Mark 9:30-41
Passage Mark 9:30-41
Speaker Claire Rose
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30 They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were, 31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise.” 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
33 They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34 But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35 Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
36 He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
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This transcript has been automatically generated, and therefore may not be 100% accurate.
Good morning. We're reading from the Gospel of Mark, chapter nine, verse 30.
They left that place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise. But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
They came to Capernaum. When he was in that house. He asked them, what were you arguing about on the road? But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who is going to be the greatest sitting down. Jesus called the twelve and said, anyone who wants to be first must be the very last and the servant of all.
He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me does not welcome me, but the one who sent me.
Teacher said, john, we saw someone driving out demons in your name. And we told him to stop because he was not one of us. Do not stop him, Jesus said, for no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me. For whoever is not against us is for us truly. I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.
This is the word of God.
Morning. Yes, great. Lovely to see you all. For those who don't know me, my name's Claire and I'm privileged to be one of the team here at All Saints. And we're going to continue today our journey through Mark.
Now, over the last few weeks, we've been looking at what it means for Jesus to be the Messiah. Then began by reminding us of the passage in Mark 8 where Peter declared that Jesus was the Christ. It's the turning point. After this point, Jesus begins his journey to Jerusalem and to the cross. And since then, as we've seen, the disciples have been through some pretty difficult times.
Jesus telling them that he has to die and rise again for the sake of the gospel. And importantly, they too will need to deny themselves and potentially lose their lives, a message they found difficult to comprehend, understandably so this was not the Messiah that they were expecting. And then we looked at the transfiguration where Peter, James and John joined Jesus on the mountain. Literally an awesome experience with the message to listen to Jesus. And then last week, we looked at the demon possessed boy that the Disciples could not heal, but Jesus did.
In this passage, Jesus continues his teaching of the disciples, putting time aside specifically to spend with them teaching, explaining and preparing them for what was to come. As an aside, if the disciples needed to time set aside for them to spend with Jesus, even though they were with him nearly every day, how much more do we need to do? So, as I mentioned the last time I was preaching, the Gospels are full of people who get things wrong and need to learn from their mistakes or misunderstandings. I find it a really powerful testimony to the faithfulness and the honesty of the Gospel narratives that such passages are actually included. In fact, versions of this event appear in all four Gospels.
It would have been very tempting to gloss over their fears and their failings and only talk about what went right. I mean, after all, at this point, it's only Jesus and disciples. But the message is too important.
Now Jesus has taken his disciples away from Caesarea Philippi at the foot of Mount Hermon, and he's making his way through Galilee to Capernaum. It's a distance of about 33 miles, which would have taken about two to three days walking, probably taking me about a week. But it took them about two to three days walking. During this time, he was continuing his teaching. Now, we're not told everything that he talked about, but the passage makes it clear that one of the things was he was repeating his message that he would die and rise again.
Now it's the second time he's done this and spoken about his forthcoming death. However, this time Jesus speaks about being delivered or betrayed into human hands. And again we are told the disciples don't understand what he's saying. Now, even if not every Jew believed that Messiah would come, those who did did not think that God would send a saviour who would suffer, let alone die. And crucially, as we read, they didn't understand and they were afraid to ask him.
Now, I think we're all sometimes guilty of being afraid to ask a question. I know I am. Whether it's because we don't want to appear ignorant and pretend that we know what people are talking about, or, as I think in this case, they didn't want to know the answer. Sometimes the easiest route is simply to ignore it, which is what the disciples did. Excuse me.
Instead, as we discover, they spent their time arguing about who was the greatest among them. And when they finally reach Capernaum, Jesus asks what they were arguing about. Now, Jesus obviously knows, and at that moment, I suspect the disciples knew that Jesus knew, because they say nothing. Now it reminds me of school kids or even my own children when they were younger. You know, when they're fighting or arguing and you say, now, come on, what are you arguing about?
And you either get the silent treatment or you get the very stroppy and disdainful nothing. Now, worthy disciples ashamed or did it dawn on them that actually the answer to who is the greatest was actually sitting amongst them?
At the heart of this is pride, the idea that someone is more important, better, more powerful, cleverer, wealthier, more deserving than others. Pride is sinful. It's the true opposite of humility. Pride leads to self promotion, arrogance, a desire for good reputation and idolatry of self. It's the polar opposite, humility.
