Wednesday in the Word

When the news comes that Jairus’s little girl has died, everyone assumes the story is over—everyone except Jesus. In this episode on Mark 5:35–43, we sit with the grief in that house, hear the mourners declare that death has won, and listen as Jesus quietly disagrees: “Why all this commotion and wailing? The child is not dead but asleep.” Together, we explore how Jesus meets us with deep tenderness in our sorrow while firmly refusing the lie that death has the final word. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How this question fits into the larger series on Jesus’ questions in Mark and the growing evidence that he truly is the Messiah
• The moment Jairus hears, “Your daughter is dead… why bother the teacher any more?” and the tension between despair and the invitation, “Don’t be afraid; just believe.”
• What professional mourners were doing in that culture, and why Jesus challenges the role they play in enforcing hopeless acceptance of death
• Why Jesus calls the girl’s death “sleep,” and how Scripture uses that language to signal that death is not the end for those who belong to him
• The tenderness of Jesus toward Jairus and his wife—sending away the crowd, entering the house quietly, taking the girl by the hand, and speaking the simple words, “Talitha koum… little girl, get up.”
• The significance of Jesus touching a dead body, ignoring ritual uncleanness to draw close in compassion, and showing his authority over the “final enemy”
• How fear of death can enslave us in the present, and what it means to hear Jesus’ word, “Don’t be afraid; just believe,” in light of Hebrews 2 and 1 Thessalonians 4
• The contrast between Jesus’ gentle care for the grieving family and his firm refusal of the mourners’ hopeless verdict that death always wins
• How the promise of resurrection and the new creation (Revelation 21) reshapes the way we grieve, remember those we’ve lost, and live our own lives with courage and hope

After listening, you’ll be invited to bring your own fear of death—and the ache of losses you carry—into the presence of the One who has faced death and defeated it. You’ll gain a clearer sense of how Christians can grieve honestly without surrendering to despair, how Jesus’ words “Don’t be afraid; just believe” speak into hospital rooms and gravesides today, and how the hope of resurrection frees us to live this life with steadiness, courage, and quiet joy, even in the shadow of death.

Series: Questions Jesus Asked

Jesus is on an urgent mission to save a dying girl when an unnamed, unclean woman reaches for the hem of his robe—and everything stops. In this episode on Mark 5:21–34, we follow the woman who has been bleeding for twelve years, hear Jesus ask, “Who touched me?”, and watch as he draws her out of hiding to give not only physical healing but a new name, a new community, and a restored relationship with God. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How this story fits into a series on Jesus’ questions in Mark, and why “Who touched me?” is really an invitation, not an accusation
• The Old Testament background of uncleanness in Leviticus 15 and how it shaped this woman’s life of isolation, shame, and spiritual distance
• The depth of her suffering—physically, financially, emotionally, and socially—and why Mark wants us to feel the weight of her twelve long years
• The contrast between Jairus, the respected synagogue leader, and this unnamed, marginalized woman who risks everything just to brush against Jesus
• Why Jesus knows exactly what has happened, and how his question is meant to bring her out of anonymity into face-to-face relationship
• The meaning of the word sozo—“to heal” and “to save”—and why Jesus’ words, “Daughter, your faith has made you well,” point beyond physical cure
• How Jesus publicly restores her, declaring her clean and calling her “Daughter,” so the community must now receive her as he has received her
• What this story exposes about our own “hit-and-run” spirituality—wanting God’s help without giving him our whole story or our whole heart
• How every hidden, honest cry for help still has Jesus’ full attention, even when the world is focused on more “important” people and needs

After listening, you’ll see this familiar story with fresh eyes—not just as a healing miracle, but as a portrait of a Savior who refuses to let us slip away unseen. You’ll be invited to hear Jesus’ question—“Who touched me?”—as a gracious call to step out of the crowd, tell him the whole truth, and receive the deeper healing he offers: not only relief from suffering, but a new identity, renewed faith, and a place in the family of God.

Series: Questions Jesus Asked

When Jesus steps onto the shore in Mark 5:1–20, he walks into a nightmare landscape—tombs, darkness, screaming, self-destruction—and asks one piercing question: “What is your name?” In this episode, we explore how that question exposes the real enemy within us, how Jesus confronts evil that no one else can tame, and how his authority not only sets a man free but gives him a new identity. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why the Bible insists that demons and spiritual evil are real, even in a skeptical, “naturalistic” age
• How the Gerasene demoniac’s life among the tombs paints a vivid picture of isolation, shame, and self-destruction we often recognize in ourselves
• The military language of “legion” and what it reveals about the scale and structure of the enemy Jesus confronts
• What Jesus is really asking when he says, “What is your name?”—a question about identity, allegiance, and what dark realities remain hidden inside
• How sins and struggles we try to manage—lust, addiction, jealousy, bitterness—operate like a legion within, and why no “chain” we forge can finally hold them
• Why Jesus allows the demons to enter the herd of pigs, and how their plunge into the sea becomes a public, visible sign that evil has truly been driven out
• How this story reframes the “real enemy,” not as Rome, politics, or our circumstances, but the deeper rebellion against God in the human heart
• The townspeople’s fearful request for Jesus to leave—and his quiet response of leaving them a restored witness instead of forcing himself on them
• The hope that in Christ, our true name is not “unclean,” “out of control,” or “too far gone,” but “redeemed, called by name, and mine”

