Mark 9:30-37

Well.  Here we are again.  Its late.  I've tried to make headway with the day.  I've not done a good job at it.  Hopefully, the rest of the evening will be a little more productive.   We will see.

South's SOAP for the Day
S-Mark 9:30-37.
O-Jesus’ model for us is servant leadership. Put yourself below others.
A-Do at least one act of selfless service today.
P-Pray for a humble spirit as you practice putting others first.

Have you ever had one of those moments when you are so focused on something you don't want to be interrupted or distracted?  Since Jesus told his disciples what will happen in the future--that he will quarrel and be rejected by the Pharisees and the teachers of the law and that he will die and rise again--his focus has been on Jerusalem.  Mark highlights this by stating that Jesus didn't want anyone to know where they were.  He wanted time to teach his disciples.  There is much they need to get before he leaves them.  That is definitely evident by yesterday's passage.  

Jesus has finished his ministry in Galilee.  He is "on the way" to the cross.  We've seen him do his last healings in the Gospel of Mark with the Syro Phoenician woman's daughter and the blind man in Decapolis.  We've read of his transfiguration on the mountain.  We've seen his sense of frustration in yesterday's passage.  There is much to teach his disciples, as it seems.  That is where we find ourselves with today's passage.

Jesus and his disciples have passed through Galilee.  Jesus seems to be doing everything he can to avoid the crowds along the way.  Mark tells us he wants a quiet place to teach them.  The crowds and the commotion are interruptions and distractions.  There are bigger things on the horizon.  Jesus tells his disciples again of what is coming.  This time he changes his wording some.  Rather than being rejected,  he tells his disciples he will be "delivered" into the hands of men.  I wonder if the disciples at that point begin to look around the room and think about who the betrayer among them might be?  He also tells them again that he will be killed and rise from the dead.  But, as per usual, the disciples don't fully get it.

Mark also tells us they are afraid to ask about what Jesus has said.  This is a change from them in the past.  They couldn't wait to get Jesus alone to ask him about the parable of the sower earlier in the gospel.  Even in yesterday's passage, they are quick to ask, "Why couldn't we cast out the demon?"  Maybe they are gun shy.  Maybe they don't want to think about it.  Maybe the know they are in over their heads at this moment.  What's the point of asking then.

Then they get to Capernaum.  If we think back through Mark, we will remember that Capernaum is the first city that Jesus and his disciples entered after he called them to follow.  It is there they saw him do his first miracles.  It was also there that they saw the lame man lowered down through the roof.  Have they returned to Simon and Andrew's house, where Jesus healed Simon's mother in law?  I am sure there are a rush of memories coming to them.  And in all of this remembering, they are shocked at what Jesus says next.

What were you arguing about on the way?

Again they are silent.  They knew what they were arguing about.  Maybe they had hoped that he hadn't heard them.  Maybe they thought they were being discreet.  But he had heard them.  He was calling them out.  Jesus sits down, he calls the twelve to him and he begins to teach.  "Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all."  This echoes his earlier challenge to them about the last will be first and the first will be last.  On the way, they had been arguing about who was the greatest of the twelve.  Reading between the lines, who will take the place of Jesus if he dies?  Who is the next in line?  Earlier they are questioning why they can't cast out a demon and then they argue about who is the first?    Now they here their leader, the Messiah, tell them the first must be last.  And, even in being last, they must be the servant of all.

At this point, what are they thinking?  Are they remembering back to such things as Jesus touching and healing the leper--one who in the place of society is an outcast?  What about the bleeding woman?  Even more lowly would be the Syro Phoenician woman and her daughter--a woman and a Gentile.  No one is a low enough place that any of his disciples should claim superiority over them.  No, they are to be servants.

To drive home the point, Jesus then brings in front of them a little child.  I have a 9 year old daughter.  She is the cutest girl ever.  She was cute and sweet when she was born.  She was cute as a baby.  She's  grown more and more cute and perfect as the years have passed by.   In Bible times, children weren't seen as all rosy and lovely like today.  Some scholars say that children in that day were not respected.  They had no place of honor.  They had no status.  They had no power.

I think of Jace, the son of our close friends, Tim and Jackie.  Jace is almost 6 months old.  He has nothing.  He is nothing in human terms.  He fully needs his parents to care for him.  He needs them to feed him and change him.  Without them he is vulnerable and helpless.  In the grand scheme of men, he is not first.  This is the image that Jesus is putting in front of the twelve.

Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.

Mark leaves the story hang.  No more explanation from Jesus.  Simply a child in their midst as the words of Jesus sink in.

On the mountain God spoke to Matthew, James and John.  "This is my son, whom I love.  Listen to him."  Are they listening?

Are we listening?  How often do we try to be first?  Where is out humility in our faith?  Are we welcoming the little children....those that are helpless and in need?  Are we being servants to them?  Or are we arguing with one another, jostling to be in charge?

Lord, help us to be humble.  Help us to have the compassion that we see in Jesus to minister to the lowest of the low.  Help us to be servants, to put others before us.  Help us to die to our wants and needs, losing our lives, so that we can live new lives of the good news.  Let us be like parents, who have all the power in the world over our children, yet love them enough to serve and care for them in their helplessness.