Year B Proper 24 RCL Job 38:1-7, 34-41 Mark 10:34-45

Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? Gird up your loins like a man, I will question you, and you shall declare to me.

The voice of God speaks from out of the whirlwind. It is the last time in the Old Testament that God speaks, and the words are not comforting or happy. In fact, knowing how Job has suffered, we might be surprised by just how harsh they seem. But we have to remember what we heard Job saying to God in last week’s reading.

Oh, that I knew where I might find God, that I might come even to His dwelling! I would lay my case before Him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

Job is declaring his desire to enter the heavenly courts that he might plead his case with God – as God’s equal. That is what God has heard, and it is to this lament that God is replying.

"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding.

And, of course, Job doesn’t have that kind of understanding, only his suffering and his desire for God’s mercy. It has never crossed his mind, as he suffers with his pain wracked body, that what he is asking is not reasonable. That’s often how we are. We suffer, or are in want or need, and sometimes we demand to know “why”. We want an explanation, want God to justify what we are experiencing.

So, Job has repeatedly cried out, and in today’s reading, in some of the most majestic poetry in Scripture, out of the whirlwind, God has answered. What God says puts Job in his place. In verses not in today’s reading, after God finishes speaking, Job says: “See, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? ... I will not answer”. God’s appearance has invalidated the very basis of Job’s complaint. Like children, Job and his friends thought they understood the world; but now Job realizes that they do not. And so his complaint against God evaporates.

Job made a mistake, one we often make. We often personalize God and reduce God’s image to that of benevolent friend who gives us warm hugs. This God is not the warm hugs friend, but rather one who practices “tough love”. Job is faced with this reality and is swept up in the Presence of the God of creation, resulting in his own humbling submission.

In our relationship with God, whatever our chronological age, we often think and act like children. We want God to always be the benevolent parent, and though we do indeed have a friend in Jesus, God, our loving God, is mysterious, and powerful beyond our comprehension. Our God can be terrifying, and we must be ready to face and accept that suffering may indeed be part of His calling to us.

“James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came forward to Jesus and said to him, ‘Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.’ And he said to them, ‘What is it you want me to do for you?’ And they said to him, ‘Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.’”

The disciples come to Jesus with what they feel is a reasonable request, and there’s an almost childlike innocence in their question. True, it sounds to us like the sons of Zebedee are presuming too much, but like children, they’re only pursuing their own self-interests, what they believe is best for them. To understand, we need only consider what their lives have been like as Jesus’ closest friends and followers.

The disciples haven’t had lives of great comfort, following Jesus around the countryside, depending on the kindness of family, friends, and strangers. In worldly terms, they have lived their lives among the poor, the powerless, the people most likely to experience suffering, and they want to insure that at least in the world to come, they’ll be set. They presume their friendship and respect for Jesus comes with a reward, and they want to lock it in while things are going well.

Like them, we do not see suffering as a reward for faithfulness. Like them we expect that we will receive comfort and security for the sacrifices we make for Jesus. None of us think of the old saying, “The cross is the gift Christ gives His friends,” and if we do happen to let it enter our minds, we decide it makes no sense and quickly banish it from our thoughts.

Jesus realizes the disciples are like children, their thinking on this subject is simplistic, so He asks them, and us, a question designed to get them to think again..

“Jesus said to them, ‘You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?’ They replied, (exactly as we would have, and have in fact done in our baptism) ‘We are able.’”

Do they have any idea what they have agreed to? Do we? Do we understand what we agreed to, or what our Godparents agreed to for us, when we were baptized? Like the world in the disciples’ time, the structure of the world we live in is based on power and the philosophy “those who have get more, and those who have not get squashed.” We tell Jesus we accept the baptism He offers, but what we really want is to be among the powerful.

Job and James and John are looking at things the way we often do. They tend to see God as someone to be placated either through worship, obedience or honorifics, but they expect something in return. What they receive is not what they anticipated. In Job’s case, he gets unmitigated suffering and loss. James and John are also warned that the cup of suffering will be theirs.

Jesus explains further, “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

Though it is power that spells security for us in our world, we are not called to worldly power. We are called to love God and each other unconditionally. We are called to remember we are God’s adopted children. The hard part is that following Jesus requires not power, but sacrifice and surrender, and, yes, sometimes, often, this involves suffering.

And there it is again – that word that we so dislike – suffering! If we are honest, we are appalled by Job’s misery, and aghast at God’s response to him. We are startled by Jesus’ answer to James and John. We do not expect or anticipate that our Loving God will allow suffering, and certainly never think of it as a gift. Though, in the world we may be the most respected and responsible of adults, bearing all things for our loved ones, even suffering for them, when we turn to Jesus, instead of seeing our difficult or painful times in the light of His love, we ask, “why?”

The answer is, on our shoulders rests the task of continuing Jesus’ work in this world. That is what His first followers, His disciples, did, and it is what we at our baptism agreed to do. We know what worldly work often involves and we bear it because we are working for much needed worldly rewards. The requirements for working for Jesus are the same as working in the world and often, if not always, involve suffering and sacrifice – but not worldly rewards. This is where we become confused. What good is suffering if there is no earthly prize to be gained? We want to know what purpose suffering serves, and why does God permit it?

Difficult as it may at first be to accept, suffering is a gift from Jesus. And St. Paul has given us an example of how to accept suffering with a sense of joy. Our suffering can be offered up, joined to what Jesus suffered for us. Suffering has meaning and dignity because of its redemptive power and spiritual significance in the context of the sacrifice and passion of Christ. We need to hear these words and ponder them in our hearts.

We have seen people walk away from the faith because of difficulties encountered, because they, like children, did not understand. Are we able to drink the cup that Jesus drinks, or be baptized with the baptism with which He is baptized?’ Think long and hard before you affirm you baptismal vows answer and respond , “I am”.

We know that to walk the Way of the Cross is to walk the way of holiness, and that our reward in heaven will be great. But we are still like children, and so we ask - is there, then, no reward on earth for serving Jesus?

The answer is that , of course there is – peace and joy. The happy person, the one with love in their heart and a smile on their face, the joyful person, the one who is calm amid the tempests of life, how we long to be like them. And that is exactly who we are called to be, even when life is difficult, even in suffering. When we center our hearts and lives in Jesus, the rewards are peace and joy and love. This is what Jesus offers us in this world when our hearts rest in Him.

“Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We are called to look to, and follow the example of our Savior. “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Let us pray:

God, by whom the meek are guided in judgment, and light rises up in darkness for the godly: Grant us, in all our doubts and uncertainties, in good times and bad, in comfort and in suffering, the grace to ask what you would have us do, that the Spirit of wisdom may save us from all false choices, and that in your light we may see light, and in your straight path may not stumble; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.