Receive Others, Receive Jesus, Receive God Mark 9:30-37
Proper 20B, Pent 16 Sept. 20, 2009 Redeemer, Olathe, KS
When studying God’s word it’s really easy to become detached from the stories we read because of the great distance and time which separates us from the personalities we find in the Bible. As we quickly read our Gospel text we might be inclined to ignore those bumbling disciples, who, once again, just don’t get it. They can’t seem to understand what Jesus is saying and then we move on to the meat of the story, Jesus using a child to make his point, whatever we decide that is. But the point we make at the end of the passage can’t really be made until we really understand what is leading up to that point. For that reason, I’m inviting you to go with me on a little field trip this morning, but we won’t leave our seats. I would, however, like each of you to transport yourself, in your mind of course, to the year 33 AD and pretend you are one of the 12 disciples of Jesus and together we are listening to him teach. I hope you come along with us on this journey.
Right now it’s just the 13 of us. Jesus, you, me, and 10 other disciples and you are pretty much paying attention to every word he is saying just as you have since the day he called you two years ago or so. You know him well. You love him like a brother. Some of you might even love him like a father. You also know that he is the Messiah—whatever that means, and, indeed, it means something a little different to each one of you. Jesus knows that about each one of you too, so this meeting is important because he’s trying to tell you how things are all going to play out in the near future.
Here’s what he has to say to you. (Mark 9:31) "The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him. And when he is killed, after three days he will rise." The color now drains from your face. This is the second time Jesus has told us this and we know that when he says “The Son of Man” he’s talking about himself. But what is he talking about? He’s the Messiah! He’s the one who will save all Israel! How in the world can he save God’s people if he’s dead? You look around and no one is saying anything. The last time Peter tried to refute this notion Jesus commanded Satan to leave him and to stop such talk. You decide to say nothing. Better to be confused and quiet, than speak up and be embarrassed or scolded or told that Satan has a hold of you!
Evidently your fellow disciples have made the same judgment and no one speaks up or questions Jesus on this point. But now it is time to move on down the road. We have to get to Capernaum tonight because we’re on our way to Jerusalem. But our failure to our leader is immediate. As soon as we begin our walk Jesus takes the lead out front and we start to lag back a little bit. We want to chat with the others to see if they understand any better than we do what Jesus was talking about. What we all finally deduce is that Jesus is convinced that he will be killed for what he has been preaching and for the miracles he has been doing. A lot of influential folks who have been around these parts for a very long time and who run things at the synagogues are really upset and there seems to be a plot stirring to get rid of him.
All of this talk about Jesus getting killed though makes you nervous. Around here, guilt by association is just as punishable as doing the deed yourself. But on the other hand, if we do manage to survive any plot to stop Jesus’ teachings, what will happen to us? Who will lead us after our teacher leaves this place? Who will help us learn and understand what God wants us to do next? Is it John? No, he’s too nice. All he talks about is love and kindness. Our movement will never get anywhere if he’s the leader. Yet, Jesus seems to really appreciate and trust him. There’s Peter. He’s a natural born leader, even if he is a little pushy. And, even though Jesus has to reign him in from time to time, he really seems to see something special in Peter. Matthew might be good at greasing the skids with the Romans, but our Jewish brothers and sisters all see him as a traitor. I don’t know. Who’s the best among us? Who will be our great leader after Jesus is gone? We’d better keep it down though. He might hear us. Besides we’re almost to the house where we’ll be staying.
Ok. Let’s take a break from our field trip and examine what just happened. As we put ourselves into the situation, it made a little more sense and gained a little more meaning didn’t it? As you placed yourself as one of the disciples, it doesn’t seem so preposterous to go the direction they went does it? When faced with a problem to which they didn’t understand for which they had no answers they filled the void with their own ideas and solutions. They reacted to what they saw in the way they best knew how based only upon the information they had at the time. Now, as you place yourself among the 12 again—as we go back out on our field trip--who could blame you (one of Jesus’ 12, trusted disciples) for coming to the conclusions and the answers you formulated given the circumstances before you? Yet, they were still wrong because you didn’t understand and you didn’t ask Jesus to help you do so.
So, we’re at Capernaum now and we’ve found the address of the folks that are putting us up for the night. We’re out of the public eye again and Jesus then asks us, (Mark 9:33) "What were you discussing on the way?" You don’t say a word, but you’re thinking, “If we wanted you to know we would have included you in the conversation!” But, we should have known better. Of course we know that Jesus seems to know what people are thinking. He’s done that many times before with the Pharisees and even with us when he would ask us why we doubt him. Sometimes I think he’s just really perceptive, but not this time. This time you can tell. He knows exactly what we talking about. Without our telling him what we were arguing over he answers our question and says, (Mark 9:35) “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all."
