"From the Pulpit" - reflections on the weekly texts, from Pastor Greg at Living Lord Lutheran Church
Jesus and the disciples went on] and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it;31 for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.” 32 But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” 34 But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. 35 He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” 36 Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
from our gospel reading for Sunday, September 22nd, 2024 - Mark 9:30-37
"The Sounds of Silence"
OK, here's a little bible test for you. Ready? There are two (2) moments of silence in our gospel for this Sunday. Can you find them?
What happens when we get caught in something - a fib...doing something we shouldn't be doing? And more. We get quiet. We clam up, if you will. Because we know we're busted.
We're in exactly the middle of Mark's gospel this week. They have just finished feeding the 5,000 with a few fish and some loaves of bread. They've watched Jesus as he heals people. They're in his inner circle. You can imagine that in the midst of all of this, they're feeling pretty good about themselves and what's going on around them. They're feeling..."special".
They're "on the way". Moving. Headed, as only Jesus knows at the time, to Jerusalem, and his impending trial, execution, and resurrection. The disciples don't know this. They only know that they're on top of the world right now, with Jesus. And then Jesus unloads this thing on them. His being handed over to the authorities, his crucifixion, and his resurrection. And then...silence. The disciples are incredulous. Here they're thinking that Jesus is the Messiah, the anointed one, the one who had come to free them from the scourge of the Roman Empire. The one whom the prophets had foretold. And he's telling them that he's going to be tried and executed like a common criminal?! Are you kidding me!? Talk about cognitive dissonance. It just didn't square with their understanding of what they knew and saw of Jesus. And so, silence. They couldn't believe it.
And next, in a house in Capernaum, Jesus asks the guys what they had been talking about on the way. What had caused all the commotion on the journey? Well, they had been talking about who among them was the greatest. Twelve 20- something young Palestinian Jewish men, following their rabbi Jesus on the journey. You can easily imagine how the conversation might shift as they traveled by foot, with Jesus out in front of them.
And again, as Jesus asks them that question - what were you all talking about...they knew they had been caught again. This time, in prideful boasting about themselves. Thus the silence. They had no defense.
It makes me think about the sin of pride, and boasting. Pride is one of the seven deadly sins, you know, and many suggest that pride is the root of all of the other deadly sins. St. Paul had a lot to say about boasting, didn't he? In Ephesians 2 he says one of the cornerstone phrases in all of the NT, when he says, (paraphrasing here...) "for by grace you have been saved, and this is the gift of God, lest anyone should boast."
In 2nd Corinthians 10, he says this, "Let the one who boasts, boast in the LORD." And again in Galatians 6 he says this, "May I never boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ..." And more.
The point is this - pride, boasting, boasting in our own works, in our own worth, takes our eyes off of Jesus, and him crucified. The disciples were caught boasting. Caught displaying pride in themselves and their work. Paul says in Galatians, "The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is my only reason for bragging."
In all of our boasting, in all of our bravado these days on social media, trying to show the world how "special" we are, how "gifted" we are in whatever it is we're posting, keep in mind this promise - the maker of the universe, the creator of the stars, the light of the world would rather die for you than live without you. God, our Creator, paid the ultimate price to bring you and me to him. Now THAT's something you can boast about! Amen.
We'll sing these songs tomorrow:
"I Want to Walk as a Child of the Light"
"All are Welcome"
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