The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Grow Pray Study Guide in Leawood, Kansas, United States for Wednesday, 14 March 2018 - "The hard truth of servanthood and suffering" Mark 9:30-37***
Daily Scripture
Mark 9:30 After leaving that place, they went on through the Galil. Yeshua didn’t want anyone to know, 31 because he was teaching his talmidim. He told them, “The Son of Man will be betrayed into the hands of men who will put him to death; but after he has been killed, three days later he will rise.” 32 But they didn’t understand what he meant, and they were afraid to ask him.
33 They arrived at K’far-Nachum. When Yeshua was inside the house, he asked them, “What were you discussing as we were traveling?” 34 But they kept quiet; because on the way, they had been arguing with each other about who was the greatest. 35 He sat down, summoned the Twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he must make himself last of all and servant of all.” 36 He took a child and stood him among them. Then he put his arms around him and said to them, 37 “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the One who sent me.”
***Reflection Questions
Luke wrote specifically that Jesus “determined to go to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). But Mark made the same point. Jesus and his followers “went through Galilee” on their way south toward Jerusalem. As they moved toward what was, for Jesus, enemy territory, Jesus tried to teach them what lay ahead. But the disciples found that so hard to grasp that they argued about which of them would have the highest place in the earthly government they still thought Jesus would set up.
- Scholar N. T. Wright noted that Jesus' teaching was direct: “He is simply trying to tell them what he can see is going to happen. He will be handed over; he will be killed; he will rise again. Why couldn’t they understand? Basically, because no such fate could possibly have been part of their game plan, their understanding of what a Messiah might do… nobody at all believed that, if and when God did send one, that Messiah would have to suffer, still less have to die.”* How do you keep your mind and heart open to however God works, whether it fits your expectations or not?
- Wright noted that we need Jesus' teaching as much as his first-century disciples: “Jesus is not leading us on a pleasant afternoon hike, but on a walk into danger and risk. Or did we suppose that the kingdom of God would mean merely a few minor adjustments in our ordinary lives?”** What adjustments has Christ called you to make so far in your ordinary life? What kinds of “danger and risk” might you face in our tolerant 21st-century culture?
Lord Jesus, how could there be “danger” or “risk” in coming to a big, popular church? But through that church, you call me to live above and beyond my culture’s values and wishes. Give me the spine to keep following you. Amen.
* N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 123.
** N. T. Wright, Mark for Everyone. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p. 112.
Read today's Insight by Jennifer CreagarJennifer Creagar is the Financial Care Program Director in Congregational Care at Resurrection Leawood. She is married and loves spending time with her family, and she enjoys writing and photography.
The Disciples had Jesus right there, in the flesh, walking with them and they still didn’t understand. I take some comfort in that. Jesus was right there in front of them. They could see him, hear his voice. They prayed with him, saw him walk on water, and heal the sick, and make food miraculously appear. And they still didn’t understand what he was trying to tell them.
Jesus patiently taught them, gave them words and pictures, and they still walked along the road debating which one of them was the greatest. They still focused on their own picture of the Messiah and what his coming meant. They pictured a great seat of power - earthly power, political power, economic power - and they spent a lot of time thinking about what their place would be in this new earthly kingdom. They knew they were a part of something big, but missed the point. They really couldn’t comprehend what Jesus was trying to prepare them for – the pain, the betrayal, the cross, even the ministry after. The picture in their minds was limited by their humanity, even with Jesus standing in front of them talking about his death and resurrection.
I find it comforting, somehow, that Jesus didn’t just leave them all by the side of the road. That means he won’t leave me, either, when I miss the point and focus too much on my own expectations and my very human picture of God’s Kingdom here on earth. He won’t leave me living in a state of anger or frustration over things I know are wrong. He knows that if that anger simmers for too long it may block out his instruction to love those who angered me, and pray for those who persecute me or people I care about. Just like with the disciples, he will show me, through his Word, the picture of his true kingdom. He will remind me that my place in that kingdom is that of a servant – serving him and all the rest of his beloved children.
Thank you, Lord, for your endless patience and your willingness to help me understand, even when I am blinded by my own expectations. Amen.
***
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Scripture quotations are taken from The Common English Bible ©2011.
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