Pentecost 18 Year B
Sermon Preached by Reverend Michael Hillier on Sunday, 22 September 2024.
Mark 9.30-37
Jesus and His disciples quietly travelled south from Caesarea Philippi in the north. He did not want people to know that He was passing through, but as He journeyed, He healed a boy possessed by a spirit.
He once again told His disciples that He would suffer, die, and rise. Even though those words are precise and understandable to us, they did not make sense to His disciples. At the same time, they were reluctant to speak about it with Jesus. It was as
if the truth was too complicated and painful to bear.
It is said that when Magellan’s expedition arrived at Tierra del Fuego, the first European expedition, the Fuegans, who had never seen ships like this, could not see them anchored in the Bay. It was entirely outside their experience, and so they blocked them out. To them, the ships were invisible. It was later expeditions who learned that this had been their response. The Fuegans couldn’t understand; they didn’t want to see or want to know about it. It didn’t fit their world of understanding.
The disciples didn’t understand, they didn’t want to know, and it didn’t fit their picture of what Jesus should be like. But something of reality had broken through because we’re told they were afraid to ask Him what He meant by saying He would die and rise again. They couldn’t completely erase it.
Peter recognised Jesus as the Messiah. And I think he was speaking on behalf of all the disciples. But the Jewish idea of a Messiah was someone who was almost a conquering hero who would throw out the foreign army of occupation and free the
Jewish people once and for all. He would be all-glorious and reign in Jerusalem. No one believed that the Messiah would have to suffer. The thought was simply absurd.
But not to Jesus; so slowly and almost painfully, He was trying to teach His disciples the truth. But they seemed in complete denial. And who could blame them?
When you stop and think about it, we all tend to behave like that with different things. Take, for example, death, which is one of the enormous taboo subjects in our society. Our society lives as if there were no such thing. So we block it out, pretending that it’s not true and will not happen. On varying issues, we move into denial when things become too painful to face.
Try to see how you do this in your life. Notice how you do this without any sense of judgment about yourself. We all do it. It is simply trying to pay attention to your life non-judgmentally.
In varying ways, we have all worked out how life works, what is acceptable, and what is not; we all have our pet theories on this and that. Every so often, something presents itself to our attention in such a way that it causes a chink in our armour. We
discover that there are alternate ways of looking at something, and maybe our pet view is incorrect. And we may realise that our particular view is simply bolstering one of our prejudices. I say ‘one’ because we all have a number.
When faced with that, we can either broaden our vision and drink in the new idea, critically assess and assimilate it, or draw up the barricades and block out whatever threatens us.
Coming back to the Gospel. They had been out in the hills of Galilee and were now walking towards Capernaum as all this had been happening.
Jesus had made Capernaum His base after being forced out of Nazareth. Our text tells us that He was ‘in the house’ (v.33), presumably the family home of Simon and Andrew (1.29).
But that was not the end, for even though Jesus was saying He must die and they didn’t want to hear this, they nonetheless found time to discuss who was the greatest among them! And so Jesus, knowing that they had all been conversing among
themselves, now asks them what they had been debating en route. Understandably, they were too embarrassed to tell the truth and so kept quiet (v.34).
Jesus is very caring and understanding of His disciples. He could be very firm on occasions, but simultaneously, He reveals a deep tenderness for them. He doesn’t press the matter by trying to make them tell Him what they have been discussing. He wasn’t going to humiliate them. Jesus doesn’t do humiliation.
Instead, He sits down, calls them to gather around and begins to teach. In ancient times, whenever the philosopher or spiritual Master wanted to teach their disciples something important, the text would always say the Master ‘sat down’. It was as if the
Master and the text were trying to say: ‘This is important. Pay attention!’ And so it happens with Jesus on this occasion.
‘If you want to be first’, says Jesus, ‘then you need to be last and everyone’s servant’. Do you remember the feet-washing episode at the Last Supper recorded in John? Jesus washed the feet of His disciples. That was the task of a servant or slave.
Jesus said that a disciple should not see their life’s worth in their importance but in serving others. That is what Jesus did, and that is what He tried to get His disciples to do, and eventually, they cottoned on. That is what He wants of us. We are called to
serve our fellow human beings.
Then, Jesus draws a concrete example from everyday life. He does this very often and, on this occasion, used the example of a small child. A small child is deeply loved by their family, but they were not considered important in that society and had no
standing or prestige.
Jesus, using this concrete example of the child, is trying to make the point that His disciples will also have no standing or prestige in the world. How often the Church and we as individual Christians have forgotten this truth!
We will only ever get it right sometimes; that is a part of our human nature. There are many moments when we feel lost or unsure, and it may seem there are no clear answers. It may be hard to see what those answers might be. And sometimes, we
don’t understand.
But when we look at this story, the good news is that Jesus never gave up on His disciples, and He doesn’t give up on you and me. He is deeply caring and concerned, always gently and sometimes more forcibly, pushing and leading us towards the
deeper truths of God.
So, take comfort and heart from knowing that Jesus walks with you and deeply loves you. You are special and unique to Him to a degree you can’t begin to imagine, which is something to delight in.