1. The last time prediction

Mark reported that Jesus predicted the Passion three times and today’s lecturing part is about the third one. We will see how it was announced by Jesus and reflect on the message of the Gospel of the portion.
After the ministry in Galilee Jesus set out to Jerusalem where Jesus’ opponents, Jewish religious authorities, were tightening oppressive policy against him. For that reason harsh future there was inevitable but Jesus was ready to accept it as God’ will. So much so;- He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again.(Mark 8:31)

Nonetheless despite Jesus’ clear teaching his disciples did not understand the meaning ;- He(Jesus) spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.(Mark 8:32)

Thus Jesus rebuked Peter strongly ;- “Get behind me, Satan!” he said.(Mark 8:33)
Jesus found a satan inside of Peter’s mind, who was seeking earthy success.

And Jesus continues to the crowd ;-Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it.(Mark 8:35-34)

Before that scene Mark had reported the second-time prediction in the chapter 9, where Jesus and his disciples were on the way to Jerusalem ;- He said to them, “The 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)

Jesus told them again the Passion for the second time because they did not grasp what should happen in Jerusalem and were fancying brilliant future for them.;- 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)

“They had argued about who was the greatest” because they thought Jesus should be enthroned in Jerusalem as the king. And each one looked for the most influential post under Jesus’ dominion.

Therefore Jesus intended to correct their misunderstanding ;- Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all."(MArk 9:35)

The third scene was described in today’s lecturing portion, Mark 10:42-45. But at first we will see what happened on the road to Jerusalem ;- “We are going up to Jerusalem,” he(Jesus) 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, who will mock him and spit on him, flog him and kill him. Three days later he will rise."(Mark 10:33-34)

Nonetheless James and John, the sons of Zebedee, did not yet recognize the signification and said ;- “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory."(Mark 10:37)

They could not see what would occur in Jerusalem despite Jesus’ teaching. They keep their dream, Jesus as the king of earthy kingdom and the others were similar to James and John, seeking the best position. For that reason ” When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John. (Mark 10:41)

Mark recorded what Jesus said to such disciples ;- “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."(Mark 10:42-45)

“Rulers and hight officials” were expressed in Greek text with the word “¦Ìέ¦Ã¦Áς {great }” . The word is gave “Magnus” in Latin and its comparative “Major” became one of the titles of Julius Caesar, then that of other roman emperors. Jesus implied there that they should not want to become like roman rulers who were dominating all peoples of the world. Because “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve.”

2. What the fact above reveals

Social ambition of Jesus’ disciples is seen obviously throughout all of those three scenes. They followed Jesus by believing that he would become the king, which should allow them to take dominant social positions.
standing on that point their concerns were focused on their brilliant future and they ignored the upcoming Cross. However we can not blame them because we also have the similar tendency to them. Almost all of us admit that it is very comfortable to be high-praised in the society, being respected and estimated and admired. We easily wish for such a status. However rich and hight ranked persons overlook very often unfortunate neighbors and their hard conditions of life. They might neglect sadness or physical sufferings of others.

In contrast, the motivation of Jesus as the savior is to share pains and sufferings with the weak and the sick. Therefore if we wish to follow in Jesus’ footsteps we must give up earthy incentives. We should not seek to climb up a social ladder and to be served by others.

To become the top of the world we must win competitions. And I think that those who practiced such a life-style were provincial lords of the Japanese Civil War period. In order to grasp powers they battled against and killed rivals, not only real enemies but also their own fathers and brothers. But even if they have successfully taken power they always risked being overthrown other lords or their subaltern cavaliers. Therefore, during all the human history, those who have gotten dominancy by using military forces tried to eliminate potential rivals at any rate. For example, Herode the Great*, Jewish ruler of Jesus’ birth time, killed his wife and many of her relatives, her mother, her brothers, her uncles and his own uncle. Furthermore he put his three sons to death.

And in today’s Japanese societies, we know that earthy ambitions cause conflicts, like unarmed wars, between colleagues and students who aspire to prevail over others. Therefore Jesus compels us to give up such a life motivation. He said ;- whoever wants to be first must be slave of all(Mark 10:44)

But despite Jesus’ teaching his disciples stubbornly kept earthy ambition, so do we. During our childhood almost all of us were said to study hard, to win competitions, to make efforts “to become winner”. And we were trying to do so. Because we believed that all efforts should be compensated.

