Rev. Dr. Martin Noland, pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in San Mateo, California, joins host Rev. AJ Espinosa to study Mark 10.

“Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God!” Mark 10 seems to unusually focus on the teaching of Jesus ☧, but this chapter is as much about people’s reactions to ☧’s “difficult” sayings. The Pharisees ask Him about divorce to put Him in a difficult position with Herod, but ☧’s difficult response challenges the crowd and even the disciples.

The rich young man finds it too difficult to let go of his possessions, and the reality of ☧’s crucifixion between two criminals poses a difficulty for James and John’s vision of glory. Only blind Bartimaeus and the little children approach ☧ the right way: boldly in the face of rebuke, without terms or conditions, and confident that they will receive mercy. Only the power of God’s Word enables us to admit our own spiritual blindness and receive the kingdom as trusting children.

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