NewCreation

Homily for Sunday 29 in Ordinary Time, Year B

Welcome, my sisters and brothers, to this the homily for the 29th Sunday in Ordinary Time. We continue with Mark's Gospel almost from where we left off last time. But actually we've just jumped a rather significant few verses. Today our Gospel starts with James and John, the sons of Zebedee, coming forward to Jesus and speaking to him. But the context for that we are missing. The context is that they were on the road going up to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking ahead of them. In other words, after yet again Jesus has been talking to them about the difficulty of salvation and the importance of children, after yet again that has been going on, they're up on the road walking towards Jerusalem. They'd started in Caesarea Philippi, they'd gone through Galilee, now they're coming closer to Jerusalem. Next week we'll see they get to Jericho. So they're getting close. So they're on the road going to Jerusalem and Jesus was walking ahead of them. They were amazed, and those who followed were afraid. Oh, Mark is clever. At the very end of Mark's Gospel, the angel who appears to the frightened ladies at the tomb says Jesus is going before you to Galilee. Exactly the same verb. And guess what? The women who hear this are amazed and afraid. Exactly the same verbs appear in exactly the same context. This is again — this is our split screen. This shows what happened the first time, Jesus walking with disciples, but also what it looks like for them to be doing it again after they've been told to go to Galilee, where it all began, and then walk with him to Jerusalem again, with him going before them. This is both the historical Lord and the risen Lord walking before them, and it's reasonable enough that they should be frightened, because after all he's been telling them with ever greater specificity that he's going to die. The first time he said it was going to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes and will be killed. The next time he said that it would be into human hands that he would be killed. And this time he says the chief priests and the scribes, and then they will hand him over to the Gentiles. This is the first time that there's been a mention of the Gentiles. It doesn't specify which Gentiles — that would be pretty obvious, that it's likely to have been the Romans since they were the Gentile occupying power. And then he's very specific about the kind of punishments that they're going to bring upon him. And Jesus uses words here — mocking, flogging, spitting, and killing — each one of which conjures up a different Old Testament passage. For instance, the flogging: the use of mastics refers to the sufferings of Egypt, the plagues of Egypt, but also can mean the stripe, which we get brought up in our reading from Isaiah today. And then at the same time, "after three days he will rise again." That's been the constant end of each of those three warnings. So remember, it's after this third increasingly full picture of what's going to happen to him that James and John come up to him. Remember that after each one previously there has been a screw-up. First time it's Peter – he screws up. After the second one it's the disciples arguing amongst themselves which is the greatest, and John wanting the one who's been working miracles in Jesus' name to be cast out. In other words, after each one of these they try to reimagine their place in what's going to happen after Jesus. They're trying to prepare for the day after, and each time they're getting it wrong. So this is the third one of those post-announcement screw-ups. Except – and here I want to give a slightly different take on this than what is usually taken at this point. They come forward to him and say to him, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." Now there are two things here. First of all, this is a childish thing to say. And remember that that's good from Jesus's point of view. Jesus has been telling them to want and to desire as children do. So I think it's worth saying that James and John are not being simply bad, not simply failing to understand. They're trying to get right what Jesus has been telling them all along: "We want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." And he says to them – so not rebuking them – "What is it you want me to do for you?" And they said to him, "Grant us to sit one at your right hand and one at your left in your glory." So they're referring to the vision from the book of Daniel, Daniel chapter 7, where the man, the Ancient of Days, the one comes in glory, and there are thrones on either side of him. But guess what? Clever old Mark is pointing to something else as well, because a very similar conversation happened earlier in his Gospel, but this was in the court of King Herod, because King Herod said to the dancing girl, "I will give you anything that you want, ask me for anything that you want, I'll give you anything that you want, even up to half my kingdom." The little girl didn't actually know what to ask for, so she went to ask her mum, and her mum said, "I want you to ask for the head of John the Baptist" – probably meaning just, "I want him killed, I want him out of the way." But she, being small and imitative as a child, came in and said, "I want the head of John the Baptist, I want you to put it on a plate for me." In other words, she took what was probably a metaphorical expression for killing somebody literally, and actually wanted his head on a platter, which of course then King Herod was obliged to give. So the disciples here are in a sense in the position of the poor