Faith in strange places

Bible passage: Read Mark 7:24-30

Mark 7:24
At the beginning of today’s reading, Jesus goes abroad on holiday/retreat (v24). Sunday’s sermon noted that Jesus often tried to get time alone to pray and rest, or to spend time with his disciples (e.g. Mark 1:35, 3:7, 4:35, 6:45/46). It seems that Jesus had specific priorities which were even more important than healings and miracles. What do you think they were?

How do these priorities compare with your own understanding of being a Christian?

For example, Jesus seems to have put great emphasis on spending time praying. Is this a priority for us?

See Luke 10:38-42: How does this compare with your experience of the Christian life? What about your experience of Church?

Mark’s Gospel, and indeed the other Gospels in the New Testament, focuses especially on Jesus’ death on the Cross. What priorities does this emphasis reveal?

Mark 7:25-30.

In the rest of the passage we read of a strange incident when Jesus is faced with a Syro-Phoenician woman and, at first, he seems reluctant to help her. Sunday’s sermon suggested that this passage in Mark’s Gospel indicates that our ethnic origins do not make us unacceptable to God. This seems to have been an issue in the Early Church (e.g. Acts 10:27-28 & 11:1-9).

How would you apply this story today?