The Rev. Julie Guengerich Hutson
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Very often when we hear this Gospel reading from Mark’s Gospel we hear it as an indictment of the disciples. Who were they to be arguing with one another about who was the greatest? Wasn’t that just like them? Isn’t it just like all of us, wondering who is best? Arguing over it.
But I’d like for us to consider this story with fresh ears and a clean slate, if you will. I’d like for us to hear it again for the first time. So, if you will, imagine with me that you are one of the disciples walking with Jesus that day.
It’s warm…warmer than it’s been in awhile, although the days have run one into the next ever since the Teacher called you and the others to follow him. Everyone is tired. The teacher even more than the rest of us. With him, you have traveled from town to town. People with needs…with real and urgent needs have followed you and the Teacher everywhere. There is no peace. There is no quiet. There is no rest. There are sick people to heal…children, too, they are the heartbreaking ones. There are demons to cast out. All the while the Teacher tries his best to help you and the others understand what he is trying to tell you.
And you are all trying to understand. You are all trying to come to grips with the fact that the Messiah, the King, the Ruler, the Savior…..well, that he’s just a regular son of a carpenter like the rest of you.
Some days everything he says is confusing. He almost seems to talk in riddles. And then he tells those stories. And he NEVER answers a question….unless it’s with another question!
And on this day, you have just passed through Galilee. The Teacher does not want anyone else to know he is there for that would surely mean more crowds. More sick to cure. More stories, heartbreaking stories, to hear. More demons. More accusations. More questions.
And the Teacher seems intent…driven even….to make you and the others understand what he is trying to say. Sitting together, the Teacher looks at you all again and begins to speak:
“The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.”
Well, that’s crazy talk! Any way you slice it, it’s crazy talk. Being killed….the Messiah can’t be killed! There’s too much to do! He’s supposed to save the world. And the world is nowhere close to being saved. And then all of this talk of rising again after 3 days. What is that supposed to mean? Maybe the heat has gotten to him or he’s exhausted or maybe, as his family thought, he’s losing it.
Either way, any way…..we need to have a Plan B. We’ve given up all that we have, our livelihoods and families to follow him. There has to be a Plan B. One of us will have to step up to the plate if he can’t continue on. Who will it be? Who among us will it be? (Pause)
This makes it easier to understand, doesn’t it, why the disciples might have been arguing over which of them was the greatest? Perhaps they were not full of themselves at all, but were simply confused over what Jesus was trying to tell them.
And then, Jesus needs to make another point. And in order to make his point, Jesus takes a child and placed it in the midst of them. He tells them that whoever welcomes one such child in his name welcomes him and not just him but the One who sent him.
There is something profound, something powerful about Jesus placing that child there in the midst of his followers. Jesus takes a sign of innocence and vulnerability and elevates it to a place of highest value.
What must that feel like? To be elevated to a place of esteem? To be told that you are not only important, but that you are the most important? And to wonder how this could be, given your complete and utter lack of position or status?
I want us to return to our imaginations this morning. This is a variation of an exercise that is often done in high schools. I have participated in it with youth groups and it is without a doubt one of the most profoundly meaningful things I have ever done. We will only do it to a degree and as I said, with variations due to our physical set up with our pews and so forth.
I’d like to invite you to close your eyes and imagine that you are no longer the disciple following Jesus, but rather you are the little child there in the house. You are walking down a hallway, maybe with a favorite toy or maybe you are singing a favorite song your mother sings you to sleep with. And then, a kind looking man, though tired looking too, steps into the hallway, greets you with the most reassuring smile and asks your mother if you can come with him for a moment. When she agrees, he sweeps you up into his arms. You feel nothing but safe. And he takes you into the room, sits back down, places you before him, in the midst of his followers and says that you are the most valuable person in the room.
Now, together, we are going to replay this scenario. Instead of a child, there will be other people who are vulnerable. You may fit in the categories we describe, or you may not. If you do, I want you to fully feel what this would be like. If you do not, I want you to place yourself in the role of the disciple to whom Jesus brings the person.
If you have lost a person you love…whether to death or to the ending of a relationship or to time and distance, imagine yourself in the hallway of that home in Capernaum. Imagine Jesus coming out to you, and ever so gently and kindly taking you with him, into the disciples. Imagine him telling you that you are the most important person in the room that night.
Now, if you or someone you have loved has ever suffered from any kind of addiction, imagine yourself standing there in the hallway. Jesus comes out and greets you without any judgment and takes you into that room, placing you among the disciples and telling them that you are the most important person in the room that night.
If you or someone in your family has suffered from mental illness of any kind, I invite you to imagine yourself in the hallway. Imagine the gentleness of Jesus’ eyes as he looks into yours with love. Imagine feeling beyond love as you go into the room with the disciples. You are the most important person in the room that night.
If you or someone in your family has ever lived on welfare, imagine standing in that hallway. Maybe you stand with worry or shame. Jesus comes to you, gently takes you by the hand and reassures you that you are not only valuable but that you are the most valuable person in the room.
If you have ever been marginalized because of who you love…if you have been told that you cannot love someone of another race or another socioeconomic stance, or another nationality. If you have ever been told you cannot love someone of the same gender. Imagine, Jesus comes to you, Jesus who is love incarnate, and takes you gently into the room with him and places you before the disciples as the most valuable person in the room.
If you have ever felt hopeless imagine that as you stand in the hallway of that home, Jesus offers you his hand. He offers hope and reassurance and promise to you, as he takes you with him into the room with the disciples, places you in their midst and says that you are the most important person in the room that night.
Every time you identified with the one that Jesus placed in the midst of that room, bringing your pain into the midst of them….you were that child that Jesus was gathering to himself. You were that vulnerable child that Jesus was taking into his arms and enjoining the others to love. Because Jesus said there is a place for the least and the lost and the last and it is with him. Jesus said there is a place for your brokenness and your pain and your sorrow. And it is with him.
Some days we will be called to be those who care for those Jesus has drawn to himself. We will be called to care for the homeless women and children who are coming to us. We will be called to care for those who are hungry right outside our doors. We will be called to affirm the rights of all people. We will be called to care.
But every day, every single day….we will be that beloved child whom Jesus takes to himself and says you are valued, you are mine, and it is for you that I will die.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
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