Gospel Notes by Michael Whelan SM
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; 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.” But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the way?” But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.” (Mark 9:30-37 – NRSV)
Introductory notes
General
Jesus continues his journey. Mark reports that Jesus is travelling through his home territory of Galilee. He came from “Nazareth in Galilee” (cf Mark 1:9) and he began his ministry there (cf Mark 1:14). He knew this territory well. But his sights are set elsewhere. He does not want word to get out that he is about because he wants time with his disciples. He has much to teach them.
His whole life and teaching is in the context of his journey to Jerusalem. There he will be handed over to death. Theologian, Walter Kasper notes: “If we take the testimony of the New Testament consistently as our starting point and if we make this testimony the basis for the speculative development of our faith in Christ, then we must take seriously the fact that the Gospels are passion narratives with extended introductions (M Kähler). The cross is then not simply the consequence of the earthly ministry of Jesus but the very goal of the incarnation; it is not something adventitious but the very meaning and purpose of the Christ-event, so that everything else is ordered to it as a goal. God would not have become truly a human being had he not entered fully into the abyss and night of death” (Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, Crossroad, 1986, 189).
Mark gives us the second of the three prophecies of Jesus’ passion here – see also Matthew 17:22-23 and Luke 9:43-45. The other two prophecies are in Mark 8:31-33 (see also Matthew 16:2-23 and Luke 9:22) and 10:32-34 (see also Matthew 20:17-19 and Luke 18:31-33). “The passion prediction announces not only Jesus’ impending fate; it is also an exemplar of the life of service to which he calls the disciples” (J R Edwards, The Gospel according to Mark, Grand Rapids, MI; Leicester, England: Eerdmans; Apollos, 2002, 282).
Matthew and Luke both draw on Mark’s account of “the greatest in the kingdom” and Jesus’ reference to little children – see Matthew 18:1-5 and Luke 9:46-48.
Specific
They went on from there: The word “there” suggests a particular context. Chapter 8 concluded with the revelations in the region of Caesarea Philippi, where Peter declared that Jesus is the Messiah and Jesus gives his first prophecy of the passion and the conditions of following him. Chapter 9 then begins on the mount of transfiguration. That central event – in which the declaration at Jesus’ baptism, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased” (1:11), is re-affirmed and expanded to, “This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!” (9:7) – is followed by the cure of the epileptic demoniac (9:14-29). That is where today’s Gospel begins – “They went on from there . . . .”
passed through: Mark constantly reminds us that Jesus is on a very specific journey. The expression “on the way” occurs nine times in Mark 8-12.
they did not understand …. and were afraid to ask him: This is a telling statement. The intimates of Jesus, those who have travelled with him for some time now and have listened to his teachings, do not yet know who he is nor what his mission is! It reminds us not to cheapen the call of the Gospel by turning it into a set of doctrines and rules that can be more or less easily learned and understood. There is a developing relationship between Jesus and the disciples and that growing relationship includes a slow awakening on the part of the disciples. Much the same happens, does it not, in any loving relationship?
in the house: Jesus returns to Capernaum for the last time and goes into “the house”. The definite article suggests a familiar place – one in which he can get the full attention of the disciples. The teaching about being servants and the event with the children both occur within this intimate setting.
He sat down: “To sit and instruct is to assume the posture of an authoritative teacher (12:41; Matt 5:1; 23:2; John 8:2)” (J R Edwards, op cit, 286).
servant of all: The stark contrast between the prophecy of the passion and the disciples arguing about who is the greatest, is shocking. It is further proof of just how ignorant they were of the reality being played out right under their noses. But their silence when Jesus challenges them implies some guilt or shame and might therefore suggest that they are not entirely unknowing and innocent. In this context, Jesus gives them a teaching that is not only countercultural, it seems to fly in the face of common sense and the logic of everyday experience. Who could be naive enough – or perhaps stupid enough – to be “servant of all”? Jesus is persistently working on their worldview and one day they will come to see and know. One commentator writes: “The juxtaposition of the two pericopes reveals a jarring contrast between Jesus’ humility and the disciples’ desire for distinction and recognition. A similar contrast is, in fact, present in all three passion predictions. Peter’s rebuke of Jesus following the first passion prediction (8:31) was prompted by the assumption that Messiahship entails privilege, not suffering. Likewise, the third passion prediction (10:33–34) is followed by the request of James and John to sit with Christ in glory (10:35–45). In all three passion predictions, Jesus speaks of the necessity of his rejection, suffering, and death; and following all three the disciples voice their ambitions for status and prestige. Jesus speaks of surrendering his life; the disciples speak of fulfilling theirs. He counts the cost of discipleship; they count its assets. The disciples have yet to learn that the rewards of discipleship come only as a consequence of following Christ on the costly way to Jerusalem” (J R Edwards, op cit, 285).
