A 40-DAY JOURNEY WITH THE KING: Lenten reflections from Mark’s Gospel (26)

 


“Then they came to Capernaum; and when [Jesus] was in the house he asked [his apostles], “What were you arguing about on the way?”  But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest.  He 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.” (Mark 9.33-37)

     For the third time, Jesus forewarns the apostles about his upcoming suffering, death and resurrection (9.30-31; cf. 8.31; 9.12).  Once again, the apostles fail to understand what Jesus is saying, and prove themselves to be complicit in their own ignorance, since they are afraid to ask him to explain himself (9.32; cf. 9.9-10), unlike the many previous occasions where they had been all too eager to come to a fuller understanding of their Master’s teachings/actions (cf. 4.10, 33-34; 7.17; 9.28).

     Ever since Peter’s vehement reaction to Jesus’ first mention of his painful destiny (cf. 8.31-32), there has been a stubborn resistance on behalf of the disciples to understand, let alone embrace what Jesus is teaching them about both his imminent sufferings and the painful nature of the ordinary life of a disciple (cf. 8.34-38).  The apostles are in thrall to a vision of the reign of God in which Yahweh’s kingdom is the equivalent to earthly kingdoms.  That is to say, they expect that Jesus will avail himself of the usual methods of regime change – the Romans, along with all those who collaborate with them and benefit from their oppressive rule, will have to be removed by force.  As far as the apostles are concerned, a change of kingdom involves a transfer of power from the oppressors to the oppressed.  It’s their time to come out on top.  Now that they believe that their Rabbi is the rightful king of Israel, the apostles turn their thoughts to “life after the revolution”.  Surely, as the close friends and intimate followers of the Messiah, they can expect to become important people within the new establishment.  Sure enough, such thoughts are eventually articulated, and inevitably lead to squabbling about who is going to get which cabinet position, etc. (9.33-34).  Not for the last time, Mark has juxtaposed Jesus’ predictions of his passion with the disciples’ jockeying for prominence in the (as-yet-unearned-and-unestablished) kingdom of God (9.30-37; cf. 10.32-45).

     In an attempt to make his apostles understand the nature of greatness in the kingdom of God, Jesus gathers the Twelve and tells them that “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all” (9.35).  Then, to illustrate the point, Jesus gathers a little child in his arms and says, “Whoever welcomes such a child in my name welcomes me, and…the one who sent me” (9.37).  Jesus completely deconstructs the apostles’ understanding of what power means in the kingdom of God (the divine kingdom).  How hard it is to think in divine terms as opposed to human terms (cf. 8.33)!  How hard it is to “see” and to “hear” and to “understand” (cf. 8.17-18; 6.52).  How hard it is to have faith (cf. 4.40; 8.11-13; 9.19, 28-29).  To welcome a powerless child is to welcome the very one who sent Jesus (i.e., God).  To welcome the reign of God is to welcome those without status, prestige, power or earthly significance.  This is a lesson that Jesus will have to repeat very soon (cf. 10.13-16).

     Jesus then issues a series of severe warnings to the apostles, who are getting in the way of those who are approaching the kingdom of God (9.38-41).  Jesus warns against putting “a stumbling block” in the way of “one of these little ones who believe” (9.42).  Indeed, it is the “little ones” who have faith in Jesus – the sick, the desperate, the sinners, the outcasts, the hungry, the dregs of society.  The kingdom of Jesus is populated with “little ones”.  Now, the one who has been raising the dead (5.35-43), healing withered hands (3.1-6), lame feet (2.1-12) and blind eyes (8.22-26) says that “it would be better” to drown in the sea (cf. 5.13) or to lose a hand, foot or eye so long as this will allow you to enter the kingdom as opposed to “Gehenna” (= “hell”: NRSV; 9.42-48).

     Jesus concludes by telling the apostles to “have salt in themselves, and to be at peace with one another” (9.50).  Jesus seems to be saying that the apostles’ bickering and pathetic power-games have the potential to cause people to “stumble”, i.e., to lose faith in Jesus.  The same word rendered as “stumble” in this passage is the word rendered “fall away” in 4.17 (Gr: skandalizo), where those who are compared to “rocky soil” are said to abandon the faith when trouble or persecution occurs because of their loyalty to the message of the kingdom (cf. 14.27-29).  Abandoning the faith is bad enough, but the consequences of causing others to “fall away” is truly disastrous… Jesus calls his followers to humble service, to the humility of a child, who is aware of its vulnerability and is only too eager to ask for help.

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