Today, I am reading and commenting on  Mark 6-7.

Today’s passage begins with Jesus teaching in the synagogue in Nazareth.  The reaction of those present contrasts poorly with that of those when He taught in the synagogue in Capernaum. Both saw similar things in His teaching, but in Capernaum they were impressed by His wisdom and understanding, while in Nazareth they were contemptuous of it.  We must be careful not to reject the message which God sends to us when He sends it through those with whom we are familiar.

I also had some thoughts about Mark’s account of the feeding of the five thousand.  First, when Jesus first told His disciples to give the people something to eat, their reply was, “Are we to go buy 200 denarii of bread and give it to them?” Today it struck me that that suggests they HAD 200 denarii which they could spend on bread, but that there was no place close by for them to do so.  However, I want to look closer at Jesus’ reaction when He saw the crowd which had gathered in advance of them at the remote place they went to get away from the crowds.  When Jesus saw the crowd, He saw them as sheep without a shepherd.  I want to write a little bit about what that means.  Sheep without a shepherd are vulnerable to predators and may have trouble finding food and/or water.  They will wander aimlessly, following each other with none of them having any idea where they should go.  We should think about those around us who may also be like sheep without a shepherd and direct them to the Shepherd.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.