Year B Proper 20 Mark 9:30-37

Jesus and his disciples passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for He was teaching His disciples…

In today’s short Gospel reading, Jesus has made an effort to get some time alone with His disciples. He is passing through familiar territory, where He would be instantly recognized, but His message to His closest friends is urgent, and so He hopes not to be spotted by the crowds. What can He have to say, that He goes to the trouble to remain unnoticed?

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.” But they did not understand what He was saying and were afraid to ask Him.

Today’s reading comes from Mark’s Gospel, which is the oldest of all the four Gospels. It is shorter than the other three, and the language is less fluent, but it is the Gospel written closest to Jesus’ lifetime, and so we pay close attention to what Mark has to say.

Today Mark gives us yet another glimpse of how Jesus spent time explaining things to His disciples. Being a disciple was more than just being a member of the crowd. These were the chosen twelve, Jesus;’ closest friends. For much of Christian history, being identified as a “disciple of Jesus” has been considered high praise. The disciples, after all, were the handpicked group of followers who lived, learned, and labored alongside Jesus. They were commissioned to heal the sick, baptize sinners, and proclaim the Good News of God in Christ to the ends of the earth.

But if we listen closely, we can’t help but notice that Scripture does not always portray the disciples with such glamour and reverence. Consider today’s reading: For the second time in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus takes the disciples aside to teach them that He will soon be given over to human hands and will suffer, die, and rise again. And for the second time, the disciples don’t get it.

In fact, Mark’s Gospel tells of Jesus trying to teach the disciples this crucial lesson on three different occasions, and each and every time, the disciples don’t get it. Instead, they’re concerned with things like which one of them is the greatest and what the folks in town thought about them and what they were going to eat for lunch.

There might have been a simple explanation for this, one we miss because we are hearing this story in an English translation. “Son of Man” is a title which is used often in the Gospel to refer to Jesus, but what we miss is how it sounded to the disciples. In Jesus language, Aramaic, “son of man” is what we call an indefinite pronoun. The translation we have, “son of man”, is accurate, but when spoken by our Lord it wasn’t a title. Today what Jesus would have said would have been, “One is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him….”

Well – that is somewhat vague and confusing, but we know the disciples weren’t stupid. On some level they must have grasped what Jesus was saying to them. For them the problem was that what Jesus said wasn’t something they wanted to hear. So – they “fail to understand” Jesus’ teaching about His suffering, death, and resurrection, and then they’re also too afraid to ask Jesus any questions about it! Why not question Him? Why not make sure?

Perhaps the disciples were afraid to ask Jesus a question because they should have been paying better attention. Or maybe they were afraid to ask because Jesus would think they were ignorant. But maybe the real reason they were afraid to ask Jesus a question was because somewhere deep down, they already knew the answer.

How often are we guilty of precisely the same thing? How often are we afraid to ask a question because we think we should know the answer, or because we’re afraid our question is stupid, or even because we’re afraid of the answer?

Jesus said, “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.”

Mark doesn’t tell us the expressions on the disciples’ faces when they heard Jesus utter these words. He doesn’t tell us about the gasps and the horrified stares and the hard gulps. And he says nothing about the heavy hush that surely descended upon the disciples. All Mark says is, “They were afraid…”

And although Mark is also silent as to why the disciples were afraid, we can surmise that they feared for the fate of their friend and leader. Each and every one of them had left their families and their livelihoods to take an enormous risk in following Jesus, and so hearing that He expects to be arrested and killed—never mind the bit about rising from the dead—all comes as quite a shock.

But what if the disciples were afraid for another reason as well? What if, along with their fear about what would become of Jesus, they were also afraid of what would happen to them? After all, if Jesus was arrested and killed, surely His closest associates would come under scrutiny as well. Perhaps what was at the root of the disciples’ fear is the fact that they were beginning to understand, even just a little, what the true cost of discipleship is.

How do we, today, manage with our discipleship? We are Jesus’ followers, His close friends. We call ourselves Christians, and we claim to follow His commandments, but when it comes to sacrifices and suffering – we are torn between worldly desires and Jesus teachings, everything He commanded us to do.

In a world where wealth is good but more wealth is better; where consumerism is king; and where our worth is measured by what we have rather than what we give, the cost of discipleship is hard news that many would prefer not to hear. But it is also the Good News that we so desperately need to hear!

We find ourselves always struggling to be kind, generous, patient, and loving, when it is so much easier to be impatient, stingy (we call it thrifty), and selfish. Those latter words don’t sound like huge sins, but rather like someone “having a bad day”, but while Jesus understands and forgives our bad days, they go against everything He has taught us and everything He expects from us as His friends. For us, those “bad days” are the times we try to avoid being uncomfortable, avoid having to make sacrifices, avoid even the slightest form of suffering. For Jesus they are sins and a painful reminder of the many ways in which we do not do as He has bidden us.

To be a disciple of Jesus is to set our hearts and minds on divine things and not on human things. Jesus demands that we remain faithful to Him, all the while knowing that, at times, His way will lead us to confusion and suffering, and ultimately the cross – but that is never where the story ends.

We know that there is a third day. A day of resurrection lies ahead for all of us who believe and follow in His way. For now, our job is to remain faithful to Him who promises to be with us during the hardships of life and to make all things new, to continue to be strong in our generousity and loving kindness. There is no need to worry who among us is the greatest when we have a God who is our helper and sustainer.

Each day we are called to set our hearts on Jesus and to do something beautiful for God. Let us pray always for the help, strength, and courage to do so.

Let us pray:

Almighty and eternal God, so draw our hearts to You, so guide our minds, so fill our imaginations, so control our wills, that we may be wholly Yours, totally dedicated to You; and then use us, we pray You, as You will, and always to Your glory and the welfare of Your people; through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.