But Jesus taught that we should not seek to be superior to others. We must be humble and live to serve others like a slave, “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” He lived not for earthy ambitions ones but for humans’ sake. His lived as the Salt of the earth, in accordance with the sense of value of the kingdom of God.

3. For a coexistent life

To be free from earthy ambitions and competitions we need to learn how to live in harmony, with tolerance, despite various differences. I think we can have its hint from “The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard.” The story is about a landowner who went out several times in a day to hire men to work in his vineyard. He did in the early morning, then about the third hour, the sixth hour, the ninth hour and the eleventh hour. Each time he agreed to pay a denarius for the day and sent them to the vineyard.

When evening came, he called the workers and pay them their wages. Those who were hired about the eleventh hour were paid first and each one received a denarius. So others who were hired before expected to get more. But all of them received a denarius, the same amount. Naturally the first-hired men complained against such way of payment.

Reaction of the landowner was written in Matthew 20 :13-14, today’s invocation verses ;- “But he answered one of them, ‘Friend, I am not being unfair to you. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? Take your pay and go. I want to give the man who was hired last the same as I gave you.

It is true that those who were hired latest did worked scarcely for the landowner. Nonetheless the landowner payed them a denarius because less than that a man could not buy enough bread to feed his family in Jesus’ time.

The landowner in the parable is a metaphor for God and intended to say, ” you could work longtime because God accorded you physical strength and chance. But even if you become sick or incapable to work God would always supply you with basic necessities. That is the very mercy of God”

Earthy compensation is corresponding to what we achieved whereas that of the kingdom of God is in accordance with what we need. Even though we are not capable to produce anything God gives us what we need for life. Because God is pleased by our life itself. But Jesus’ disciples were standing on the earthy calculation, correlation between act and compensation .;- Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?"(Matthew 19:27)

James and John, the sons of Zebedee required the similar reward. (see Mark 10:35-38) Therefore Jesus gave them the lesson with the parable that our father in Heaven feeds us, even those who can not work due our weakness and incapability. God allows us to live. Jesus told them and is telling to us too that we must not expect compensation for results of our efforts. Indeed all of us must get old and become less useful. Yet despite the fact God always loves and takes care of us. And we should take care of and serve others to express our gratefulness to God.

We are compelled to change our life style. In stead of seeking a life of being served but that of serving. Our evaluation should be based on that of the kingdom of God, not the earthy one.

It is not a ridiculous choice and we can prove it. As a example I take a movement which tries to rank degree of well-being of nations with index of GNH*(Gross National Happiness). That index is not related directly to GDP¡ÊGross Domestic Product).

National wealth or GDP is calculated with amount of money flow and it increase regardless of psychological and spiritual condition of people. It can progress due to unhappy incidents, traffic accidents or cases of domestic violence because they generate economic activities to solve problems. In contrast free voluntary acts or household work do not increase GDP because they are out of money flow. In short material and financial wealth of nation does not correspond automatically to people’s well-being. Therefore some social psychologists are trying to estimate degrees of human happiness with GNH which is measured with mental and spiritual satisfaction instead of financial and material wealth.

Unfortunately according to the analysis by University of Leicester Japan’s rank is the 90th, though its GDP per person is the 14th of the world. * We might say that Japanese are not so happy despite their material wealth. I think it is because in Japanese society we evaluate each other only according to how much we produce material and financial wealth. In consequence if we do not have enough economic capability we should be considered to be useless. But we must change such a sense of value by respecting Jesus’ teaching in the Gospel. The new sense of value should allow us to to live by serving not by being served, as Jesus taught. Then we will spread that life-style to the world.

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* Herod the Great http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herod_the_great
* G.N.H http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gross_National_Happiness
Subjective Well-Being http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subjective_life_satisfaction
* Japan’s rank http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/JubaksJournal/gdp-vs-gnh-gross-national-happiness.aspx?page=2&ucpg=2