After listening, you’ll be invited to face Jesus’ question for yourself: Who are you, really—and who has the right to name you? You’ll see more clearly how the gospel addresses not just the storms around you but the storms within, and how Christ’s authority reaches to the very places you feel most ashamed, afraid, or out of control. And you’ll be encouraged to trust that there is no enemy—internal or external—beyond his power to defeat, and no life so shattered he cannot clothe, restore, and send as a living testimony to his mercy. 

Series: Questions Jesus Asked

When the storm hits in Mark 4:35–41, the disciples don’t just fear the waves—they fear that Jesus doesn’t care. In this episode, we follow them into the boat, listen to their desperate question, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”, and hear Jesus’ searching reply: “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” Together, we wrestle with what it means to trust God’s character when he seems to be sleeping through our hardest moments. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• How this series follows the questions of Jesus in Mark and why “Why are you so afraid?” goes straight to the heart
• The scene on the Sea of Galilee: an exhausted Jesus asleep in the boat, seasoned fishermen panicking in a very real storm
• Why the disciples’ cry, “Don’t you care if we drown?” reveals a deeper fear that Jesus has stopped loving them
• How our own storms—grief, depression, unanswered prayers, global tragedies—stir the same questions about God’s love and goodness
• The difference between fearing our circumstances and fearing that God is not who he claims to be
• Jesus’ response to their fear as a challenge to their faith: trusting his character even when he doesn’t immediately change our situation
• Why spiritual maturity often means learning to walk by faith when there is no visible evidence of God’s presence
• A modern example of “ordinary faith in a great God” in the story of Todd Beamer on Flight 93 and what it shows about courage and trust
• The hope captured in the line, “The boat won’t sink, and the storm won’t last forever,” and how the gospel can bear the full weight of our lives

After listening, you’ll be invited to name your own storms honestly and bring your hardest questions straight to Jesus. You’ll come away with a clearer picture of what mature faith looks like—not denial of fear, but learning to be more impressed with Christ than with the wind and the waves. And you’ll be encouraged to rest in the promise that, in the end, the gospel will hold, the storm will pass, and the One who seemed to sleep is always, in fact, Lord of the storm.

Series: Questions Jesus Asked

Jesus walks into a Sabbath controversy and turns it into a heart question: will you choose good or evil, life or death? In this episode, we look at Mark 2:23–3:6 and watch Jesus confront the Pharisees’ tight grip on Sabbath rules, expose their murderous intentions, and reveal the Sabbath as a gift of rest rooted in God’s grace—not a burden we have to carry. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why this series focuses on Jesus’ questions in Mark and how those questions uncover what is really in our hearts
• The two back-to-back Sabbath stories in Mark 2:23–3:6 and why they become a turning point in the conflict with the Pharisees
• How the disciples’ grain-plucking and David’s eating the consecrated bread help us see that obeying God sometimes collides with religious rules
• What Jesus means when he says, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath,” and why he claims to be Lord of the Sabbath
• The drama in the synagogue: a man with a withered hand, Pharisees looking for a reason to accuse, and Jesus asking, “To do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?”
• How the healing of the withered hand exposes a deeper problem: withered hearts that would rather protect rules than rejoice in mercy
• The biblical foundations of Sabbath in creation and the exodus, and what they teach us about God’s control and our freedom
• The difference between being called and being driven—and how busyness, overwork, and religious performance can become a subtle form of slavery
• What it means, practically, to receive Sabbath as a gift of rest in Christ rather than a test we’re afraid of failing

After listening, you’ll see the Sabbath not as a spiritual performance review but as an invitation to trust the God who rules creation and has freed his people from slavery. You’ll be encouraged to hear Jesus’ question—“good or evil, life or death?”—as a gracious summons to rest in his finished work, loosen your grip on frantic self-importance, and live as someone called by God rather than driven by fear, expectation, or endless to-do lists. 

