Mark 9:30-37
30 They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; 31for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘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.’ 32But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.
33 Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ 34But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. 35He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ 36Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he 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.’
Last week I spoke about how to carry our own cross and how hard that is. I spoke about how, if we are Jesus’ disciples, we are to put him first, living our lives for him. And I suggested that, whatever we go through, if we have a strong enough why, then we can cope with any how.
But why should we do this? Wy should Jesus, why should God, be our why? Well we are going to look into this a bit more today.
This is the second time in our recent readings Jesus has predicted that he will suffer and die. The first time was in our reading last week from Mark chapter eight. Although for my sermon I didn’t focus on that part of the passage, I looked elsewhere. We now, though have an opportunity to have a think about what this means.
The first time that Jesus says this, the disciples can’t believe what he is saying, and indeed Peter rebukes him, and Jesus responds to him, saying ‘Get behind me, Satan! For you are setting your mind not on divine things but on human things.’ Jesus counters Peter, in the strongest possible terms. This is a path that he is set on, this is something that he must go through.
And again, in our passage today
‘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.’ Interestingly this time there isn’t a rebuke, only a kind of, stunned silence, or fear of what this means. Maybe they have accepted what he has said, but they don’t understand it.
That phrase, ‘Son of man’ on one level it is simply the term used to describe a human being. Jesus is a human being after all. He was a man who lived at a certain time and a human place, he has a human nature and all that entails. And we see this in the bible as well, particularly in book of the prophet Ezekiel who is referred to as a ‘son of man.’ That’s one way to look at it, but it seems like that’s not all that’s happening here. For the ‘Son of man’ motif occurs elsewhere in the bible, particularly in the book of Daniel in the Old Testament. In that book the prophet Daniel has a vivid vision of all the oppressors of Ancient Israel, and they are depicted as great beasts, a lion with eagle wings, a bear with tusks a leopard with four wings and four heads, and the fourth a beast with ten horns. These were Israel’s ancient oppressors, the kingdoms of the time that didn’t follow God’s ways but went down their own path, Babylon, Greece, and Persia. And there is little Israel amongst these, following the path of the Lord, a small nation, yet a nation through whom God promised through Abraham that he would bless the whole world.
What is going to happen at the end of all things? Will these beasts, these superpowers, rule the world? No! Daniel’s vision continues. One like a ‘Son of man’ stands before God’s throne, and that son of man, that human being is given everlasting dominion over all things, over all those beasts, the son of man is given a kingdom that will have no end. Here, the son of man is probably a representation of the people of Israel image is of a people who are suffering, a nation, Israel who have been persecuted and suffering, and yet when God comes in judgement seated on his throne, they will be vindicated.
Jesus takes this image, of the glorious human, this seemingly divine man whom, as it says in Daniel, comes on the clouds from heaven to stand before the throne. He takes his image and applies it directly to himself. He is the embodiment of the son of man, the embodiment of Israel itself.
Jesus will suffer, just as Israel suffered and were oppressed. And yet, though he will suffer, he will also be shown to be right. Though he will die, he will be vindicated, because on the third day he will rise again. One writer says this, ‘His own royal glory will be veiled in suffering and humiliation, but this abasement is only the necessary prelude to his glorious vindication by God, when his divine majesty will be fully revealed.’ What are we talking about here, we are of course talking about the cross. I mentioned carrying our crosses last week. Now we see a glimpse of the cross that Jesus will carry it.
But remember again Peter’s rebuke. Lord, this can’t happen to you, Peter thinks, no, this shouldn’t happen to him. This is not what the messiah is meant to be. The messiah was meant to lead an uprising to defeat the nations who oppress them. But no, Jesus knows what his role is, he is the ‘son of man’, he is the embodiment of Israel, the one who suffers for the sake of righteousness, the one who is oppressed by others and the one who is killed,
Jesus knew his mission was to become what Israel were meant to be. And so he suffered, he died, even by his own people who were sure in the knowledge that they were doing the right thing. And he did so willingly, but rather than defeating the nations that surrounded Israel as may have been expected; he defeated the darkness that exists within every human heart. He took on all of the sin and the darkness and the anger and the hatred, and the spite and the loathing that we see into the world onto himself, into his own person. And he does that so that we can be free of it, free of it all.
I’ve mentioned C L Lewis’ book, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe before. In that story, Aslan the lion wants to save Edmund who is in the white witches’ snare. And a bargain is struck, Aslan will give himself up for the little human boy. He gives himself up to die, so that Edmund may live. He goes he goes willingly never pulling back, never complaining as his fur is cut, as he is tied and bound,, until eventually he is executed by the witch herself on the stone table. And Edmund is allowed to go free.
Where did Lewis get that story from. Right here. The gospel story. and what does it show. It shows that each and every one of us are Jesus’ why. Remember last week how I said that if you had a strong enough why for the things that we are going through we can cope with almost anything? For Jesus, we are that why.
Jesus’ why was the salvation of all people. His why, was for all of us.
Jesus knows that he is going to the cross. He didn’t have to do it. One famous theologian called Von Balthazar speaks about how, even the points in which Jesus seems to be suffering passively, for example when he is mocked by Pontius Pilate’s guards, or when he is beaten by them or when they crown his head with thorns. They are all a part of his ‘active will.’ His why is so strong that he goes through the darkness of death for us, to redeem us and redeem the world.
It’s no surprise that the disciples respond to this with a kind of stunned silence, I think we all would do the same.
And yet, as Jesus himself says, on the third day he will rise again, and be vindicated. Just like the Son of man in Daniel is given dominion over the whole world, so Jesus, the true ‘Son of man’ saves us and the world, and we give him all the glory, because he went through everything to get each and every one of us out of that pit of darkness to experience the glory of his light and his presence.
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