1. The Passion, predicted three times

The last Sunday we read about Peter’s confession and Jesus’ first prediction of the Passion (see Mark 8:27-35). Mark reported that Jesus foretold about his death three times ( the third is 10:33). And all of them were written in a coherent tone. Three of them show in common that Jesus’ disciples could not understand its real meaning and were always expecting a glorious future in Jerusalem despite Jesus’words.

Today’s lecturing portion opens the scene on the road to Jerusalem through Galilee, where Jesus said to his disciples ;- he Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise."(Mark 9:31)

The second prediction was necessary because they had did recognized what Jesus had meant and were keeping euphoric illusions. Mark described their attitude of mind ;- They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.(Mark 9:33-34)

As those verses reveal they though Jesus was going up to Jerusalem to become the King and each of them wanted to be nominated for the most important position under Jesus’ rule.

Jesus talked about the Passion for the first time near Caesarea Philippi but the disciples did not take it seriously (see Mark 8:27) . Therefore they argued who would be the most brilliant person in the kingdom of Jesus.

But this time, hearing Jesus’ statement, they commence to loose confidence ;- But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.

They arrived to see the future, even vaguely, and became uncertain what they would become. I think Jesus was not blaming desire to realize their hopes. But it should be criticized if such a desire make them to be ego-centircal and neglect those who would follow them. Because when we try to go first we easily loose others from our sight. Therefore Jesus said that they should go after other persons to attentive to them. “Be careful of neighbors” is a directive based on love.

In Mark’s Greek translation of Jesus’ Aramaic words “First” is “"¦Ð¦Ñῶ¦Ó¦Ïς {pro’-tos}”, which corresponds to ” Princeps” in Latin. and in the Roman Empire the word was used as the title equivalent to “Emperor”.

Nero, one of Roman Emperors, administrated severe persecutions in 64 against Christians under which Peter and Paul were said to be executed. In 70 Roman army forces seized, occupied and ruined Jerusalem. Mark wrote his Gospel in time of those incidents.

Thus Mark intended to send his own message through Jesus’ teaching that christians should not seek to become “the first” or “Princeps” like dominant Romans. Mark appeals for life to serve instead of to be served. Besides he alludes to Jesus’ words to distinguish christians’ spiritual life from secular one ;- “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” (Mark 12:17)

In deed in secular world we measure human “greatness” according to personal capability to achieve social and material ambitions. But God appreciates before all those who serve the weak. In God’s kingdom leaders are not the same type of persons as in the earthy world. Secular leaders are required to be competent to rule over others. In contrast, in the Christendom helpful and supportive persons are ranked higher by God. In other terms love is the prior criterion in God’s evaluation, not earthy competency.

Therefore Paul wrote ;- If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.(1 Corinthians 13:2-3)

Human greatness must be shown by degree of modesty and willingness to be useful for society and neighbors, not by earthy ability.

2. What the second one points out

Then Jesus took a little child in his arms and said to the crowd in order to develop the previous teaching ;- Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me;"(Mark 9:37)

“A child” there symbolizes socially weak persons rather than innocent or immaculate ones. Too often human societies consider physically and intellectually weak persons to be worthless and ignore them. But we must put ourselves into the position similar to disdained neighbors and welcome them.

” In my name” explains that we will do because Jesus requires so and by welcoming the weak we welcome Jesus inside us. Matthew’s writing might allow us to understand it more easily . ;- “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’(Matthew 25:40)

Jesus continues further ;- ” and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me."(Mark 9:37)
Thus by welcoming Jesus we welcome God, who sent Jesus, the Son of God, for our sake. To live with God is not to practice rites strictly or to study theology profoundly but to take care of unfortunates “in the name of Jesus”.

Jesus pointed that those who shared suffering of the weak in daily life were the closest to God. In general thinking it is desirable to be superior to others. But not so with us as Paul said ;- Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.(Romans 12:10)

We must aim at becoming more devoted, instead of prevailing over.

3. The third and ultimate prediction

Today’s invocation verses are Mark 10:42-44 ;- Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

Those verses come after this ;- “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he said, “and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and teachers of the law. They will condemn him to death and will hand him over to the Gentiles (Mark 10:33), the third prediction of the Passion.

In spite of what Jesus said , James and John requested at that time ;- “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."(Mark 10:37)

Even though Jesus had told two times about the Passion his disciples did not yet understand what would happen in Jerusalem. They always thought Jesus would be received by Jewish people as their king. And James and John tried to get better status than others in the future. Other disciples too might have followed Jesus with the same ambition. But Jesus portrayed the real future to them.

“Great” is translated from Greek word “¦Ìέ¦Ã¦Áς,{meg’-as} ”, and it derived the word “major” in Latin, which was used as the title of Julius Caesar then given to Roman Emperors afterwards. So a Japanese Biblical scholar Mr. Takizawa translated the phrase more explicitly : ” Romans who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles and dominate unfairly all nations. But you should not seek to be like those Romans”

Mark also interpreted Jesus words by his own understanding and implies that christians should not be like powerfully dominant Romans. The message were very audacious under circumstances of his time but he was right. For Jesus came to this world not to be served, but to serve, and he gave his life as a ransom for humans’ salvation. So Jesus taught how his followers should live ;- “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.(Mark 8:34)

“Take up his cross” means to give up one’s hypocritical entity. As a matter of fact, it seems natural that we wish to realize our ideal. But if we try to achieve it by possessing material wealth and getting a social status or reputation higher than others it must be a big mistake. The Bible teaches us that such a secular success is only an allusion. Nonetheless even Jesus’ disciples wanted to become ” megas, major ” or “princeps” as ordinary humans.

Gibbon*, an English historian, remarked in his work ” The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire” that more than 65% of Roman emperors died by unnatural causes, of which the most frequent cases were assassination and the second was suicide. But the Bible asks us whether we really want a life which ends in such ways, similar to “Great” or of “Princeps”. The given answer is no. A meaningful life, in authentic sense, is a life to serve and care the weak. The life of Saint Francis of Assisi* shows us a model. I want to present one of his players, which symbolizes his chosen life-style:
- O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love.-

We, ordinary humans, almost always make efforts to be loved and understood. But that passive attitude makes us vulnerable because happiness becomes dependent on estimations of external persons. Therefore almost all of us had hard experiences of not being loved, disappointed or disdained. Therefore the Bible teaches us to choose another way of becoming happy. By abandoning our ego-centrical stance and taking a active, loving and understanding life we can arrive to rejoice spiritaully. Jesus, the Son of God, showed us the model through the Passion and the Cross . We must aim at a new life by trusting in God, not by depending on earthy appreciations. In that way we will be newly born and live a spiritually meaningful life.
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*E. Gibbon http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Gibbon
*St. Francis of Assisi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_of_Assisi
Player of St. Francis http://www.prayerguide.org.uk/stfrancis.htm