Then he took a little child and put it among them ….: Jesus does not try to explain or analyze the shocking teaching he has just given them. He tells a story accompanied by actions. This has to be one of the most beautiful scenes in the whole of Sacred Scripture. What does this scene evoke? If we focus on Jesus, it might evoke the observation that children trust him or that he is affectionate? If we focus on the child, however, we might be led along a different way of thinking. One commentator notes: “We are mistaken if we imagine that Greek and Jewish society extolled the virtues of childhood as do modern societies in general. Societies with high infant mortality rates and great demand for human labor cannot afford to be sentimental about infants and youth. In Judaism, children and women were largely auxiliary members of society whose connection to the social mainstream depended on men (either as fathers or husbands). Children, in particular, were thought of as ‘not having arrived’. They were good illustrations of ‘the very last’ (v. 35).
“The conclusion Jesus draws from the child in his arms is subtle and surprising. The child is not used, as is often supposed, as an example of humility, but as an example of the ‘little’ and insignificant ones whom followers of Jesus are to receive. ‘Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me’. Disciples are thus not to be like children, but to be like Jesus who embraces them. It is Jesus, not the child, who here demonstrates what it means to be ‘the servant of all’. It is in the small and powerless that God appears to the world, as Jesus so trenchantly described in the parable of the nations (Matt 25:31–46). Our response to the hungry, thirsty, lonely, naked, sick, and imprisoned is our response to God, for ‘whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me’ (Matt 25:40). The humblest act of kindness sets off a chain reaction that shakes heaven itself, for whatever is done to the little and least is done to Jesus, and whatever is done to Jesus is done to God!” (J R Edwards, op cit, 287-288).
An adult faith
In today’s Gospel – Mark 9:30-37 – we are told that Jesus “was teaching his disciples … But they did not understand” The lack of understanding is immediately obvious: They argue over “who is the greatest”. The disciples are yet to discover a truly adult relationship with Jesus.
The Church, coming into the middle of the twentieth century, tended to promote a less than adult way of being Christian. Fr Henri de Lubac SJ – one of the leading Catholic theologians of the twentieth century – wrote in 1942: “(Catholic neoscholastic theologians) who stroll about theology somewhat as if in a museum of which we are the curators, a museum where we have inventoried, arranged and labeled everything; we know how to define all the terms, we have an answer for all objections, we supply the desired distinctions at just the right moment. Everything in it is obscure for the secular, but for us, everything is clear, everything is explained” (Cited by Bryan C Hollon, Everything is Sacred: Spiritual Exegesis in the Political Theology of Henri de Lubac (Theopolitical Visions Book 3) (p. 10). Kindle Edition).
Fr Joseph Ratzinger – later Pope Benedict XVI – describes the awakening of the Church at the Second Vatican Council: “The entire world episcopate was caught up in a movement, in a unity of purpose that reached from South America to Indonesia and from Europe to Central Africa. This spiritual awakening, which the bishops accomplished in full view of the Church, or, rather, accomplished as the Church, was the great and irrevocable event of the Council” (Joseph Ratzinger, Theological Highlights of Vatican II, New York: Paulist Press, 1966, 132). This “awakening” opened the doors to a more adult faith, one which takes the decisions of individual Christians very seriously. Pope St John Paul II challenged us to this more adult way of being disciples when he wrote in 1993: “The Church is always and only in service of your conscience” (Veritatis Splendor, #64).
Words like “signs of the times,” “ecumenical,” “pilgrimage” and “dialogue” characterize this awakening to an adult way of being disciples. Pope Francis has added some more key words including “discernment,” “culture of encounter”, “synodal way” and “bridges not walls”.
We are recovering the experience of the first disciples. Discipleship does not come with a book of answers. It is an invitation to a journey with Jesus and through him with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We go wherever that takes us! St Paul sums it up nicely in his hymn to love: “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known” (1 Corinthians 13:11–12).