Jesus foretells his death and resurrection three times in the Gospel of Mark. Mark 9:30-37, which is our Gospel reading for this Sunday, is the second of these passion predictions.
In each of these passion predictions, Christ begins to tell the disciples about the Mystery of his death and resurrection: “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.”
| September 22 – Twenty-fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time |
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Wis 2:12, 17-20 Ps 54:3-4, 5, 6, 8 Jas 3:16–4:3 Mk 9:30-37 |
Naturally, as the text tells us, the disciples do not understand what Jesus is telling them. Indeed, we discover that, rather than trying to understand Jesus’s teaching, they pose and argue among themselves about a seeming non sequitur: who among us is the greatest? Thus, misunderstanding Jesus, they misunderstand what discipleship is.
Discipleship, Christ tells them, is being “the last of all and the servant of all.”
Unsurprisingly, each of Christ’s three passion predictions in Mark’s Gospel are occasions for an education in discipleship. The disciples are only beginning to learn where Christ will lead them: to the cross. In Mark 10:35-45, Christ tells the disciples: “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.” In Mark 8:34-9:1, the first of Christ’s three passion predictions, he connects the cross most explicitly with discipleship, saying: “Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.”
It is really rather likely that the disciples did not expect such an education. They certainly had not been expecting a Messiah who would be killed at the hands of the Roman Empire. It is no wonder that they did not understand Jesus’ saying. How could they?
Well, Mark insists throughout his Gospel that the disciples could only understand Christ, and their own calling as disciples, by following him. As this Sunday’s reading begins, we learn that Jesus and his disciples “began a journey.” This journey, on which Christ would lead the disciples and they would follow, was the Way of the Cross. It began in Galilee, where Christ preached compassion and worked miracles of merciful love. The journey continued as Christ traveled south toward Jerusalem, to his cross and his death. All along the way, Christ tells the disciples about this cross, and they continue to misunderstand Jesus. And yet, they take the next step of their journey toward his death, and so toward their understanding of discipleship.
Arriving at the cross
The disciples thus act upon their faith in Christ and their love for him even when they don’t fully understand yet. And they seek this understanding precisely by following him.
For Mark, then, we don’t fully understand Christ, or the fullness of discipleship until we arrive at Christ’s Cross. There, and only then, according to Mark, do we behold the fullness of Christ’s “Way.”
Returning to Christ’s words about the cross and discipleship, we remember the connection between the Cross and service: the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve. And we can hear this instruction against the unfolding backdrop of Christ’s own service: the many miracles of healing, for example, that Christ worked upon the suffering by entering compassionately into their lives to bring them healing. The cross, Christ teaches us, is the same “service.” Upon the cross and in his death, Christ entered into all of our suffering, to bring us healing by uniting himself to us, the least and the last for all of us are sinners, in love.
We are called to do the same: Take up your cross and follow me!
