Short, easy to use, thought provoking background commentary for your sermon, bible study lesson, or scripture reflection.
Listed on The Text This Week, www.textweek.com.
Year B, Season of Pentecost
Proper 26, Ordinary Time 31
Sunday Between October 30 and November 5 Inclusive
22nd Sunday After Pentecost 2009
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
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This week's text is the climax of a day of confrontation between Jesus and the religious authorities in Jerusalem. (See my comment, Jesus' Last Week - Tuesday.)
However, just in case we were writing off all religious elites as hard-hearted, unseeing opponents of Jesus, Mark ends the series of hostile questions with a scribe asking a genuine one.
It is the narrator, Mark, who tells us that the scribe had been positively impressed by Jesus - "seeing that (Jesus) answered them well." We, the readers, should not gloss over this remarkable assessment of Jesus' honour by one of his opponents.
