In today’s Gospel we heard three or four somewhat disparate sayings of Jesus. These are part of a series of five or six which St. Mark has grouped together here. They are united by linking “catch words”. Also there’s a general theme of belonging to Jesus, or not; and the ultimate consequences of that.

I should like to focus now on the last of our sayings today: the really shocking one about millstones around necks, and hands and feet being chopped off, and eyes gouged out.