It seems that they don’t want the world that Jesus is offering: the upside down economy of GOD’s divine fellowship of faith. They want to rule.

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Following Jesus into a different understanding of love
Proper 20B  |  Mark 9:30-37

Returning to the Passion

We remember from last week that Jesus and the disciples had gone far to the north, to the city of Caesarea Philippi and it was there that Jesus turns his attention toward Jerusalem. From there, he’s going to make a beeline south to the great city, Zion, David’s City, Jerusalem.

We also remember that before they go that way, Jesus made a pretty frightening prediction: that he would face the cruel hands of Rome, be crucified, and die. This was the first of three Passion Predictions in Mark: one each in chapters 8, 9, and 10. And it will be chapter 11 in which they finally arrive at their destination.

And when Jesus made this prediction, Peter tried to prevent it from coming true. He tried to convince Jesus, protect him from death. Why? Because we know what Peter thinks the Messiah is to be like: another David. A human king. That doesn’t just mean a human ruler, but a destroyer and military general. His job is liberation of the Hebrew people from their sort of Exile: the Roman occupation and subservience, that the monarchy might be restored. Perhaps.

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But Jesus instantly proves that Peter’s idea about the Messiah is wrong. Or, more precisely, Peter’s idea is the problem. Peter believes that the kingdom the Messiah brings will be identical to the world that exists, in the world Rome has fashioned, just with a different ruler: a ruler that likes them more than the Romans.

Right after Peter’s rebuke, and Jesus’s rebuke of Peter, Jesus takes him up a mountain with James and John for the Transfiguration: when they see Elijah and Moses and Jesus’s face is transfigured and a voice speaks to them, booming: “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” It is probably fair to say that listening to Jesus is what they haven’t been doing in the previous verses. And, to be honest, not what they’re going to do in the next few, either. There is also a really cool healing of a boy here; a story which we normally read as being about belief and prayer: the kind of story we use to reinforce deep, personal piety. But given its place in the story, is more about Jesus than the boy or his Dad: in their belief.

So we arrive in the middle of chapter 9 with this, the second Passion Prediction, and it may seem like a repeat: he predicts his death. This time, they are too afraid to ask him about it. Perhaps they remember the rebuke of Peter. Of course they still don’t understand. Not only what is going to happen to Jesus, but why that is a good thing. They don’t understand how sacrifice is the mission. They don’t understand who Jesus is revealing himself to be.

The Jesus Stamp

Peter’s confusion, repeated this morning as all the disciples’ confusion makes a ton of sense, doesn’t it? This is what they’ve been told. They were taught that the Messiah would be like previous Messiahs. And given Jesus’s command of creation: of healing and the very elements of the air and water, this man could surely be the wonder-worker, the incarnate miracle who would save them.

Of course, if they know their scripture, they would know that many prophets, especially Elijah and Elisha were capable of wondrous deeds, and yet could not prevent Jerusalem’s fait. Perhaps they wanted the king more than they wanted the prophet.

It seems that they don’t want the world that Jesus is offering: the upside down economy of GOD’s divine fellowship of faith. They want to rule.

I can’t help but see in this the need of taking things in our world and put a Jesus stamp on it to make it OK. Our evangelical friends have made a cottage industry out of this. Don’t listen to Rock music, we’ll offer you Christian Rock. Or, instead of those name brand logos, you should have a cross on your t-shirt.

But really, it is less crass and more insidious than that. It is the idea of the “Christian Nation” which is like a “get out of jail free” card of forgiveness: because GOD has chosen sides and it is ours. We used to call this Manifest Destiny, but it got its more recent gloss when the late president referred to America as the shining city on a hill, casting us as the New Jerusalem. When we’re the “good guys” then the bombs we drop are for GOD’s peace and restoration of the world, the prisoners we kill are for the healing of the world, and the refugees we ignore are for the great ordering of the planet. It can’t be that we are doing things Rome’s way. It’s Jesus’s way! Just check the tag on the back. Right above “made in China.”

Relearning the Kingdom

Lest we think that the disciples are too horribly inept and that Jesus is too obtuse to be understood, we keep receiving examples. Jesus keeps trying to help the people to see what he means by GOD’s kingdom: the building of a great Fellowship of Faith. And it is hard to understand: we have spent 2000 years continuously confused by it. Every time a person paints a crown on Jesus, they misunderstand who Jesus is. Not a king, but an anti-king.

So Jesus wants them to get what he has spent 8 or so chapters showing them. He wants them to wrap their heads around this idea of an upside-down economy. So he finds this kid who happens to be nearby and puts him in their midst. He hugs him, holds him and says to them: anyone who welcomes him, welcomes me. And they welcome GOD. See?

Of course they should see. Because children in their society were about as precious as the dirt on your shoe. Lower than women and slaves who were also considered property to the wealthy man, children were valueless property. They’re the bottom rung on the ladder. So when Jesus gives the child equal dignity, he isn’t just claiming equality, he is granting dignity to one who has none.

This is what Jesus’s economy looks like: true equality of all persons with dignity given to the one without it.

And he shows them, not by taking a wealthy land-owning Hebrew man and saying “welcome him” because all Wealthy Lives and all Male Lives Matter. No, it is by raising up the low and giving them dignity and proving that all means all.

Teaching Love

As the disciples were walking along the road, they were fighting over who was the greatest disciple. You can imagine the conversation: “Jesus loves me more!” “No, he loves me more!” But this is really the worst part of it all. We think this is a competition. We think that at least we need to win. We can’t all win! we say. This really seems important to us. We worry about ourselves. We don’t want to lose. But Jesus names the problem as having any losers at all.

If we are listening to the gospel, if we are following Jesus, if we have taken up our cross and set out behind Jesus, following him where he leads, then we need to begin to wrap our heads around our conflicts, our competitions, and our acceptance of an American culture that is infinitely more like ancient Rome than it is like the Kingdom with its divine fellowship of faith, hope, and love.

Some of you may have read recently about the Archbishop of Canterbury’s call for the world’s Anglican leaders to gather with him this January to chart a future together. The response from the conservative group GAFCON was not if the North Americans are going to be there. More winners and losers.

Our challenge is to see how we can be great, how we can excel, how we can reveal the glory of GOD through our creativity and faith and yet not put ourselves above our neighbors. To not make fun of our Evangelical friends for the Christian stamp on the consumer culture or not see ourselves as above our friends in GAFCON for continuing to divide us, for refusing to come to a common table and participate in the restoration of all things. We must rightly name the wrong thing that has been done, but honor the dignity of the person. And love them.

Jesus tells us that the way to our Jerusalem involves taking up our cross and following Jesus. The one who is heading to Jerusalem. The one who will arrive on a donkey in a holy mockery of Rome. The one who will upset the elites in the Temple and then humiliate them the next day. The one who will accept an anointing with expensive oil and will break bread with his friends. The one who will be raised up on a cross to die. And he will die. But then, live.

This is the symbol of the kingdom and GOD’s expression of faith. The power in weakness isn’t the authority to rule over another person, but an expression of surviving, thriving in a world of inequality and shame. It is love for the unlovable and hope for hopeless; wealth for the poor and healing for the chronically ill because that is what love looks like to GOD. That’s what love and justice looks like. And if we do it, then we are finally proving our faith. And we show each other what GOD’s faith looks like.