A Sermon on Jesus Preparing his Disciples (Mark 9:38-50)

Year B, Pentecost 19 (Mark 9:38-50)
(Video begins at 19:30)

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – Amen.

Coming from a tradition that only reads a few verses of scripture every week, I adore the lectionary. However, whether it’s the lectionary or a weekly bible study, one of the problems we encounter is that we only read the bible in pieces. It’s like watching a movie, but only watching a few scenes every week.

This is particularly true when we read the gospels. For the gospel writers, such as Mark, the organization of their gospel is intended to impart the same truth of who Jesus is and who we are in him, as is the individual teachings that we encounter each week. So, this week, I want us to look at the last several gospel readings we have had in order to see the bigger picture that Mark is trying to tell us.

The Gospel of Mark is split into two parts. Part one of Mark’s Gospel is Jesus’ teaching and healing ministry in and around Galilee. Jesus is an itinerant preacher and exorcist proclaiming the Kingdom of God. Part Two of the Gospel is Jesus’s journey to Jerusalem and the Cross, where Jesus directly confronts the powers of this world, is crucified, and rises in victory on the third day.

These two parts of Mark are tied together in a transitional section, which is where the gospel reading has been over the past few weeks. This section begins with Jesus’s healing of the blind and mute man. It ends with our last verse today with Jesus saying “Be at Peace with one another.” The very next verse, Mark 10:1 says: Jesus left there (Galilee) and went to the region of Judea (where Jerusalem is located)” In this transitional section, Jesus gives his disciples the most basic fundamental knowledge that they will need on this journey to Jerusalem and beyond.

All learning follows a similar pattern. We move from the basic to the more complex, from the easiest to the hardest. Think about learning math – a child first starts with addition and subtraction. The basic foundation of how numbers and math work. The child is then taught multiplication and division. These are harder and more complex understandings. Eventually, as these are mastered, the learning increases to algebra or other higher mathematical concepts. It is pointless to try to teach someone algebra if they don’t understand arithmetic.

This is what Jesus is doing in the section of Mark. Mark gives the church this series of teachings which build on each other for the church’s benefit. Each of us, both individually and corporately as members of the church, is on a journey to Jerusalem, and Jesus’ teachings to his initial twelve disciples are for us, his later disciples, as well.

So let’s take a look at these foundation preparatory teachings and how they give his disciples what they need going forward.

First, the teachings begin with the healing of the blind and mute man in our readings three weeks ago. Jesus goes to the man, sticks his fingers in his ears, spits on his tongue, and says “Eph-pha-tha!” Be Opened. The first step in any teaching is that we must be Open. Our eyes must be opened to see – not only our physical eyes but the eyes of our mind and the eyes of our hearts. If we are unwilling to learn, then we cannot be taught.

Next, two weeks ago we read of Peter’s Confession that Jesus is the Christ. Peter is excited because he believes that if Jesus is the Christ, then Jesus is going to march into Jerusalem, kick out the Romans, reform the corrupt religious leadership, and establish an earthly kingdom based on earthly power. Jesus has to correct him. The disciples’s education is about to begin.

Jesus confirms that he is going to march into Jerusalem and confront the Romans and the corrupt religious officials, BUT he tells Peter that he is going to suffer and die as a result, and rise on the third day. Peter tries to correct the teacher’s “misunderstanding.” Jesus rebukes Peter and responds “Get behind me, Satan!” 

Jesus tells his disciples “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” In other words, to fully enter into the Kingdom of God means that we must die to our earthly ambitions and die to any desire for earthly power. To follow Jesus means that we must die to ourselves. We must take up our own Cross and we must submit ourselves to God’s will. We must love God first, and not ourselves. This is the most basic foundation understanding of the Christian life. In this election season, it is good to be reminded that if Jesus had wanted himself or his church to have political power, he would have taken it.

Last week’s Gospel reading begins once more with Jesus’s teaching that he must go to Jerusalem and die, and then rise again. Once more the disciples don’t really understand and they begin to argue among themselves as to who is the greatest. Jesus has to sit them down once more, and build on the foundation from the prior week. Jesus says “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” This means that we must die not only to our earthly ambitions for earthly power but also die to our desire for church-related ambitions and power as well. In taking up our Cross, we not only must submit ourselves to God, but to each other. We must not only humble ourselves before God, we must humble ourselves before one another. We must not only serve God, but serve one another. Not only love God, but love one another. The teaching given to the disputing disciples builds upon the teaching Jesus gave after Peter’s rebuke. Even in our little community of Messiah, no one is Lord, but Jesus.

Now we get to this week’s Gospel lesson. John comes to Jesus and tells him that there is someone outside of their group of the twelve casting out demons in Jesus’s name. John says that his man is not one of us and we tried to stop him (the Gospel doesn’t say if John’s attempt was physical or merely verbal) but that he wouldn’t stop. John tells Jesus that Jesus needs to go an put an end to someone else encroaching on the disciples’ turf. He’s not one of us and he needs to stop. In other words, John is saying “Jesus, I know that we are to submit to you and to one another, but our little group is still supposed to be in charge.”

The disciples want to retain a monopoly on religious power and religious truth. They want to be in the position to determine who is in and who is out. They haven’t fully died to the ambition for power, they have simply redirected it in a spiritual manner. Don’t we all, or at least I know that I do.

In reading this lesson, you can almost hear Jesus let out a big sigh and shake his head. Sometimes Jesus shows us more patience than we deserve. Once again, Jesus has to take them deeper and build on his teachings. Jesus simply points that “Whoever is not against us is for us.” In other words, whoever is doing the work of the Kingdom of God is a welcome addition. Jesus goes on to point out that the question is not the who but the what. It is never about who is in charge, but what is being produced. Jesus says “whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.”

The teaching expands. Not only must we die to our earthly ambitions for earthly power, we must die to our desire for power within our group, and we must die to our desire for our group to have power over others. Taking up our Cross means submission to God’s will, to each other, and even to those whom we do not know. Our humility must be universal. Jesus teaches the disciples that as we journey to Jerusalem, anyone who produces good fruit, even as small as a glass of water for a thirsty traveler, is part of the Kingdom, and not one of us has the authority to keep them out. 

I like how our Presiding Bishop describes the Episcopal Church – We are the Episcopal Branch of the Jesus movement. There are other branches who have different gifts and different mission fields, and they are just as much a part of the church universal as are we.

Finally, before setting off on their journey, Jesus gives them (and us) one last teaching. Jesus says that in order to fulfill these teachings and to set off on this journey to Jerusalem there are things that must be abandoned, cut off, and thrown into the fire. Some of these things are fairly universal such as our need to control God and to control others. Our anger and our grudges. Our jealousy and envy of others in the Kingdom must be discarded. Some, however, are unique to each of us. Think about those things in your life which prevent you from taking up your cross and humbling yourself before God and before others.

The sum of these teachings is so that we, his disciples, the church, will be the salt of the earth and be at peace with one another. We cannot fulfill our purpose of opening our mouths and speaking into the world the message of Christ’s redemption and reconciliation of the world until we have learned and internalized these basic teachings of Jesus.

Jesus knew that his disciples would encounter much hardship and temptation on their way to Jerusalem and to the Cross but he gave them these teachings as a foundation. He gives us these same teachings to us as we too take up our cross, serve one another, and understand that whoever does good works in Jesus’s name also belongs to the Kingdom.

AMEN