Last time, I used the parallel between passages in Mark (chapters 7 and 8)  and passages in Isaiah to point out that God had placed signposts along the way – for thousands of years – to identify the Messiah promised all the way back in Genesis: the Messiah that would crush the serpent’s head and deliver humanity from the bondage of sin. Yet, in His time, among His people, it seems no one made the connection. Why?

In chapter 7 of Mark’s gospel, the evangelist showed us the open hostility that had developed among the Pharisees and religious leaders against Jesus. That was the turning point for His ministry… for as the leaders go, so go their followers. Eventually, even the crowds that have been running in wonder after Jesus will side with the Pharisees and cry out: “Crucify!” Thus is set the stage for the culmination of the Mission of the Messiah. Soon there will be no turning back from the way of the cross. How did Jesus prepare His disciples for this? How do we prepare ourselves?

The gospel of Mark now comes to a turning point. Jesus’ popularity among the people, and His refusal to kowtow to the Pharisees and Teachers of the Law, are threatening their pre-eminence in the community. They respond as you would expect.

A community must have laws that define boundaries to our behavior toward each other. And the leaders of the community, and the community as a whole, are free to, and ought to, enact such laws so that we can live together in peace. But the Laws that speak about my relationship with God, can only be made by God.

Can you have Hope without Faith? I think it is impossible because, as the writer of the letter to the Hebrews says, Faith is the underlying reality of that which we Hope for, the evidence of the accomplished things that we have not yet seen. I think the connection between Faith and Hope is an if and only of connection. Hope cannot exist without Faith. Faith is barren unless it has given birth to Hope.

“If God is supernaturally working for my good every minute of every day, if His Love for me takes no rest, if His attention toward me does not waver… then how come my life is so hard when compared with that other person’s life?” This is the challenge of human inequality.