dancing girl. and they're saying, "You told me to ask for anything we want, we're a child." So he's saying, "What do you want?" Well, you know, the dividing of your kingdom in half between us. "So we'll sit one on your right, one on your left." So we'll be the two, as it were, viceroys. We'll be running the whole thing. And of course, they're brothers. This is a family dynasty thing. Now, again, they're starting to be childish. When Jesus says to them, "You do not know what you're asking," he's going to give them a lesson in the opening up of their asking. "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink?" So that's going to refer to the Psalms – the cup that I will raise in the name of the Lord. How blessed in the Lord is the eyes of the one who is faithful and died for him. "I ought to be baptized with the baptism that I'm to be baptized with" – reminding them that they've been with him since his baptism and know that the whole of his journey is a journey up to the cross, but also to remind them of the John the Baptist story, which they knew, where there had been this slightly uncontrolled asking for things. And they replied, "We are able" – in other words, we really do want to go through this. There is something childish in their answers. And so Jesus then says, "Okay, fine. The cup that I drink you will drink" – as indeed later they did. James was martyred in about 40, and John we don't know sometime later. "And the baptism with which I am baptized you will be baptized." In other words, the process you will have. But to sit at my right hand or my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those to whom it has been prepared. In other words, the end result is open. The end result will only be known afterwards. What I'm doing is opening up something for people to find their place. It's not like King Herod, who has a court and who can appoint people, devise a court and give it up. It's a different sort of ruling than that. But just notice – he doesn't rebuke them for wanting something. They've begun the childish route which he's been urging on them, but they haven't quite got it right yet. When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. They get indignant. Very interesting. Jesus had previously got indignant – the same verb – when the disciples had prevented children from coming to him. So here they are getting indignant because in one sense they're jealous of James and John stealing a march on them. But also they are acting as though James and John ought not to go to Jesus. But in fact, James and John are beginning to be childlike. So Jesus is not trying to keep them away from him. He's not trying to stop them. So Jesus calls them – calls to the ten. The ten he's now trying to lead on are aware that they've got caught up yet again. in the next day, the day after discussion. But they've rejected the two of them who have been moving into a childish position. "You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. But it is not so among you. But whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant." In other words, it's the pattern of desire. Wishing to become great is not a problem. Wishing to become great is a good thing, but there is a route to that. The route is the one that you're going to have to follow — that's what I've been explaining to James and John — the route which is one of self-dispossession. "Whoever wishes to become great amongst you must be your servant" — diakonos, literally waiter. I think this is more important because the people who would wait typically would be boys. So he's taking them back to the child image once again. "Whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all" — in other words, giving themselves completely to you. "For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" — in Greek, lytron. Now, people often refer this to the Isaiah passage which is our first reading. I personally think that there's a lot more use of this word lytron in the book of Numbers, where it describes the selection of Aaron and the family of Levi to be the priests and Levites. Being a priest or a Levite is described as giving yourselves a ransom. So he's saying that giving yourselves a ransom is what we're stepping into, and undoing the sacrificial order. In the case of Israel, in the initial place it was setting up the sacrificial order. Now that that has served its teaching purpose, now it's up to us to learn to step into it. So that's what he's proposing to them. So you have the servant, the waiter, the slave, someone under everyone, and the priestly figure, the self-giving priestly figure. So: ransom for many. This is a pattern of desire. It's following on from the child, the waiter, the slave, someone whose eyes are fixed on the hands of their master, and then the self-giving priestly figure — all of which Jesus is going to inaugurate so that we can take part. That's going to be our walking towards Jerusalem with him. Stick with that. Here we have the beginnings of a learning. James and John don't get it so badly wrong as we might think. Jesus is not trying to rebuke them for having desire. No, he's saying: no, it's good to want these things. You may be asking something that can't be done, because it's only discovered in the process what your place is going to be. It's only in the process that you will discover your seats, if you like, your place in the overall picture. And then it's being like a boy is — a waiter, someone who hangs around, attentive to others. That's how you're going to be the greatest, and you should want those things. That's wonderful. It's how you get there that's going to be the really important thing.