“Resistance is futile!” It’s one of the more famous lines from the science-fiction TV and film genres. It comes when the fearless Starship Enterprise crew is captured by a huge cube/spaceship filled with scary half-human mechanical cyborgs with the intent to assimilate them and every living being in the universe. It is one scary moment!

As we journey deeper in the Gospel of Mark and see some of the resistance Jesus now experiences, we might think of this period of his ministry not as “Resistance is futile,” but more along the lines of “Resistance is Inevitable!” For as Jesus announces that the Kingdom of God is near and that God is doing a new thing, it is inevitable to anticipate that change is going to come. And what happens when change comes? Resistance! It’s inescapable!

For Jesus, resistance comes close to home as he preaches for the first time in his hometown synagogue. Offended by his words, many dismissed him saying “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon?” The second experience of resistance is more serious as we learn that even King Herod is struggling to understand Jesus and the change he is bringing. Thinking that he is John the Baptist come back to life after his brutal murder at his hands, we get the idea that Jesus has now come into the sight of the king – and this is not good news!

What is interesting to note is what Jesus does in the midst of the resistance to God’s Kingdom – he sends out his disciples to extend the Kingdom. Jesus is not going to be deterred or filled with fear. No, he knows that resistance to God’s kingdom is inevitable. But he won’t give up! He won’t stop, because God doesn’t ever give up or stop giving his love to the world. And that is the Good News!