Eternal God: send us your Holy Spirit so that we may receive your preached Word and believe it. Glorify your Word in our hearts and comfort us by it to eternal life — for the sake of Jesus, your Son. Amen.
Introduction
I’ve started teaching confirmation this year. One of the roles of a pastor is teaching, so I’ve been brushing up on my pedagogy (a big word meaning “method of teaching”). I came across the following quote: “Repetition is the mother of all learning. Repetition is the mother of all learning. Repetition is the mother of all learning.” I think you get the point!
In the central section of Mark’s gospel, Jesus uses repetition to teach why he came: he uses a threefold pattern repeated three times to teach about his death and resurrection.
The pattern goes like this: (1) prediction of the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son of Man; (2) misunderstanding on the part of the disciples; and (3) teaching about discipleship. Jesus repeats this pattern three times.
The teaching that Jesus must suffer, die, and rise again is against our nature, so Jesus must repeat, repeat, repeat for us and his disciples to get it!
Suffer, die, and rise again (x3)
Jesus explains three times that he must suffer, die, and rise again.
- We heard the first of these teachings last Sunday. In Mark chapter 8 he says:
The Son of Man must suffer many things … and he must be killed and after three days rise again. (Mark 8:31)
- In our reading tonight we hear Jesus repeat this a second time, with slightly different wording:
The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise. (Mark 9:31)
- The last time Jesus repeats this is in Mark chapter 10, which we’ll hear on Sunday week:
The Son of Man will be … condemned to death and handed over to the Gentiles, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise. (Mark 10:33–34)
Misunderstanding (x3)
Each time Jesus explains what the “Son of Man” must endure, the disciples misunderstand. (Aside: I don’t think we can be too harsh on the disciples, because we’re sitting on this side of the cross and resurrection, so we have insight and understanding that was not open to them.)
- We heard last Sunday that, after Jesus’ first prediction, Peter takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. Peter puts the concerns of man before the concerns of God. Peter grasps his own desires and puts himself first.
- In the second prediction we heard tonight, Jesus adds some new information: he will be “delivered” or “betrayed” into the hands of men. Someone is going to betray Jesus! Now if [name] came up and told me [he/she] was about to be betrayed, I think I’d ask some questions?! “Who’s going to betray you? When will this happen? What are we going to do?” But the disciples don’t say anything: they don’t understand and are too afraid. Afraid perhaps that Jesus will be disappointed that they do not understand, again. Or afraid perhaps that they will be implicated in his betrayal and death. So instead, what do they do? As they walk on the road to Jerusalem and the cross, they argue! They argue about who is the greatest. It’s almost a scene from a family holiday: the mum and dad driving up the front, the kids in the back fighting and bickering. “No, I’m the best and you’re the worst!”
- The third and final misunderstanding involves more in-fighting among the disciples. In chapter 10, after his third passion prediction, James and John come to Jesus with a strange request:
“Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”
“What do you want me to do for you?” Jesus asked.
They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”
“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. (Mark 10:35–38)
The picture Mark paints is a tragic-comedy. Jesus walks ahead in serious silence on the way to his sacrificial death, while his disciples straggle behind, pushing and shoving, trying to establish the order of the procession behind him.
Teaching about discipleship (x3)
It’s lucky that Jesus is a patient teacher! Three times he teaches the Son of Man must suffer, die, and rise again. Three times the disciples misunderstand, concerned only with themselves, with being first, or best, or greatest. And three times Jesus teaches what it means to be a disciple.
- We heard the first discipleship teaching last Sunday. “Get behind me Satan,” Jesus says as he rebukes Peter. “Get in your right place, follow after me, not out the front leading the way.” “Deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.” (Mark 8:34)
- In the third instance, Jesus talks about being a servant:
“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:43–45)
- In this second teaching about discipleship, Jesus uses a prop to help him teach. He presents his disciples with a paradoxical saying (a typical way of teaching for a Jewish Rabbi): “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.” To flesh out his teaching he takes a little child and hugs her. Us Westerners can easily miss the point. For us children are an integral part of the fabric of society. We invest much time and energy in our children: we work to pay for their education, the family schedule can often revolve around the children, we like to spoil them with presents on their birthdays. In some families, we might even say the child or children rule the roost! But in first century Palestine, children were not afforded these rights and attention. In fact, on the honour scale, they were nearly rock bottom; only slaves rated lower than children. A child had no power, no status, and few rights. A child was dependent, vulnerable, and entirely subject to the authority of the father.
Yet here Jesus chooses a child to represent a disciple. Disciples are meant to jostle to be the greatest, the most honoured or the one with the most power. Disciples are needy and lowly. Disciples are dependent and vulnerable. Disciples are subject to their heavenly Father.
Grasping or open hands
Let me illustrate what Jesus is teaching with his threefold repetition. The story goes that a man put his two dollar coin into a vending machine for a can of soft drink. The machine whirled, the drink fell down, but it got stuck and didn’t come out down the chute. So the man bends down and tries to extract the can from the machine by feeding his hand up the hole. Not a good idea, obviously. Three hours later the fire department arrive. They struggle and struggle for another half hour, and conclude that they’ll need to pull the machine apart to free the man. One of the fire-fighters asks offhand, “You’re not still holding onto the can, are you?” The man nodded, “Of course I am, I still want my drink!” Everyone sighs, exasperated. “What?!” the man asks. He finally lets go of the can and easily pulls his hand free.
The point is of course that when we grasp after things (position, authority, power, privilege, whatever), when our hands are wrapped tight around what we want or desire, we’re trapped. It’s only when we open our hands, when we accept that we are needy and lowly, when we kneel and act dependent and vulnerable, like a child — then we receive. When our hands are held out open God gives to us life and salvation through the suffering, death, and resurrection of the Son of Man.
Receiving the Son of Man
As we start our forty day Lenten journey toward the cross, let us pause and reflect how we are travelling. Are you jostling for a better position? Are you bickering with others? Are you grasping tightly onto man-made idols like power or prestige or money or material things? As you follow after Jesus are you distracted with human concerns?
In contrast to us, Jesus purposefully walks toward Jerusalem, showing us that the Son of Man is a true servant of all. He isn’t distracted with human concerns, but focussed solely on divine necessity. Jesus gave up his very life, he suffered and was killed for his disciples as they jostled to get a better spot in the line following after him. Jesus suffered and died for you and me as we do the same. But the good news is that God the Father raised him to life on the third day, and Jesus now lives and reigns with him and the Holy Spirit.
To receive the wonderful gift that the Son of Man offers, Jesus teaches, and teaches, and teaches that we are to be like children: needy, lowly, vulnerable, last. We are not to lean on our own strength or position or power, but lean on Jesus. We are to turn to God in repentance, and fall to our knees with open hands.
The rituals and traditions associated with Ash Wednesday attempt to highlight all of this. (a) The ashes represent our true nature: we are fully dependent on God, nothing but ash and dust. We are like flowers that grow and wither. We live our life in the midst of death. The ashes point to our mortality and need. (b) The ashes are also a sign of our repentance. We come and kneel as servants, not the first but the last, like a lowly child without status, weak and helpless. (c) Finally the ashes remind us of life eternal. The cross on our forehead represents that the Son of Man has suffered for us, and through the cross God’s kingdom is coming near. And we freely receive this coming kingdom when our hands stop grasping and are opened to receive God’s mercy and forgiveness.
So let us now repent of our sins, and come and kneel at the altar with open hands, ready to receive the free gift of forgiveness through the suffering, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the Son of Man. Amen.
