Happy New Year to you all! I hope that this holiday season has been a blessed one for all of you. I also hope that those of you that have been sick are on the mend! As we look forward to a big 2020, I think it’s fitting that we talk about our passage for this week. We’ve finished our series in the Psalms for Advent, and we’re hopping back into our series on Mark this week. We’re going to be in Mark 5:21-43.

We’re finishing up a mini-segment within the book of Mark that looks at a series of 4 miracles. It started back in Mark 4 with the calming of the storm, continued in Mark 5 with the healing of the Gerasene Demoniac, and concludes this week with the healing of a woman and the raising for a little girl from the dead. Usually, this passage ends up as a sermon on faith. But we’re going to be looking at it from a different lens. These 4 miracles are focused on the person of Jesus. They demonstrate, almost systematically, Jesus’s authority over all things. And what better way to kick off our year than to look at Jesus?

As we look at this passage, the power and authority of Jesus jump off the page as He does some miraculous things. But I also hope that we see overwhelming need, that is the human condition, cut through all our differences to put us in the same boat: desperate for a savior. And with all of that power and authority, Jesus is willing and tender as he meets our needs. Come this Sunday looking to meet this powerful, yet gentle man who is our savior, love, and Lord. See you Sunday!