And Jesus goes straight to the heart of their unspoken question by his paradoxical statement that whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all. Wow, I bet that was a bit of a wake up call. And then he draws a child into his arms. Obviously he's in a home here and continues, whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me. And whoever welcomes me welcomes not me, but the one who sent me.
Now, why a child? Jesus had great affinity for children and afforded them value. Unlike society at that time, Jewish children were welcomed and generally loved. There is much in the Old Testament about the value of children. This was unlike the cultures around them.
Roman and Greek society at that time used to expose unwanted children, infants leaving them outside to die. It was very commonplace. They usually only used to want to raise two, at the most three children. And in days of no contraception, you can just imagine what was happening. But even within Jewish society, children were worthless in that they had no worth in their own right other than as potential adults.
By taking a child into his arms and saying what he did, Jesus was yet again making a radical and a subversive point. He embraces a child which is a role primarily reserved for women. It was a visible demonstration that everyone has a place within God's embrace. As we see throughout the Gospels, Jesus welcomed and showed love, compassion and afforded value to those whom society ostracised or were deemed of no value. Whether it was disabled women, perceived enemies, lepers, a demon possessed, and yes, children.
Jesus radically confronts existing structures of power and privilege in our world. We like to be first. We like to have importance. We see it every day on our television screens, in our work, in our political arenas, in our families, and even within our churches. It is so easy to confuse greatness or importance with significance.
Importance speaks to the value we derive from things like position, status, and the esteem of others. Significance speaks to the value we give to people by loving and serving them. Now, I'm not saying that power and privilege, position and prestige, wealth and influence are bad. Of course they're not. But it depends on how we use those gifts that God has given us.
First of all, they're not a right. They're something to be used to serve others with love and humility. There should not be a source of pride that they make you better or greater than anyone else. Importantly, if you don't have those things, that does not affect your value or your worth. If we genuinely wish to be followers of Jesus, then our desire should be to use whatever God has given us to love and serve others with humility.
Now, it's been a bit of a tumultuous week in politics this week, and I'm not going to make any judgments or statements, but I was struck recently by the eulogy given at President Carter's funeral and some of the news coverage. I'm not sure if any of you saw this. It is worth listening to. His grandson commented that whilst he only spent four years as governor and four years in the White House, where he brokered the Camp David peace Agreements and then got the Nobel Peace Prize, he actually lived a hundred years. There was, you know, 92 other years that he lived.
The last 50 years. He worked for the betterment of others, using the prestige and the influence that he had in an effort to, and I quote, his son who quoted the Bible, to love justice, to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with his God. One reporter who spent time at the Carter foundation who commented that he did not always agree with Carter, commented he lived and gave selflessly, choosing to invest his energies in service rather than status. Carter himself said, my faith demands I do whatever I can, wherever I can, whenever I can, for as long as I can, with whatever I have, to try to make a difference.
But what does this mean for us? Now, it's all well and good, looking at various passages, but if it doesn't challenge or change us, the Bible becomes nothing more than a pretty good read. First of all, being a Christian, a follower of Jesus, does not mean being part of a nice spiritual club. It is difficult, or it should be. It is definitely challenging.
It turns societal norms on its head, opens us up to ridicule and contempt, to danger, and to some, even today, loss of freedom or even loss of life, there is cost. Being a Christian is also paradoxical, contradictory statements that are nonetheless true. The Bible's full of them. And you've actually seen two weeks ago in Mark 8, for those who want to save his life will lose it. And there are many others.
I'll just go through some of them. I've got quite a long list here, but I'll just go through some of them. We find rest under a yoke. We are exalted. When we are humble, we are made free.
By becoming bondservants we gain strength. When we are weak, we live by dying. And then we have this passage, the last shall be first and the first last. It not only asserts the truth, but should prompt us to ask, am I thinking and acting in ways that make me first or last? Am I serving others and serving Christ, or serving myself?
What behaviours could be hindering my spiritual growth? I'm the first to admit that these are very uncomfortable questions. Now please don't take away from today the thought that I will try to be more humble and serve others more. It sounds good, but that still depends on self and not on God. Each day there will be new challenges and each day we need to ask Christ to work within us so that we become more like Him.
We'll shortly be celebrating communion together and I'd like to finish by reading this well known passage from Philippians.
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility. Regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself taking the form of a slave. Being born in human likeness and being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Amen.
Amen.