Go Figure? In Mark 9:38-50, the apostles are all bent out of shape because someone outside of their “elite” group dares to do their job and has been caught casting out demons. Ironically, none of the twelve were able to exorcise an unclean spirit from a boy earlier in Mark. Now, they want to forbid someone who is doing the same thing, but successfully.
Jesus’ response is unequivocal: Cut out all your elitist nonsense and get over yourselves; he was acting in my name.
What does acting in my name mean? Jesus tries to teach us that acting in the Name of Jesus is not merely a knee jerk response to a liturgical prayer.
It's living a life under the reign of God in Jesus, as Jesus.
Jesus was also unequivocal when he tells us that anything that gets in the way of living in His name, should be eliminated. So should stumbling blocks disguised as precious body parts, be severed? Again, the violence of Jesus' hyperbole here is palpable and unequivocal. It serves to remind us that preventing another from being “of Christ” and acting in his name is far worse than self-mutilation.
We ask:
What stumbling do we put in the way of others?
What does it mean to be “of Christ?”
What criteria should we use to determine if someone is "of Christ" or not?What about active church membership?
What if, rather than "active church membership," we call it "being a part of the body of Christ"?
Can one be "of Christ" and not be an integral part of the "body of Christ?
In Mark 9:30-37 the disciples continue to be confused with Jesus’ message partly because their burning question was not “How can I live my life as Jesus?” but rather, “How can I be seen as the greatest?”
Their self-centered thoughts were barriers to their understanding of what Jesus was telling them. In addition, their “arrogance,” reminiscent of Adam and Eve, breached the lines of communication with Jesus and their relationship with Him. They were unsuccessful in their attempt to heal the child because they were more intent on impressing the crowd; competing with each other and vying for Jesus approval rather than serving as instruments of God’s Peace.
In citing the child, Jesus is telling us that we have to welcome those “non-persons” who occupy the lowest rung of society’s ladder: "whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me."
Once again Jesus is challenging us to reverse long-standing, ingrained, human habits and to set aside our common human understanding of how to win fame and glory, and instead learn from Jesus, God's way.
When Peter responds to Jesus’ question with
the right answer, that Jesus is the Messiah, we breathe a sigh of relief. (Mark 8:27-35). The rift between the reader and the characters appears to be closed. However
what Peter quickly learns is that grasping Jesus’ identity is not simply about
getting the title right. Naming does not define. Mark opens the can of worms
again, this time between expectations of the title Messiah and the reality of
what Jesus’ role as Messiah is. Jesus pivots immediately and reveals how the Son of Man must suffer and
die and be raised after three days. Jesus says all this with a boldness that
contrasts the secrecy preferred only two verses earlier.
A suffering Messiah, is this what Peter and the disciples were prepared
to hear or understand? Jesus
does not suffer and die because suffering is good. The necessity of the
suffering is attributed to his turning over the rules currently designed to
exclude most observant Jews of the time. In so doing Jesus served as a model,
reaching out to those who are ostracized, considered unclean or marginalized. Mark has already profiled this suffering in
the story of John the Baptist’s death in chapter 6. John is arrested and dies
because he ran afoul of those in power. God’s kingdom does not line up with those
who subscribed to the love of power vs power of love..
What we find then in this passage in Mark is
a series of questions about identity and expectations. It is important that we
realize that these issues are not locked in the past. This was not only a
problem for the disciples or those early Christians to whom Mark is writing.
Mark profiles a deeper dynamic that spans the ages: human knowledge based on
religious tradition are often in tension with the aims of God? We know the way
things are, how they are supposed to go. If we believe God is active is active
in the world and that Jesus is very alive in the world, then the question posed
to us is not whether we confess Jesus as the Messiah. That is the easy part. We
know what the title is. Then the question really becomes how do we understand
what the implications of the title Messiah are? And how do our expectations not
align with God’s?
How often have we read
about Jesus’ healing the sick; restoring speech to the impaired; sight to the
blind, and hearing to the deaf? Somehow we have become jaded to Jesus’ ability
to perform miracles: after all isn’t this what God and the most divinely
inspired human can do? I recall having read somewhere that the great mystery of
the incarnation of God in Jesus is not his divinity but his living fully in his
humanity.
We spent most of this summer reading and discussing John’s Gospel. We delved
into what the mystical significance of the Bread of Life; the sharing of the
Bread, and what the Word becoming flesh in each of us means.
We strive to be in a “right relationship with God.” This is what being a
Christian and living the Word is all about, right? But what does being in a
right relationship with God really mean? Let’s close our eyes and picture this
for a minute. Note, I use the word “picture,” not “understand,” in an effort to
prompt our imagination and senses to feel the words as a palpable, sensory
experience, and know what being in a relationship with God actually feels like,
tastes like, and smells like.
God fully shared our humanity through Jesus as we through Jesus, fully share in
God’s divinity. Anything less than that relationship with God would be reduced
to mere acquaintance. So, with this as our premise, we consider Mark 7: 31-37 from the perspective of both the healer and one who is
in need of healing. Do we ever think of ourselves as “healers”? Think of the
times we listen, comfort and support one another.
Sure, we know what it means to want to be cured or be free of pain, and we can
relate to medical professionals who are trained to provide healing and cure.
But where does that leave us and what does this have to do with either Mark or
the John of our summer and how the two Gospels relate?
There are so many ailments that are outside the bounds of the medical
professional’s ability. But yet, somewhere within resides our ability to reach
out and heal or be healed. The readings of John help us consider our Gospel in
Mark with inspired eyes and ears.
What is required for us to be healed or the healer or both? Why do we resist
the potential that resides within each of us? We hear but do not listen while
remarkable things happen all the time, and we dismiss them as “coincidences.”
“Our ministering and supporting one another morph into the essence of our
being and become who we are, as if they exist as an integral part of us. We
become ever changed by their existence. Like an encrusted stone picking up moss
while rolling down a hill, we are ever changed with each turn… And at the core
is "love" God's love. I suppose, this is what's meant by becoming the
Word. We need not speak of what we do, they describe us and speak quietly; and
we give thanks for them.” (Ministries
RRR 7-28-15)