Boy, do I feel stupid. Here we were, arguing all the time about which one of us was the greatest so that we could take his place. All the while, we should have considered how he led us! Did Jesus ever lead us by force, power, or intimidation? Did he ever try to make a scene or get noticed? Did he ever show off or make any of us feel inferior before any of the rest of the group? No! He was always the humble one. He was the one who always helped others. He never pushes to the front of the line or talks louder than the rest so that we notice him. He has led us by the relationship we have with him, not because of what he can do or the influence he has on others!
As we’re all seated around Jesus, kind of in a circle I guess, Jesus calls over a child who I guess must live in the house we’re staying at. Maybe she’s a neighbor kid. I don’t know, but Jesus has noticed her watching us from around the corner and calls her over to where we are. She comes over to him and he scoops her up and sits her in his lap. I don’t know if they’ve ever met, but she sure seems comfortable there. Jesus now says, Mark 9:37 "Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me." And at that moment we finally begin to understand, but we have so much more to learn.
As our field trip comes to an end we must now head back here to 21st century Olathe. We have lots to ponder and think about. We thought we were going to have a problem which we had to solve. But Jesus made it very clear that its not ours to solve because its not about us, or about our group, or even about the church. Its about “receiving one such child”. Whether we are on our little field trip, or sitting here in this church, we have a tendency to make ourselves the focus of Jesus’ ministry. And when Jesus spoke of that child, he was speaking in terms of the kingdom of God and our role as the church. Just as a child has no influence or power to do anything to save itself in this world outside of its parents, neither does an unbeliever have any power to bring themselves to eternal life. We must show them the way and bring them to Jesus. That’s what we are all about. .
As we think back to the first couple of verses of our Gospel lesson, and the confusion of those disciples, we must consider our own confusion at times when we hear God’s word—especially when its something we don’t want to hear. But Jesus has things he tells us which are just as difficult to hear as what the disciples heard that day. Things like: Love one another. Bear each other’s weaknesses. Honor the Sabbath. Do not kill. Do not lie about your neighbor. Lift up one another in prayer, and many more. And just like the disciples when we don’t like or understand what we hear we take it upon ourselves to rectify the situation.
And , just like the disciples, when we try to “fix” God’s word to make it more palatable, we are doing a very grave thing. John cautioned that nothing is to be added or taken away from God’s word and that if we do, we must be prepared for a punishment of plagues in this life and eternal damnation in the life to come. Likewise, if we, like the disciples, seek to help God out by taking charge of things in which he has not given us charge of, he will put us in our place, just as he did with the disciples when he told them that in order to be first (as they supposed they needed to be) that they must put themselves last, and therefore, not be in the running at all, because only Christ is our leader. We always follow him and receiving the babes in the faith are who we are to focus on if we are to truly receive him and thereby receive the Father.
Knowing how to navigate these waters of faith is not always an easy task though, is it? We experienced that when we put ourselves in the shoes of the disciples; when we ourselves allowed ourselves to stumble into the same error they did. We might say, “Yes, but they had Jesus right there with them? How could they be so blind?” Ah, but don’t we have him as well? We have his very word here. In addition we have his body and blood before us in the bread and the wine, just as he himself said he would be. We are no better or no worse off than the 12. And so, we must learn from the lessons Jesus taught them, even when they were not model disciples.
When faced with difficult situations and painful, incriminating evidence of sin in our lives or in our midst, do we just hush up and talk quietly amongst ourselves as if Jesus can’t hear us, or, do we seek the wisdom of Jesus in his Word and seek his absolution as we confess our sins to God and to one another? When we face a transition or lack of leadership in our churches do we seek to find the solutions for our church in ourselves and our own abilities or ideas? Or, do we look to Jesus?
In our Gospel lesson today, it’s pretty clear what we must do. We must look outside of ourselves and let Jesus take care of the rest. All we have to worry about is receiving others so that they might come to Christ and through Christ we will receive the Father. Perhaps a little baseball analogy would be helpful. When the bases are loaded with two outs, the fielders know all they have to do catch the ball and the inning is over, regardless of the score. You don’t have to worry about stolen bases, or double or triple plays. Just receive the ball in your glove and the rest will take care of itself.
May each of us be given the strength to keep our eye on the ball and focus on receiving others, letting Jesus take care of the rest so that we will all one day see the father in heaven. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
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