One of my all-time favorite church magazine cartoons pictures a physician in his office, speaking with his bookkeeper. The subject of their conversation is a patient's bill, which apparently had been in the accounts receivable file for a long, long time. The bookkeeper says to the doctor, "He says that since you told him his recovery was a miracle, he sent his check to the church."

Our passage from Mark touches on the subject of miraculous healing. This early sequence of events in Jesus' ministry seems to set the stage for his growing reputation. Mark says, "at once his fame began to spread everywhere throughout the surrounding region..." (v. 28), "the whole city was gathered around the door" (v. 33), "everyone is searching for you" (v. 37), "Jesus could no longer go into a town openly ..…