Proper 21 Year B

Proper 21

Mark 9: 38-50

Gaze on Archbishop Cranmer, being led to the stake to die by fire because he would not act against his conscience. In many ways the sixteenth century was more like the time of Jesus than it is ours. Cranmer would have understood more fully the risks and dangers that Jesus faced by standing up to the authorities. Fearing for his life, he had previously signed a confession that he did not believe, but he would not do so again: he would stand and die by what he believed. Listen to what he said: ‘And for as much as my hand offended in writing contrary to my heart, therefore my hand shall be punished; for if I may come to the fire, it shall be first burned.’ Smell the fear and the fire. See him flinch, but not weaken. He has heard Jesus’ words and truly taken them for his own...

Taken from Gazing on the Gospels Year B By Judith Dimond