Series: Questions Jesus Asked

When Jesus heals the paralyzed man in Mark 2, he doesn’t start with the man’s legs—he starts with his heart. In this episode, we sit with Jesus’ unsettling questions to the religious experts and discover that they are really questions for us: What kind of God do you believe in, and do you actually trust his eagerness to forgive? 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why God’s questions are never for his information, but for our transformation
• How the scene in Capernaum reveals both the urgency of the paralytic’s spiritual crisis and the bold faith of his friends
• What the hole in the roof tells us about Jesus’ priorities—people over property, faith over decorum
• Why Jesus’ words, “Son, your sins are forgiven,” provoke outrage in the scribes and expose their tight-fisted view of God
• How the question “Why are you thinking these things in your hearts?” is really asking, “What kind of God do you serve?”
• What Jesus means by asking, “Which is easier…?” and how the visible miracle of healing proves his invisible authority to forgive sins
• The significance of Jesus calling himself the “Son of Man” from Daniel 7—and what that claims about his identity and kingdom
• How religious performance and spiritual hypocrisy can keep us clinging to guilt, even when Jesus has already pronounced us forgiven
• What it would look like for the church to be a safe place where sinners bring their paralysis, expose their sins, and hear Christ’s freeing word

After listening, you’ll be invited to trade a suspicious, performance-based view of God for the God Jesus reveals—the One who delights to lift burdens, meet us in our doubts, and speak forgiveness with real authority. You’ll come away with a clearer sense of who Jesus is in Mark 2, how to approach him with your own wounds and failures, and what it means to rise, pick up your mat, and walk as someone truly set free. 

Series: Questions Jesus Asked

Jesus is not only the promised King or the divine Son. He is the faithful Servant who gives his life as a ransom for many. This episode introduces the Gospel of Mark as a fast-moving, vivid portrait of Jesus’ authority and self-giving love, and explains why Mark’s perspective is both distinct from the other Gospels and essential for understanding who Jesus is and what he came to do. 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why Jesus asks questions he already knows the answers to and how those questions expose our hearts
• How the four Gospels present the same Jesus from different angles: King, Servant, Son of Man, and Son of God
• What makes Mark’s Gospel uniquely suited to a Roman, action-oriented audience
• The story of John Mark—an initially unfaithful helper whom God still chose to record the Gospel of the Servant
• How Mark’s structure reflects its theme: Jesus’ ministry of authority and his road to the cross (Mark 10:45)
• The healing of the blind man in stages as a picture of the disciples’—and our—slowly clearing spiritual sight
• Why Jesus sets his face toward Jerusalem, refuses to save himself, and instead offers his life willingly
• How the cross and resurrection in Mark reveal a Savior who will not spare himself so that others might be saved

After listening, you’ll come away with a clear framework for reading the Gospel of Mark: who wrote it, why it was written, how it differs from the other Gospels, and how its focus on Jesus as the suffering Servant shapes every scene—from his authority over demons and disease to his silence before Pilate and his willing death on the cross. You’ll be better equipped to hear God’s searching questions, see your own spiritual blindness more honestly, and follow the One who “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” 

Series: Questions Jesus Asked

Carrying your cross is not about heroic self-sacrifice for “super-Christians”—it is Jesus’ non-negotiable description of what it means to follow him at all. In this episode on Luke 14:25–35, we look at Jesus’ shocking words about “hating” family, losing your life, counting the cost, and renouncing all that you have, and we see how they call us to a decisive choice: will we cling to the security of this world, or stake everything on the promise of his kingdom? 

In this week’s episode, we explore:

• Why “disciple” and “believer” belong together in the New Testament, and how following Jesus is not an optional upgrade for extra-serious Christians 
• How parallel passages in Matthew 10, Matthew 16, Mark 8, and Luke 9 help clarify what Jesus means by “denying yourself” and “taking up your cross”
• What Jesus is (and isn’t) saying when he tells us to “hate” father, mother, spouse, children, siblings, and even our own lives—and how this language points to ultimate loyalties rather than hostility
• Why “carrying your cross” is about being willing to accept the world’s disapproval, rejection, and even persecution for Jesus’ sake, knowing real life is found in his kingdom, not in present comfort
• How the parables of the unfinished tower and the outnumbered king are not urging us to see if we’re strong enough, but to admit that we aren’t and wisely “sue for peace” with God now
• What Jesus means by salt that loses its saltiness, and how would-be disciples who hear but never embrace the gospel become like tasteless salt—present, but spiritually useless
• Why “renouncing all that you have” is more radical than selling everything: it is saying goodbye to worldly sources of security so that Jesus’ approval means more than anyone else’s
• How Peter’s denial shows that Jesus’ stark, all-or-nothing language doesn’t mean “one strike and you’re out,” but calls us to a lifelong direction of repentant, persevering trust even through real failures

After listening, you’ll see that carrying your cross is not a special assignment for a few brave souls, but a vivid picture of the basic Christian choice: where will you look for life, and whose approval matters most? You’ll be invited to reckon honestly with what following Jesus may cost you—in family relationships, reputation, comfort, or even your life—and to decide, again, that what you gain in him is worth infinitely more than anything you might lose.

Series: Parables of Jesus