Oh dear! What a contrast between the words of Jesus and the words of his disciples in today’s gospel.
Whilst we are still in Galilee we are moving to Jerusalem and Jesus is taking the opportunity to make his disciples resolute for the time when he will be betrayed, taken by men, falsely accused and executed then rise again. And he is doing it in secret because at this stage it is a message for them specifically that they would reflect on what this actually means for him as a man but also God and the role of the People of God in this whole affair.
Clearly they couldn’t grasp it. To be fair to them, they had no concept of humankind killing God, nor had they the benefit of the gifts of the Holy Spirit that would fill them with all the knowledge they would need to be able to profess Jesus as the Christ.
Yet they had sufficient pride to seek to jostle for position as Christ’s favourite. There was talk of kingdom and, depending on the background of the disciples, this might mean a number of things, but their worldly ambition and the shine of their association with Jesus took over from the need to be humble followers of the Lord God who called them himself.
They achieved nothing by themselves. It was Jesus that called them to be followers of God and it is in Jesus’ name that we will receive whatever riches he bestows upon us. The image of the little chid is a humbling one for the disciples for whilst children were loved, they did not have an important role in society. Therefore if Jesus was saying that this child had as much (if not more) chance of achieving what the disciples grasped after, why was that and what different thinking was required by them?
Of course we know that the kingdom is the heavenly kingdom of God the Father and it is open for all who would believe that Jesus Christ is Our Lord and Saviour, embrace the Church and are filled with the grace of God witnessed through love of God and love of neighbour.
And as Christ said, to demonstrate our witness to that grace we must be servant to all that is experienced through being humble and generous of heart.
Let us pray that our love of Christ is motivated by our desire to do the will of God but not to achieve world prestige because of our being a follower of him.
Gospel Mark 9:30-37 ©
After leaving the mountain Jesus and his disciples made their way through Galilee; and he did not want anyone to know, because he was instructing his disciples; he was telling them, ‘The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men; they will put him to death; and three days after he has been put to death he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he said and were afraid to ask him.
They came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the road?’ They said nothing because they had been arguing which of them was the greatest. So he sat down, called the Twelve to him and said, ‘If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.’ He then took a little child, set him in front of them, put his arms round him, and said to them, ‘Anyone who welcomes one of these little children in my name, welcomes me; and anyone who welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’