Mark Chapter 10

In Chapter 10, Jesus teaches the Pharisees about divorce – “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” He also rebukes his disciples for keeping the children from gathering around him. Jesus also tells the rich young man what he must do to inherit eternal life and foretells his death a third time. James and John, Sons of Zebedee, ask to sit at Jesus’s left and right hand in glory but he explains it is not about raising them up above others. “Whoever would be great among you must be your servant”. The chapter concludes with the healing of the blind beggar Bartimaeus. Reading Mark in Advent is an 18-part podcast series that sees us upload a chapter of Mark’s Gospel each weekday of the season. With a global pandemic sweeping the world and lockdowns and restrictions placed on our everyday living – not to mention patterns of worship and prayer – this is very much “the Word in Lockdown”. But the Word of God is never locked down, isolated and contained. As Pope Francis says: “The word of God is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12); it does not die, nor does it age, but it remains for ever (cf. 1 Peter 1:25). It stays young in the presence of all that passes away (cf. Matthew 25:35) and preserves those who put it into practice from inner aging.”