Thoughts going in, Sun Sept 23rd

Mark 9:30 From there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it. 31 For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later." 32 But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him. 33 They came to Capernaum ; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, "What were you discussing on the way ?" 34 But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. 35 Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, "If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all." 36 Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, 37 "Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me."

            This week's Gospel reading is the second of three predictions that Jesus makes regarding his death in Mark's Gospel. The lectionary has skipped over several passages in order to have this reading appear the very week following the previous prediction. In that sense, it may be a bit interesting to compare the predictions side by side:

Mk 8:31-- And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.

Mk 9:31-- For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, "The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later

1.  Note that in chp 9, the "teaching" is an ongoing/continual action from past into the current present. In other words, we **say that there were 3 passion predictions in Mark's Gospel, but in reality it sounds like Jesus had been saying these things continually since he first mentioned them in chapter 8.

2. In chp 9 he is to be "delivered," or "handed over." Context entirely drives the meaning of this word. When the Dominos Pizza guy hands over your pizza to you, it's a good thing. But a betrayer can also "deliver/hand over" a person. In this sense there is a negative context. YET, given the passive nature of the word, ... is the focus on Judas the betrayer, or on God Himself who "hands over" his own son so that sinners may do with him what they will? In that sense, "handing over" (Gk paradidotai) echoes the divine passive nature of the word "MUST" in 8:31 ("the Son of Man MUST, Gk dei suffer).

3.  Perhaps the most striking difference in comparing these two passages is that chapter 8 speaks of being rejected by the "elders, chief priests, and scribes"... but chapter 9 speaks of Jesus being "handed over" to the hands "of MEN." In the Greek this is the plural of anthropos. There is a general and universal connotation here. It reminds me of Good Friday rituals where all gathered are handed a nail as a reminder that via our sins we ALL had a hand in the death of the Messiah. It is HUMANITY that kills him.

The grammar is a bit different between the verses, but they basically end the same way; he will die, but he will not stay dead. The 'end of the age' resurrection will break into the present, and he will be raised.... as St. Paul says, the first fruits.... of all of those who will experience resurrection (1Cor 15).

            So, what is this passage about? Especially taken with last week's focus on discipleship (I even entitled last week's sermon "Discipleship 101").... I can't help but think the focus is STILL on what it means to be a disciple. (Discipleship 200??). The primary problem seems to be 3-fold: (1) They weren't getting it; they didn't understand what he was trying to teach them; (2) They were afraid to ask about it.  Note... WHY? Jesus the teacher has always seemed to welcome honest inquiries; why not ask for clarification? It's the JOB of a rabbi to teach, and it's the job of a disciple to ask questions. I can really only think of a couple reasons they were afraid to ask--maybe it was fear of demonstrating their ignorance. After all, nobody likes to appear 'dense' about something basic that everyone else appears to understand. Is that it? Another reason for being afraid to ask is more subtle: perhaps at the gut level they understood a basic negative sound to what Jesus was saying and they didn't really want to hear more. Like the person who suspects horrific news if they actually tell their doctor about their pains, they opt for ignorance as the lesser of two evils. Regardless, (3) the last part of the problem was the invention of a substitute topic to distract their attention. Rather than meditating on what Jesus was trying to teach them they began disputing about who would be the greatest. Some have pointed out that this needn't be a self-centered dispute, as in, "I think that **I will be the greatest." It may have been a magnanimous dispute, as in, "I think **YOU will be the greatest." [note: this seems unlikely given other Gospel traditions that note the ambition of James and John to sit at the right & left of Christ].

            So, they were unknowing (Gk literally agnostic) about Christ's teaching; they were fearful of discovering more (Gk literally phobic); and they invented their own pass-time pseudo concentration. There's probably more than a few ways to pull this forward 2,000 years into consideration of our own discipleship efforts.

Cheers!

TM