Day 12: Mark 7-9. "He Does Everything Well!"
That's what the people say at the end of chapter 7. Jesus has been teaching (and wrangling with the Pharisees), healing and throwing the demons out. Again, he feeds a crowd; this time it is 4,000, not 5,000, and he has seven baskets left over, not twelve. The disciples don't understand the significance of the bread, and Jesus asks them so many questions that it appears that he is exasperated. The wrangling with the Pharisees is over the fact that his disciples don't follow all aspects of the law. Jesus points out that the Pharisees themselves have (ahem) loopholes; they are supposed to Honor their parents and help provide for them, but they can declare everything an offering to God, and then they don't have to help their families. Jesus declares them hypocrites. Later on, he explains that it is not what goes into us that makes us unclean, but what comes out (of our mouths, he means.) Jesus heals the daughter of a gentile woman -- although he doesn't wan...