Knowing When to Walk Away
Hello, Church. It’s good to be back with you after a week in Missouri helping with my mom. It was a good trip but a heavy trip, if you know what I mean. Charity and I find ourselves in a time of life when even “vacation time” is spent doing things that just need to get done whether they’re happy and fun or not. Many of you are in the same place or have already had those kinds of experiences. If so, you know it’s tough, but you also know that God helps us through it.
Some of the topics in this series through the Gospel of Mark are in that same emotional space—they’re heavy. Heavy with confusion. Heavy with fear. Heavy with doubt. Heavy with grief. Heavy with rejection. The gospel writers didn’t shy away from those topics, and neither will we.
Today’s text includes three episodes that all provide insight into the impact Jesus and his teaching has on people around us. Jesus taught about these things in his parable of the soils (Mark 4:1-20), and now Mark is showing us what it looked like in real life experiences. As we work through Mark 6:1-29 together this morning, I hope we will think about some of the parallel experiences in our lives. Think about the ways people might respond when we bring up Jesus or when we try to offer a helping hand. Some receive it gladly. Others are cautious or skeptical. And, sometimes, there are those who are just plain hostile toward us and the truth we try to share—even if we season it with grace.
We are God’s people who have been given a mission, and it’s not always fun and easy, but we’ve got to get it done. I know it’s heavy. I know it’s tough, but I also know that God always helps us through it.
Mark 6:1-29, Knowing When to Walk Away
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