You might recall a scene that occurred in Mark’s Gospel when Jesus was at Assyria, and he asked the disciples who they thought he was. And you remember that the disciples first responded that he was one of the prophets. Then others said he was John the Baptist. And then finally Peter responds and says, you are the Son of God, the Messiah.
Jesus then goes on to explain to them his understanding of the Messiah. The suffering servant, the one who will give his life for many. And Peter, as you recall, turns around to him and calls him aside and says, no, you know, that isn’t the way it should play out at this point. And Jesus uses some very harsh language because he says to Peter, get behind me, Satan.
For you are thinking in the way of a human, but not the way of God. Well, one would have thought that that incident would have been the only one that Mark would have included in his gospel. But here we find that he includes this scene from James and John, and both of them, even though they have heard now two three times.
Jesus explaining what will happen when he goes to Jerusalem, how he will be seized. How you will be persecuted. How he will suffer and ultimately how he will die. And then on the third day, rise from the dead. Yet, despite Jesus’s constant explanation, his constant in the sense preparing them for what is coming, it’s obvious that they do not hear and they do not understand.
And so James and his brother John come up to Jesus. And it isn’t as we have a simple request of you. It’s that you must do what we ask you. And then they ask one to be at his right and one to be at his left. When he comes into his glory. So they are still thinking in the old way.
They’re still thinking in the old way of what it meant to be Messiah. That it was majestic, that it was powerful, that in this sense you would become the new ruler of Israel. And the reality is that Jesus is inviting them to the cross when he says, Will you drink the cup that I will drink? And will you be baptized?
As I am baptized without knowing? They say, yes, we will. And the reality is that if you follow their lives, they will write. Certainly James was the first one to be martyred in Jerusalem. But I think the point that Mark is getting at here, and it’s constant throughout his gospel presentation, is that he’s always pointing to the fact that they don’t understand.
They’re not capable yet of grasping. What is the experience of Jesus? And certainly when we look at that, we come to realize that they had not yet received the Holy Spirit. And so their eyes and their minds and their hearts had not yet been opened to the reality of Jesus and his understanding of Messiah. And as a result of that, their actions.
Are not at all associated with the reality of Jesus. I think Mark puts this in because Mark’s gospel is very much about discipleship. How do you understand your role as a disciple? What are you called to? And Mark’s point through the mouth of Jesus is that you are called to be in the image of Jesus. You are called to be in the image of Jesus who offers his life in service of others, out of an abundant trust of the father.
So they didn’t affect the very actions of Jesus, or actions of making visible to others. The unconditional love of God and how the unconditional love of God touching the lives of the other and touching the life of the person transforms us, transforms us, and makes of us people who live with hearts that are ever outreaching. Hearts that, like Jesus, are pierced.
Because there is pain in following in the footsteps of Jesus. There’s pain in living in the life of Jesus, and that is very real. But I think for most of us it remains very distant. We get an ache and we say, well, that must be the suffering that God was giving me. But the reality is the suffering that God is giving us is by incorporating us into God’s life in such a way that when I look at the situation in Gaza and I see those innocent children and I see those families being bombed, being murdered, losing whatever little they had, I feel the suffering of Jesus.
And because I feel the suffering of Jesus in those situations, and that’s just one of many on the face of this earth. I move to action. I move to try to do something to alleviate the suffering in Jesus.
That could be that. I spend extra time in prayer on behalf of my brothers and sisters who are suffering in this way. Perhaps it means that I reach out and support in some way in order to alleviate some of that suffering. Today is Mission Sunday, and in a sense, the church lives by mission, by outreach. But one of the things that goes unnoticed and goes unreported is the tremendous work that is being done by an agency such as Catholic Relief Services, who are on the scene in these various places, representing us and all the work of the Catholic Medical Mission Board, who is on the scene in these places offering medical assistance in each case.
What it is, is living in Jesus. You feel the pain, the pain of Jesus’s broken heart and feeling that pain you have to act. And so you have the actions that are going on. And again, these are not just, well, I send $5 for them. That’s wonderful if you do that. But it’s the action of the people who are engaged in those ministries who were there concretely, concretely getting engaged with the people carrying that infant and offering some medical assistance or running one of the food banks and providing some nourishment.
And I think that’s what Mark was getting at as he gives us this presentation of Jesus. He said, nothing will change until we are so engaged in Jesus’s life that we feel the suffering that Jesus is, because the cross is still going on. Jesus is suffering, is still going on. And the point is, if you feel it, you will act and you will act in the fashion of Jesus.
Let us pray that God gives us the strength to live that way.