to be viewed. It reads, “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” It is difficult to set the expectations much higher than that. Messiah. Son of God. The readers’ hopes, informed as they are by the messianic expectations articulated in the Hebrew Scriptures, are impossibly high from the outset. If, in fact, this Jesus is the Jewish messiah for whom they have long waited, is there anything that he cannot do? This is the question the opening begs. Mark tells us, before we even have the pleasure of meeting Jesus in his Gospel, that Jesus is the Messiah. Mark tells us, in verse one of ...