Gospel Reflection for Sunday September 22nd 2024 – 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Fr Brian Maher OMI

Gospel Reflection for Sunday September 22nd 2024, 25th Sunday in Ordinary Time | Mark 9:30-37

Reading this week’s Gospel you might be forgiven for thinking it was ‘Groundhog Day’ and you had been transported back to last week!

Last week we saw Peter taking it upon himself to argue with Jesus about what he was saying to them. “Get thee behind me Satan” was the dramatic rebuke he received for his intervention. This week we find several of his apostles discussing who would be greatest when the Kingdom of God was revealed.

Last week we saw Jesus tell Peter that he had no understanding of the Kingdom for which he was preparing them. This week we see Jesus tell all his apostles that “…they did not understand.” The little addition that “…they were afraid to ask him.” is interesting in an amusing sort of way. It strikes me that after the scalding reprimand Peter got last week, they might well be a little afraid to ask too many questions!

Last week we saw Jesus tell his apostles, “…. that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” This week Jesus tells them the same, “… 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.”

Last week the Gospel concluded with a warning by Jesus that the ‘Kingdom of God’ was not what they were expecting, and they needed to radically rethink their values and ideals to prepare for it. This week the Gospel ends with a similar warning and example of what Jesus means.

The obvious question that arises must be why?  Why, in the shortest Gospel written, does Mark seem to ‘waste’ precious space saying almost exactly the same thing?

The answer must be that the central message of these two readings – “…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” – is of such importance that it needs to be repeated. Indeed, Mark repeats the message a third time a short time later.

That leads to another ‘why’ question. The passion, death and resurrection of Jesus is what the Gospels are all about. It underlies everything the Gospels teach. Why, therefore, does Mark so explicitly need to state this reality using what is almost a mantra to do so: The Son of Man will be arrested, killed and three days later rise again?

To answer this ‘why’ question we need to understand a little about the people who were first reading or hearing what he wrote. Everything we write, be it on social media, in novels, poetry and drama, or even in our personal e-mails and letters, reflect something of the world we live in. It would be silly to suggest that the Gospels (indeed everything in the Bible) are any different.

It is generally accepted that Mark’s Gospel was written at a difficult and pivotal moment in Israel’s history. In 70ce the Jewish people, after decades of simmering unrest, finally revolted. In typical Roman fashion the revolt was cruelly crushed, thousands killed, the city of Jerusalem burned to the ground and the great Temple of Jerusalem utterly destroyed.

The impact of this destruction on the people of Israel cannot be overstated. It was not just the abject defeat they suffered and the destruction of their city. The destruction of the Temple meant, quite literally, that their relationship with their God was called into question.

The people were utterly desolate, destroyed by Rome and abandoned by God. A very real and profound sense of hopelessness and almost despair permeated their lives at every level. Without the presence of ‘their God’ with them, everything they believed and relied on – political, cultural, social – was gone.

It is also worth remembering that the small groups of the ‘followers of Jesus’ were still Jewish (albeit with growing strain) and many attended the synagogue on the Sabbath as well as their own Christian gatherings. The destruction of the Temple affected them just a profoundly as it did the wider Jewish community.

We should not be surprised, then, that Mark’s Gospel, from its very first words, brings to the followers of Jesus an overwhelming message of hope and optimism for the future. “Don’t you remember…” Mark reminds his readers, “…Jesus told us this would happen? Don’t you remember him saying ‘destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up again?’  Don’t you see? He was talking about himself and promising that his own resurrection from the dead was the ‘new’ Temple that would live forever.”

For those struggling to find some meaning in their shattered society this was a hugely powerful message of hope for the future. What Mark is saying to them is that from now on – from the resurrection of Jesus to the final coming of the Kingdom – the presence of God does not live in a building of stone and wood, of gold and silver. From now on – from the resurrection of Jesus to the final coming of the Kingdom – the presence of God lives within each person. Jesus is the ‘new’ Temple, arrested and crucified unjustly, but raised up again in three days to live forever.

“Yes, the Temple is gone…” Mark concludes, “but the ‘new’ Temple has come. Jesus told us it would happen and it has come to pass exactly as he said. So, there is nothing to fear. God is still with his people, dwelling within them through the Spirit sent at Pentecost.”

This was a message of hope that was mind-blowing. It was a message that needed to be stated and restated until its true meaning dawned on those reading it. “… 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.”

Now we come, in my opinion, to the crucial piece. When I was teaching, in Ireland or in Australia, I would share this ‘Good News’ with my ‘we’ve-heard-it-all-before’ teenagers, and they, with all the wonderful arrogance of youth, would look at me and say, “So what? It has nothing to do with my life.”

We can smile at that, and I did many times, and say to myself patronisingly, “Young people! They’ll learn as they experience the ‘real world.’”  But…don’t they have a point?

Last week in the Gospel we heard that same mind-blowing message of hope that the first followers of Jesus heard – “…. that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.” The question is, how much were our minds blown?

If, like me, you continued to say your prayers, tried most of the time to be true to the values of the Gospel, but honestly did not feel hugely different, then are we not also saying, “So what?”

This, for me, is where being a follower of Jesus challenges and pinches a bit. It is the same challenge as ‘get thee behind me Satan must have been for Peter. However, like Peter, we have no need to worry or be afraid, God has infinite patience, and he/she will keep giving us opportunities to change. Last week, in our Gospel, Jesus offered us a mind-blowing message of hope. If it slid past us or if we missed its implications for us, this week Jesus offers us the same mind-blowing message of hope. If we miss it again this week, don’t worry, it will come again…and again…and again…until we are ready to truly understand it. Maybe it is a bit more like ‘Groundhog Day’ than we realise!

In many ways our world is much the same as it was when Mark was writing.

Each day we read and see the awful effects of war in so many parts of the planet. We watch the loss of so many innocent lives – in tiny, overcrowded boats, in already bombed-out buildings, in the misery and cold of poverty and homelessness, in our schools and shopping malls and theatres where senseless massacres destroy the lives and happiness of so many families. In Europe, in the USA, I wonder sometimes if I am watching the beginning of the end of democratic politics.

When Mark was writing the world was small and local. People only saw and heard what was happening in their own small bubble. The sacking of Jerusalem and the destruction of their Temple was, for the Jewish people, the end of their world.

Amid their confusion and suffering, Mark brings them a message of extraordinary hope and optimism. Not a naïve, simplistic hope which says, ‘just eat this, attend this course, chant this mantra, bury your head in the sand and it will all work out, but a real, deep, lasting hope which acknowledges suffering and pain and responds with a desire to change it. The Cross of Jesus was indeed horrific, unjust and senseless, and so too will be many of the crosses we bear. But we know that just as Jesus went through his Cross to his Resurrection from the dead, so our crosses, and those of our world, will lead to resurrection and new life.

It was difficult for the people first hearing Mark’s Gospel to be people of Hope. It is difficult for us to be people of Hope.

However, this overwhelming message of Hope is offered to us, just as it was offered to them.

At the end of his Gospel, Mark tells of the Resurrection this way:  The women entered the open tomb and saw a young man dressed in a white robe who said to them.  “Don’t be alarmed! You are looking for Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen! He is not here.”

He has risen! He is not here.”  Notice how simply, and with such certainty, Mark says it.

And maybe this is where Jesus takes “a little child in his arms…” and says to us, “Look! This is the Kingdom of God. Look at the trust a small child has in a person who loves them…just trust me…trust me … nothing else.

“I am with you always, even to the end of time.”

Many thanks,

Brian.