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the Sixth Sunday in Martyrs’ Tide


Sermon Starter

“If you can? All things are possible for one who believes.”  This is the response, but what causes Jesus to say it?

Mark reports that Jesus had sent 9 disciples out to preach, teach and do miracles.  Christ, Peter, James, and John had gone to the Mount of Transfiguration. God the Father had repeated the words we heard at Christ’s Baptism: “This is My Son, in Him I am well-pleased.” Now, they were rejoining the 9.

Things had not gone smoothly for those 9. There was a man whose boy was possessed by a violent demon. The finest doctors, teachers, scribes and others could not help. He had heard of Jesus. Some of His disciples were in town. Maybe they could help?

No. Try as they might, they could not help. Frustrated, let down, miserable, and feeling defeated, the boy’s father did not know what to do. He had given up hope. But it got worse.

Because the disciples could not do the miracle, the un-believing scribes started to make fun of the 9. They quarreled and fought with them. An ugly mob formed. Some ridiculed the disciples. Some mocked the scribes. The father grew more depressed.

As bad as the demon was, the lack of a miracle was, the bickering, and all the rest going on; there was something far worse here: UNBELIEF.