Friday after Ash Wednesday Year B

Lent for Everyone
Mark Year B
FRIDAY AFTER ASH WEDNESDAY...

...Three times yesterday the doorbell rang unexpectedly. First it was the engineer; he came to inspect the foundations of the outhouse. Then it was the builder; he came to measure for some windows that need replacing. Finally it was the electrician; he came to fix some damaged light fittings. (Like the mythical Number 17 bus: you wait for ages, and then three come at the same time.) They came, each of them, to do a job. All went off happily with the job done.

Perhaps the most interesting word in this fascinating passage is that word, ‘came’, in verse 17. ‘I came’, says Jesus, ‘to call the bad people, not the good ones.’ Pause a moment before we even think about the bad and the good. What does Jesus mean, ‘I came’? He implies that, like the builder and his colleagues, he had ‘come’ with a specific purpose...

Taken from Lent for Everyone Mark Year B by Tom Wright