Proper 20, Year B
TEXT: Mark 9:30-37
[Jesus] called the crowd with his disciples, and said to them, “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.” (Mark 8:34-35)
Do you recognize that Scripture? It’s from last week’s gospel lesson, where Jesus issued the sternest rebuke to Simon Peter, who had tried to talk him out of becoming a human sacrifice: “Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.” (Mark 8:33)
Today’s gospel seems to pick up that same dismal thread: “… he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him …’” (Mark 9:31)
Jesus talks about this stuff a lot, doesn’t he? Dying. Carrying the cross. Losing your life in order to save it. The philosopher Elton Trueblood once said: “In many areas, the gospel, instead of taking away peoples’ burdens, actually adds to them.”
A cheerful message, yes? Not!
I don’t know about you, but I can get very discouraged thinking about the cost of discipleship. I always end up comparing myself to great saints like Dietrich Bonhoeffer or Martin Luther King, Jr., who literally gave up their lives for what they believed in. And there is certainly no scarcity of martyrs in the history of the Church.
Or I contemplate people like Mother Theresa, who gave her whole life over to serving the poorest of the poor in the streets of Calcutta, and then I feel guilty about the frail quality of my own discipleship.
Even when it comes to preaching—which I’m supposed to be good at—I can look at the late Billy Graham, who preached in person to more people around the world than any other Protestant in history. According to Wikipedia, Graham’s lifetime audience—including radio and television broadcasts—has exceeded two billion. More importantly, over two-and-a-half million people—including me—have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour because of that one man’s preaching. I hear statistics like that, and … brother … do I feel inadequate.
Well, for those of us who think the crosses we’re carrying aren’t heavy enough—or big enough, or rough enough—the second half of today’s gospel lesson ought to provide some small degree of comfort.
Jesus and his disciples were travelling to Capernaum, and while they were walking along, some of them were arguing over which of them was the greatest—the best, the most important, the most valuable member of Jesus’ company. They thought he was going to be king of Israel, and I suppose they all wanted cabinet positions. When Jesus realized this, what did he do?
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 9:35-37)
Did you hear that? Do you understand what Jesus is saying? All you guys who’ve ever had to change a dirty diaper … all you mothers who’ve struggled to get a toddler to eat vegetables … all that stuff counts! Ever volunteered to help in the Sunday School? I don’t know if that will be your ticket to heaven, but at least it’ll get your foot on the platform.
“Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me,” Jesus said. So you don’t necessarily have to go out and get yourself shot, or beheaded, or crucified, in order to be a faithful follower of Christ. You just have to pay attention to the opportunities for service that are all around you, and then ask yourself what you can do—what you feel called to do—even if it’s something as simple as taking care of babies in the church nursery, or helping make sandwiches for hungry schoolchildren. Does that not sound big enough? Or important enough? Well, maybe that means it’s a good place to start.
You know, Jesus’ attitude toward children is a good example of his attitude toward people in general. If you’re at all familiar with the gospel accounts, you’ll know that Jesus very rarely hung out with the rich and the powerful. He spent a lot of time, however, with the poorer classes: fishermen, prostitutes, petty criminals, people with leprosy and mental illness … and—perhaps the most voiceless people of all—children.
In fact, Jesus held children up as models of the faithful spiritual life. In Matthew’s gospel, when the disciples come to Jesus and ask him, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” (Matt. 18:1), his response is more or less the same as in this morning’s reading:
He called a child, whom he put amongst them, and said, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever becomes humble like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” (MATT. 18:2-4)
Do you want to be great in the kingdom of heaven? Do you want to be the best-ever disciple of Jesus? Then become like a little child.
Now, I have a question for you parents—and grandparents. Do your children always do what you want them to do? Do you love them any less because they don’t? Of course not. Even when they misbehave—or are lazy, or irresponsible, or rude—your children are still your children, and you love them anyway.
Or suppose you needed to move a heavy chesterfield into another room; would you call upon your four-year-old to help you carry it? Of course not. But you might ask your teenager to help. It’s the same in God’s family. Not every one of us can do the heavy lifting—but that’s all right, because others in the family can do it, and are glad to do it. There are other things that the rest of us can do, and we will be called upon to do them. But no one of us is expected to do it all.
We are God’s children, and God loves us regardless of our behaviour or our capabilities. I hope every one of you reading this believes that, because it’s true. This is not, however, meant to let you off the hook. Each of us has gifts and talents that the Lord expects us to use as he directs us.
The point is, God doesn’t call upon most of us to do anything that the world would consider great. But Jesus tells us that God has his own ideas about greatness, and they are ideas which turn our human conception of things upside down: “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.”
So if you’ve got the discipleship blues, take heart! God isn’t likely to call upon you to single-handedly convert the Taliban or put an end to hunger, homelessness, or war. But he may very well ask you to play some small part. It could be something as small and symbolic as folding a paper crane and walking for peace. Or something as simple as helping mash potatoes for a church supper. Or making sure that the Food Bank collection box stays full. Or even … yes, even offering to help in the Sunday School!
Oh, the time may come when an opportunity—and a call—will come to do some great thing. But probably not until you’ve been at this discipleship thing for a while. You wouldn’t ask—and wouldn’t want—your eight-year-old to hop in the car and drive down to the market to get a quart of milk* … but the time will certainly come when she’s capable of doing that, and you’ll ask her then.
So I guess my message to you this morning is: Don’t get discouraged about your discipleship! Don’t get lazy about it, either; but don’t beat yourself up because you’re not making headline news. God doesn’t care about the headlines. God cares about you, and about how you fit into this Body of Christ called the Church.
I’m reminded of a story about a man named Leonard who came to his rabbi and said, “Rabbi, I am so worried about my life. I try so hard to be a good person, to do God’s will, but when I read the Torah, and see the great things that Moses did, I feel like I am worthless.” And if you’ve heard this familiar story, you know already what the rabbi said to the man: “On the day of judgment, God will not ask you, ‘Why were you not more like Moses?’ but rather, ‘Why were you not more like Leonard?’”
God has a purpose for your life, and it is something that will become clear to you over time as you walk this pilgrim’s path. But it won’t become clear to you by comparing yourself—favourably or unfavourably—to others. It becomes clear only as you make the journey, keeping your eyes and ears open to the landmarks and road signs that the Holy Spirit leads you past. Then, it’s just a matter of recognizing your opportunities.
Thanks be to God, who loves us and challenges us as his children, and helps us to grow “to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ” (Ephesians 4:13b). Amen.
* https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/8-year-old-ohio-girl-takes-her-family-s-suv-drives-to-target-1.7042474