We must read this in the context of Jesus teaching about the children. About the poor, the disadvantaged, the disempowered, those stripped of full humanity and equality in the world.

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The physical, living faith of following Jesus
Proper 21B  |  Mark 9:38-50

Following Jesus

The big theme of the last two weeks continues: identity. Jesus’s identity, the disciples’ identity, and our identity. But just like the disciples, we may have trouble matching these identities up. Now, if we all had to write a ten page paper about the theology behind Jesus’s identity, I think most of us would grumble. I know a few of the nerds in the room like myself would raise our hands and say “when is it due?”

Thankfully, we receive this not as a position paper, but a story. A powerful, compelling story. A story that took a dramatic turn two weeks ago when Jesus  first told his followers that he was going to die. Peter (of course) tried to stop it, physically drawing Jesus away from his focus. Peter became a stumbling block and Jesus drove him back behind him, the proper posture for a disciple.

That part of the story started with a question: who do you say that I am? which is essentially who am I? Right? Identity.

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There, Jesus exposes that this identity, his identity defies their expectation. He isn’t the new David. He isn’t a king. He is the poor and the outcast. Those are his people. When we mess with those people, we’re messing with Jesus.

There are so many other pieces that are important, but I’m going to fast forward to the second Passion Prediction. They’re on their way to Jerusalem, they’re arguing about which of them is the best, totally proving to us that they didn’t get what Jesus was saying in chapter 8, or what was happening along the road. So Jesus predicts his death again and when he stops talking… [crickets]. They don’t ask for clarifications, they don’t comment. They remember what happened to Peter. But it also means they don’t get Jesus’s message straight. They suffer, confused, in silence.

Jesus again tries to teach them, upending their expectations, turning everything upside down. The first are last. And the last verses before this morning’s gospel are these, listen close:

Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’

Holding a child, he says How you treat her is how you treat me. What you think of children is what you think of GOD.

So how do the disciples respond to this teaching? They stop a man healing in Jesus’s name because he was unaffiliated. They prove in that moment what they think of GOD. And it isn’t what Jesus is teaching them. They judge the man, not by how he lives and what he is doing, but the identity they choose to give him. Just like the identity they choose to give Jesus [Messiah]. The disciples are not our example, they are our problem. And they are a lot like we are.

Stumbling Blocks

“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”

We must read this in the context of Jesus teaching about the children. About the poor, the disadvantaged, the disempowered, those stripped of full humanity and equality in the world.

This is what Peter was doing when he tried to prevent Jesus from going to Jerusalem. This is what the disciples do when they are unable to heal the boy on the way and what they do when they try to stop this believer from doing Jesus’s work without the proper papers or ID badge. Which, is just not comfortable to think about, is it? I think all of our ministries here on 7th probably struggle with making sure all of our actions are sanctioned, right? Did you get that authorized, first? We want to protect our identity.

It seems, though, that Jesus argues that they are too worried about their own identity, that they aren’t learning what composes that identity: that they are proclaiming the good news to the poor, that they have taken up their cross and followed Jesus: just like they first threw their nets in the water to unburden themselves at the beginning for their first journey with Jesus.

Identity

The classic take on Mark is that the disciples are exceptionally bad because they serve as our way into the text. They struggle to get what Jesus is saying, just like we struggle to get it. We all smile and nod, saying “Of course! The first shall be last! That must mean I get to go first because I always feel like I’m last!” But how many of us here, really, are last in this world? Not many. Some are definitely laster than others. Just like some of us are much firster than others. But on the whole, we’re a pretty privileged group.

We struggle with really hearing Jesus here. Because we know he doesn’t want us to chop off our hands or drown. He is using hyperbole. But like the way we use hyperbole, Jesus is trying to get us to take this idea as deadly serious. Don’t mess with the weak! Don’t mess with the children! Don’t mess with the poor and the immigrant and the refugee! Don’t mess with the widowed or the orphaned or the imprisoned! These are Jesus’s people! These are GOD’s seats in the world!

Jesus tells them stories so that they will come to believe. Jesus shows them examples so that they will understand this isn’t an intellectual exercise. This isn’t memorizing Scripture passages or talking about church history, but it is living out our faith and sharing our faith with one another. It is gathering as equals, as co-creators of a new world. It is coming into a common space to share at a common table. And it is exercising the radical equality of GOD, embracing the dream of GOD, and respecting the creation of GOD.

For Jesus, Identity comes through living, not through making certain belief claims. It comes through welcoming the stranger and empowering our children. It comes through being the Fellowship of Faith together in common worship and with generous hearts. And it comes when we lay aside the baggage that burdens us, those possessions which control us, and make following Jesus our priority. Living out the generous spirit, sharing of our abundance, and giving away all that we have been blessed to receive. Loose those stumbling blocks and throw them into the sea.

Let us share generously, hopefully, and with all of Jesus’s love here and around GOD’s table that we might embody GOD’s great Fellowship of Faith. Then let us go out from here and live a life unrestrained from the love of GOD. The life promised, the life of GOD’s dreams, the life of faith.