‘Gentle Jesus, meek and mild’, so goes the opening lines of the hymn authored by Charles Wesley but is he? On any impartial reading of the gospels, the answer is ‘yes and no’. Last week, we saw vividly Jesus’ gentleness and compassion for the leper and his suffering....

In Mark 1:40-41, we read, “A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. ‘If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,’ he said. Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. ‘I am willing,’ he...

Right at the start of his gospel, Mark unequivocally makes the claim that Jesus is not only the “Christ”, or the “Messiah” but even more provocatively, He is the “Son of God”. The Messiah was understood by most Jews to be a powerful political leader who would deliver...