Twenty Fifth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

 September 23, 2018 

Readings:

First Reading: Wisdom 2: 12, 17-20

Psalm: 54

Second Reading: James 3: 16 – 4: 3

Gospel reading according to Mark 9: 30-37

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Homily:

From Caesarea Philippi down to the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum, Jesus continued his journey with his twelve chosen disciples.  He wanted that nobody among the crowds knew that they were leaving the area so they could not follow them, to avoid mass mobs.  “Jesus and his disciples began a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it” (Mk. 9: 30).  So, once more, they left the place in secret.  He also wanted to have a private talk and continue his teaching with his chosen disciples about the Christ (or Messiah) and the Son of Man/God, while walking.  “He was teaching his disciples and telling them, ‘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’.” (Mk 9: 31).  He explained again to them as what he did in Caesarea Philippi what will happen to the Christ, the Anointed One, to the Son of Man, that “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 Mas will rise.”  As what we have learned in the last Sunday gospel, “. . . that the Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and rise after three days” (Mk. 8: 31), these men were “the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes,” where in the Book of Wisdom, it was given the reasons why the Son of Man must suffer and die in the hands of these men. “The wicked said, ‘Let us beset the just one, because he is obnoxious to us, he sets himself against our doings, reproaches us for transgressions of the law, and charges us with violations of our training. . . . With revilement and torture let us put him to the test that we may have proof of his gentleness and try his patience.  Let us condemn him to a shameful death; for according to his own words, God will take care of him” (Wis. 2:1, 19-20).  These wicked men did not know that the Son of Man and Son of God was already knew that he will suffer revilement and torture, condemn to a shameful death, for the sake of many, for he knew it as the plan and will of His Father. And as what I have said in my last Sunday homily, “More worse is that he was sold by his disciple, denied by his friend, and abandoned by many while beaten down to the ground, scourged all over his body, ridiculed by putting crown of thorns on his head, lampooned by his own people in front of the Roman procurator, carrying wooden cross, and crucified on the cross he carried like a criminal, and died, for the salvation of many, but on the third day he rose again.”   

Because it was not yet his time to die a terrible death on the cross, his disciples did not understand what Jesus was teaching them. “But they did not understand the saying, and they were afraid to question him” (Mk 9: 32).  They did not yet comprehend the real meaning of Christ, the Messiah, the Son of Man and of God, of the Anointed One in the real sense, but only they knew the Christ or Messiah is a king of an empire who is seated on a throne with crown on his head and a scepter on his hand, giving commands to serve him by his minions and subordinates. This Christ is an earthly king in the minds of the disciples, who will liberate them from their foreign conqueror – the Roman Empire (at that time) while many are serving him. They were thinking that Jesus as Christ, the Anointed One, is an earthly king who will rule the Israelites, and at the same time as chosen disciples, they are the priority and have the privilege to seat and stand at the right and the left sides of his throne.  But since they did not understand what Jesus said, they were afraid to ask question to clarify what he meant.  The disciples also were discussing something among themselves instead of listening intently to what Jesus was saying; it was very important than what Jesus was telling them about the Son of Man.

When they reached Capernaum they entered at the house of Simon Peter and his brother Andrew to have some rest.  Before sitting, Jesus sensed and recognized that something was going on between the disciples.  “They came to Capernaum and, once inside the house, he began to ask them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way’?” (Mk. 9: 33).  As a free man and without hidden agenda, Jesus can easily ask question.  Although Jesus knew what they were talking about for he can read the minds, he pretended that he did not know what they were arguing and debating about, and he asked them question, “What were you arguing about on the way?”   “But they remained silent” (Mk. 9: 34).  The respond of his disciples was silence, keeping their mouth shut, without answering Jesus’ question.  As if, again, they waiting others first to start talking about the item they were arguing.   St. Mark, the evangelist, revealed to us what the disciples were arguing all about.  “They had been discussing among themselves on the way who was greatest” (Mk. 9: 34).  Each one of them would say to one another that he is the greatest among the group and so he has the right to seat at the side of the throne when Jesus, the Christ, is already seated on the throne as king of Israel.

As true leader, Jesus sat down, called to him his disciples and taught them.  ”Then he sat down, called the Twelve, and said to them, ‘If anyone wishes to be first, he shall be the last of all and the servant of all’.” (Mk. 9: 35).  Jesus taught them about the real meaning of greatness, though nobody told him about this issue of greatest among his disciples, in humility and simplicity, the least among the lesser ones, and in the service of all.

To make it concrete, he gave an example of being great, and to bring out clearly to the disciples what he was instructing to them, using a child, some says a servant (katulong) as his model of lowliness, servanthood, humility and simplicity, of being insignificant. “Taking a child he placed it in their midst, and putting his arms around it he said to them, ‘Whoever receives one such as this in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but the One who sent me’.” (Mk. 9: 36-37).  Jesus is like a child/Son of God the Father who disregards himself as God but rather as a man and lives and acts as servant of all and insignificant.  As for a child and/or a servant, it is the last of all and the servant of all, but in truth and in fact, in the eyes of God the Father it is the greatest of all.  Therefore, as what Jesus said to his disciples and to us that whoever makes himself as a child/servant like him receives him and whoever receives him receives not only him but also God the Father who sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to us all to be our model and example of humility, simplicity, lowliness and servanthood to become great in the eyes of God, the Father.