18 PENTECOST, PROPER XX - B -
18 MARK 9.
30-37
The ninth chapter of Mark
begins with the Transfiguration and that glorious and mystifying scene ends
with Jesus’ having commanded those who witnessed it, Peter, James, and John,
not to tell anyone what they had seen or heard until the Son of Man has risen
from the dead.
In last week’s gospel, Jesus announced his
first prediction of His death and resurrection following his descent from the
mountain. Jesus rebuked Peter for objecting to the very idea. Perhaps, we might
say, that in light of what Peter had seen and heard atop the holy mountain his
objection was reasonable.
However, Jesus did not see it
that way. In today’s gospel, Jesus makes his second prediction of his Passion.
The disciples play deaf and dumb asking no questions and making no comments,
not even Peter. Mark would have us believe that they did hear Jesus but were
afraid to ask. They remained silent for they failed to understand what he was
implying and what it might mean for them.
Jesus is not speaking in
parables here. He is making it quite clear for a second time. The Son of Man is
to be killed and will rise again. The problem seems to be, as I said in last
week’s homily, that they were clinging tightly to the old concept of Messiah
and the earthly kingdom he would bring into being.
Granted not every Jew in the time of Jesus was
looking for a messiah, but those that did, did not envision one whom God would
send would end up suffering and dying on a cross. Their total misunderstanding,
and their clinging to the old concept is illustrated in their arguing over who
will be the greatest in the kingdom Jesus will usher in.
They do not understand what
it means to be a disciple. The disciples were seeking great things for
themselves, earthly things. They had yet to learn by what why Christ would come
into his kingdom and that Christian greatness, if you will, was to consist in
renunciation of all that the world values and in the service of those whom the
world rates of least account.
Thus, Jesus’ teaching, “Whoever
wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” He was teaching his
disciples that true greatness lies in humility and the willingness to serve
others. He incarnates his teaching by taking the child and placing it in their
midst.
Jesus uses a child to jog
them out of their up side down thinking. Children in the ancient world had no
prestige or status. In his reception of the child, Jesus models the openness,
vulnerability and humility to which we are invited if we choose to follow him.
Today’s gospel begs the
question: Where do we arrive at our concepts of God and His kingdom? Do we take
other people’s word for whom and what God is all about? Or are we clinging to
our own concept of God based on what we want God to be? When God is trying to
tell us something how good are we at listening?
Over the years, I have heard
many a comment along the lines of “I have never heard God speak to me. I have
prayed for answers and asked for a sign but have never received either. ” To
which I have always responded, how do you know?
The truth is God speaks to
each of us in different ways. Sometimes he uses other people to carry his
message. Most often, he speaks to us through Holy Scripture.
Think about it. Is there
something in scripture you have read in the Daily Office, or heard read in one
of the Sunday readings that jumped out at you? Is there something going on
around you, in your family life or in the work place through which God is
speaking to you, and if so, are you open to it?
A “sign” that the answer
still maybe “no” is if, like the disciples, we are still concerned with status,
that is, what’s in it for me. If we think, and sadly, there are those who think
like this, that in our following Jesus we will somehow enhance our own
prestige, our sense of self-worth, or that the gospel exists to make us feel
good about ourselves, then we are unlikely to hear what God is actually saying
for we are focused on self.
When we are full of self
there is no room for God. We need to take seriously James’ warning in today’s
Epistle, “for where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be
disorder and wickedness of every kind.”
Too often, the problem lies
in our trying to create God in our image rather than accepting the fact that we
have been created in His - and for a purpose - to worship and love him and
demonstrate our love for him by serving others in his name.
The disciples may not have
been able to see clearly, what Jesus was saying for they were on the other side
of the cross. Granted, the cross turns up side down everything the disciples
had imagined. The cross turns up side down the way people think, including
Christians, or at least it should.
However, we are on this side
of the cross. We are called to see God in Christ and his Passion with
child-like eyes, to see beyond the cross, to see in the cross a path to new
life, to see in servant hood not a denying of personhood but an enhancement of
life.
What’s in it for us is to be
filled with God’s love and to one day share in the glory of his Son, our
Savior, Jesus Christ.
The glory of Christ that was
manifested on the holy mountain was but a foreshadowing of the glory that will
one day belong to all who choose to follow him by walking the way of the cross,
and by denying self in order to serve others in His name, especially those whom
the world deems of least account.
“Whoever wants to be first
must be last of all and servant of all.” To be a servant of the Servant of God
is our divine vocation. No greater honor can be bestowed on us in this life
than to be called a Christian and to be recognized as such in the eyes of the
world. AMEN+
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