In Mark 9:30-37 we have the second one of Passion-Resurrection predictions. It may be good to keep in mind the post resurrection explanation for the absence of Jesus when we reflect on this prediction. He has risen! Remember how he told you, “The Son of Man must be delivered over to the hands of sinners, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.” Then they remembered his words (Lk 24: 6-8). Again, on the road to Emmaus, He said to them, “… how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself (Lk 24: 25-27). So, the continuing presence is placed at first, and we are reminded that the suffering and humiliation were all along the path of glory.
The three passion predictions have a significant relationship to the journey section ‘on the Way’ from Caesarea Philippi in 8:27 to the arrival at Jerusalem in 11:1. Confession of Peter is a roadmap for this journey with ups and downs, yet Jesus being the guide. Three times within Mark 8–10 Jesus predicts his death, each of which follows a failure on the part of the disciples to understand the announcement of Jesus’ passion and Resurrection, and Jesus’ instruction on discipleship.
After the confession of Peter that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, Peter rebukes Jesus (8:32–33) when he says that he will suffer, be rejected, killed, and will rise after three days (8:31). Jesus instructs them to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow him (8:33–9:1). After the transfiguration, on the way down Jesus again predicts that he will be delivered, killed, and will rise after three days (9:30–31). The disciples were not able to understand the saying and were afraid to ask him about it (9:32). On the other hand, at the foot of the mountain there are failed attempts going on to heal a demoniac. On the way ahead disciples are engaged in an argument about who among them is the greatest (9: 34). Jesus teaches that the first must be last and that those who receive children in his name receive him (9:33–50. Before the entry into Jerusalem Jesus predicts more clearly that he will be delivered, condemned, mocked, flogged, killed, and will rise after three days (10:33–34). James and John ask for their position next to Jesus in his glory (10:35–37). Jesus teaches that he came to serve by giving his life as a ransom for many. The disciples must not be people exercising authority ‘loading it over the people.’ To be great, they must become servants; to be first, they must become slaves (10:38–45).
Raising of the bronze serpent is a significant story of healing from the book of Numbers (21:9). “… just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life” (Jn 3:14-15) is the Johannine vision of the self-emptying of Jesus. “Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end” (Jn 13:2), so the being lifted up was a ‘must’ which is also expressed in the synoptic gospels. The Johannine presentation of Jesus ‘lifted up’ (3:14; 8:28: 12:32) reminds us of the Suffering Servant ‘Behold my servant shall prosper: he shall be lifted up and glorified exceedingly (Isaiah 53 13). Being lifted up as self-emptying, and as being glorified can be seen in Jesus emptying himself as a servant, and God raising him by giving him the name which is above every name (Phil 2:8).
If the wheat has to produce harvest it has to fall down and die. Christ the seed of the kingdom had to undergo the dying in incarnating into the children of the kingdom. His instruction to the disciples to take up daily cross, and to deny self are a must in welcoming the children of God. Children are the people of the beatitudes, and an incarnation into their lives must be shaped by the self-emptying love. Imagine his life, welcoming the little ones, the poor, those who are hungry, those who mourn, those who establish peace, those hunger and thirst for justice. ‘If you welcome ‘them’ you will be great,’ that is what he said.
Jesus came to give life in its abundance, and to offer the freedom of the children of God. His healing and teaching also indicated justice, peace and liberation. It challenged many customs and beliefs which were convenient for maintaining exploitative structures. This choice of perspective, and the conflicts are significant in his predictions and instructions on discipleship. We can see arguments on marriage, on riches, on fasting, on resurrection. Jesus observed Sabbath not as a day of ‘rest from labor’ as in the priestly tradition of Genesis 2:2, but as a day of liberation following the Deuteronomic tradition. (Deut. 5:15). He proclaimed liberty to captives and the year of God’s favour (Lk 4: 19). But the liberation was an unbearable burden for the system of powers. He had to suffer.
When he predicts his passion he also bears the pain of being considered as an enemy because of being the grain of wheat that has to bear fruit for the life of those little ones. The same pain is there even when he says to love enemies and to pray for them. Ps 68(69) speaks of a stage that “I have become an alien to my own mother’s sons.”
Jesus asks us whether we are ready to drink the chalice that he had to drink; whether we are ready to die. The key question which must be answered is whether we are ready to share the kingdom for the little ones, the children of the beatitudes. It is a costly discipleship because it might ask for denying ourselves, but it is fruitful. Jesus’ call for us is to follow him in bearing fruits of the kingdom by emptying ourselves, taking up the daily crosses. Jesus’ call is to fall down and die in order to produce a rich harvest. Just like the master, a disciple is called to live to the abundance of life and healing, unity and fraternity.
Ending it with a paradox: The People engaged in conspiracy and plotting in the first reading (Wisdom 2:12,17-20) seem to be knowing the righteousness of God, and his providence. But they fail to see a just man. Because perhaps he is not coming in their line. They have full confidence that God will look after if the ‘enemy’ is righteous. The stranger, whom they well make an enemy by othering will never deserve to be one of the least to be welcomed. Even God who stands by them will be condemned and killed. So, the very frame of righteousness turns for them a means of plotting and conspiring, ultimately to preserve and kill.
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