Mark 9:30-37
“A Case of Missing the Point”
A Chapter before this one, Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do you say that I am?,” and Peter, speaking for the group got it right: “You are the Christ.”
But what does that mean?
I would imagine that, most of us this morning would give Jesus the same answer.
But what does that mean?
It takes a lifetime to try and figure it out, does it not?
And a lot of mistakes.
At the beginning of Mark Chapter 9 we see that Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain where Jesus is “transfigured before them.”
And then, they watch in amazement as Jesus is joined by Moses and Elijah.
When they come down the mountain, they find the other disciples trying to drive a demon out of a boy, “but they could not.”
But when Jesus “rebuked the evil spirit…the spirit shrieked…and came out.”
And in verse 38 of Mark Chapter 9 an outsider is casting out demons in Jesus’ name.
So, we come upon our Lesson for this morning.
Jesus says to His disciples, “The Son of Man is going to be betrayed 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.”
Instead, as they are walking down the road, they were arguing among themselves…
…and what they were arguing about?...
“Who will be the greatest?”
“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve” to Him.
Which is an indication that, “This is important.”
“This is central to what it means to follow Jesus.
It goes to the core of the meaning of life, and what it means to live in the Kingdom of God, and to be the Church.”
It also shows how radically revolutionary Jesus’ teaching is.
It is one of the greatest over-turnings in all of history!!!
All of our assumed ideas about importance and greatness become dust.
All the boasting and the pomp and circumstance of power are irrelevant.
Jesus stops the entire human parade and puts it in reverse!!!
Indeed, what Jesus says so upsets the way society views things that we might literally stagger at the thought of accepting it as our Way of life.
Clearly, Jesus’ disciples had thought of their calling to follow Christ as an opportunity for privilege, power and position.
At this point, discipleship meant service, but service to them!
The last thing they can think about is the kind of sacrificial outpouring of self that Jesus is about…that the Cross is all about…
…that being a Christian is all about!!!
And this confusion, this case of “missing the point” has continued down through the ages.
How hard it is for us to accept a crucified Lord instead of a conquering King!
How reluctant we are to accept the Cross of Jesus as the supreme revelation of God.
But if we do make a detour around the Cross, we miss the Way to God entirely!!!
Like the disciples, how many of us have been afraid to ask for the meaning of Christ’s death…
…afraid—because of what the answer might be: that we might get in too deep!!!
Because the answer makes the acceptance of the Cross the law for life.
The answer means that everything must change!!!
It points to the extreme.
It’s dangerous.
It upsets everything!
It isn’t comfortable.
It is about living life as a sacrifice, of giving our minds, hearts, time and strength as a ransom for others.
It’s hard-core!!!
In a world in love with itself where we are told that its okay, actually it’s great, to promote ourselves, the disciples look pretty normal.
For millennia, people have thought or fought about, “Who will be the greatest?”
And these arguments have moved from the bow and arrow to nuclear bombs!
And because of this, nations and people stand in ruins.
All of us are continually bombarded with advertising meant to bring to the surface and legitimize envy, covetousness, pride, vanity, and greed.
Education is often just a means to sharpen our claws in the battle of competition.
And the urge to be “the greatest” can even get inside the church with the desire for material prosperity and social prestige.
Think and shudder at how these things often displace the desire to seek and save those who are lost!!!
A poll of tithers in a mainstream denomination revealed that 90 percent of those who gave expected something in return.
They mentioned snappy sermons, rousing choir anthems, and a full range of programs for the family.
There is nothing wrong with these things.
We should, and we do seek to be the best we can be—but very few of the people in the poll mentioned service and no one mentioned suffering.
Jesus asked the disciples, “What were you talking about on the road?”
And this is a question which ought to be truly unsettling.
What are we discussing as we journey with Jesus?
What is the main concern of our conversations, what is deepest in our hearts?
What do we care about most?
Are we missing the point?
So, “Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve,” and Jesus calls you and Jesus calls me…
… and says, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
Suppose Jesus were to come to our community to pick out the “leading citizens.”
Who would they be, measured, if you will, by Jesus’ revolutionary standard?
Surely, the majority of His candidates would be “quote, unquote” nobodies, people whose names have never been in anything more notorious than a telephone book, but are already written in the Lamb’s Book of Life!!!
Perhaps, on Jesus’ list, might not be the president of some big company, but the president’s janitor.
Perhaps it would be someone who visits the sick and those in prison.
Maybe it would be a Sunday school teacher who desires no reward, but just wants to serve and let others know they are loved and cared about.
Maybe it would be someone who has little but gives much!
Would it be someone who smiles, despite the difficulties of life, and thus brightens other person’s day?
Could it be someone who prays for and with others?
Could it be the street evangelist or the person who invites others to come and worship God with them at church?
Maybe it is the person who takes time out of their busy day to help a stranger in need and distress.
Could it be a person with a “listening ear”?
Someone who is willing to be present for others during difficult times?
Could it be anyone who brings the love of Christ to others in selfless service without judgment and a self-righteousness?
Is it me?
Is it you?
One way of putting this question to ourselves is, “Are we living before Christ or After Christ?”
Are our ideas of greatness the same as those that we had before we proclaimed Jesus as Lord or have things really changed?
What does it mean to say “Jesus is the Christ?”
It takes a lifetime of following and learning from Him to try and figure that out!
It has been said that “We often pay lip service to the view that the ‘first shall be last,’ so long as we are not challenged to put that view to the test of accepting someone whom we consider a real ‘outsider.’”…
… and “One of the most difficult tasks for volunteers at soup kitchens, homeless shelters, and other service organizations is to learn to treat with dignity the people they are helping.”
So how do we learn to follow Jesus?
How do we come to understand the message of the Cross?
Jesus has an answer, and it comes in a picture lesson.
“He took a little child and had him stand among them. Taking him 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.’”
In our society, where children are the apples of their parents’ eyes, the virtual princes and princesses of the family, we might be apt to miss Jesus’ point.
In Jesus’ day, children weren’t the symbol of innocence like we think of them today.
Instead, they symbolized powerlessness and vulnerability.
Children were non-persons.
There was very little interest in children in Greco-Roman society.
Childless Romans who needed heirs often adopted adults rather than children.
Children were without status, and they had no power.
They could do nothing for themselves or others.
Indeed, in order for children to survive at all, they must be served and served and served—with love!!!
So, Jesus tells us that whoever welcomes and accepts a powerless person of low status has welcomed Him!!!
And, “whoever welcomes [Him] does not welcome [Him] but the one who sent [Him].”
Let that one sink in!!!
Who are the powerless and so-called non persons in our midst today?
Who needs help?
Who has been overlooked?
Who is hurting?
Who is hungry?
Who is lonely?
Who are we called to welcome and serve?
The child represents Jesus!
Anyone who is powerless represents Jesus!
And everyone is to be welcomed!!!
The way we treat “the least of these” is indeed, a good measure of our discipleship!
There is no worldly profit in serving the so-called “useless people” of the world.
But did not Christ Himself, come to earth and lay down His very life on a bloody Cross in order to welcome you and me?
This is the character of God!!!
God serves all people, despite our absolute inability to do anything for God.
And Jesus says that people who treat others as God treats us are great!!!
Why?
Because they are living like God, and God is great!!!
Amen.
