bearing fruit each season.
Their leaves never fade or dry up,
and they prosper in all they do.
Psalm 1:3
Mark 9:30-37
30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it, 31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, "The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again." 32 But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
33 Then they came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing about on the way?" 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.
35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." 36 Then he took a little child and put it among them, and taking it in his arms he said to them, 37 "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
Second Passion Prediction
In Mark's gospel, Jesus' journey to the cross is relentless; Jesus' death definitively reveals his identity first announced in Mark 1:1—The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God. Common to a trend throughout Mark, an outsider rather than one of Jesus' insider buddies is the first to recognize it: "Now when the centurion who stood facing Jesus saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, 'Truly this man was God’s Son!'" Mark 15:39
Last Sunday in ultra-Roman Caesarea Philippi, we heard Jesus' first foretell his suffering, death, and resurrection. This week as they're socializing back in Capernaum after Jesus' transfiguration, again he mentions his upcoming betrayal, death, and resurrection—once again to followers who are both dense and afraid to ask for a further explanation that might enlighten them.
Who is the Greatest?
Amidst deadly serious revelations of suffering, crucifixion, and resurrection they didn't even dare ask about, Jesus' disciples quarreled about social status. There was no middle class then and there (a middle class evolved around the time and activities of the industrial revolution); the world was top-heavy with a few super-rich at the top, a sprawling underclass at the bottom. Similar to here and now, everyone was status-hungry. Just like today, associating with wealthy influential higher-ups was one way people tried to augment their own societal rank. There actually was no class mobility, making the disciples' concerns about greatness all the more ironic. In addition, honor and shame were huge!
9:35, "Jesus sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." Honor and shame were huge in that society; in order to achieve honor on God's terms, a person must closely associate with people who have no honor?
On top of their empty fantasies of wealth that never could happen, Jesus' followers still expected a conventionally powerful military messiah who would annihilate Israel's enemies and restore the Davidic monarchy. Jesus' heritage was indeed Davidic, but remember, even the concept of a king "like the other nations" was alien to God's intent.
Servant God
Throughout scripture we encounter the surprise of a Servant God who inverts and changes everything most humans imagine about divinity. After the spectacular glory and bling of the transfiguration, yet halfway to Calvary, the end of today's gospel account sums it up:
Jesus sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all." Then he took a little child and put it among them, and taking it in his arms he said to them, "Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me." 9:35-37
This is far from sentimentalizing children; in that culture, children were the most subservient members of society. A child had zero social status; a child was beneath the lowest servant.
Welcoming a child was tantamount to welcoming Jesus, the incarnation of the servant God; therefore, to welcome a child was to welcome and embrace God. Jesus' explanation really was an icon of the "on earth as it is in heaven" Upside-Down Kingdom Donald Kraybill wrote about, with the book title a model for our own cruciform discipleship.
Where We Live
During this century's aughts, "what's really important" became a common buzz phrase as everyone tried to untangle fallout from 911, internet expansion made the world flatter and flatter, a global financial crisis revealed major cracks, and additional private concerns unsettled most of us. Again and again we got used to calming our anxieties, backtracking, assessing where we were, and asking ourselves "what's really important."
It can be complicated, because we need to connect with other people for social and emotional health; we need others for professional well-being. But with November elections in the USA less than two months away, with too many declared and undeclared wars worldwide, with climate change and global warning, what do we argue about? What are our major concerns?
And what is most important for those of us in the world of the church? The physical property must remain in code-compliant, safe, usable condition. Replacing a tattered or worn out anything usually is a good move. But does preoccupation with those smaller details interfere with our prayerful attention to ways we can affect larger issues? Think about it! Pray about it!
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