A look at the gaps in the lectionary.
This week: the gap between Proper 22B and 23B
The text: Mark 9-10:16
The pace quickens as Jesus and the disciples head to Jerusalem. Not that they necessarily see it. And those of us who read it piece-by-piece each Sunday may struggle to see it, too.
After Jesus turns his face to Jerusalem in chapter 8, we see the disciples struggle to follow what Jesus is teaching. A gap between what Jesus is teaching and what the disciples are learning develops and seems to be growing.
For those following along week-by-week, I hope the themes of this section are continuously present in our minds—of Jesus teaching about children, support, offering support for the young, ignorant, and outside the system.
We, too, should be thinking about Jesus’s teaching on the big concerns of his critics as not only consistent throughout the gospel, but as reflecting a sense of expanding the scope of their usefulness. This is just as much about the disciples as the critics, about the people of that time and of us. We are all a part of this program.
While we don’t have a gap between last week’s gospel and this one, we must keep these ongoing themes in mind—especially as we really do seem to want to take these stories as if they were self-contained—and that would be a mistake!
It isn’t that we can’t learn from last week’s teaching on marriage and divorce as speaking to people today about marriage and divorce—but it is a mistake to think Jesus is specifically offering us such a teaching. He’s being confronted by critics who don’t like his teaching on Sabbath or handwashing. He’s proclaiming good news to the poor—including those in a foreign land. Their question isn’t about marriage, really. And our response to it shouldn’t be so exclusive as that.
This is what we’re dealing with this week, too, isn’t it? Another story, a most famous story, that feels like it could be any time. It could help us in our specific place. And the temptation to always do that is real.
But it has this ongoing context behind it. And we would do well to remember it, just as we did last week.