Sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost
In the period leading up to the stories we heard from Mark’s Gospel this morning, Jesus has been quite busy, with many demands on his time and attention and energy. He had tried to take his disciples aside to what should have been a quiet place, only to be met by a crowd of over 5,000 people, all of whom he had somehow fed. He managed to end that day alone in prayer, but started the next day by walking across a lake on the water to re-join his disciples. Since then, there had been no end of crowds, with everyone bringing their sick to him for healing. There had also been an argument with Pharisees and scribes, which he turned into a teaching moment for the crowd and then for his disciples.
Perhaps Jesus went to Tyre and Sidon in the hope that nobody in that territory would recognize him, and he could have some time and space to himself. If so, it didn’t work. He is met by yet another person who not only knows who he is, but needs his help. He doesn’t seem to respond at all graciously to the disturbance.
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