Today we heard most, but not all, of the seventh chapter of Mark’s gospel. Jesus is in Galilee. He and his disciples have crossed the sea to Gennesaret. Mark writes, “And when they got out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him, and ran about the whole neighborhood and began to bring sick people on their pallets to any place where they heard he was.”[1] Yet all was not well. A group of Pharisees and scribes from Jerusalem was waiting for him. Jesus had little patience for their concerns for ritual purity.
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