Pastor’s Corner – September 22, 2024
Who is the Greatest?
Mark 9:30-37
The gospel reading for this Sunday again foreshadows Jesus’ death and resurrection, the revelation of the great mystery of faith in our liturgy, “Christ has died, Christ is risen and Christ will come again.” This of course doesn’t make any sense to Jesus’ disciples. Last week they were asked to deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow him! In short, give up any sense of self-importance for the sake of the gospel. On their way to Jerusalem, we find them still arguing who among them will be the greatest. Jesus teaches them, “Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.” Then he took a little child in his arms and said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”
Let’s read Jesus’ words again and let it sink in deeply and see our world today for wisdom and insight to God’s desire for us. When we welcome the least powerful among us, like a child, we welcome God! That’s the point Jesus is making here. The flip side of that logic would be when children are dying and suffering because of war, we are hurting God. Innocent children are suffering, caught between wars and power struggles of men who care less about anyone else but their own lives. Who are these people who sit in the boardroom deciding that they are going to put explosives in the pagers that now have already killed 37 people and thousands injured? This is another level of mind-blowing terrorism. And who are these people who decide to continue bombing Gaza where for every three victims we have a child killed? Enough is enough! While the world is “arguing” among them who will be the greatest, Jesus turns around and places a child before them and makes his point.
There is an ancient Orthodox Cathedral in Beirut, Lebanon. The building went through a lot of history, and more recently, modern civil war and war with Israel (over forty percent of the population in Lebanon is Christian.) In the Cathedral, there is a painting of Jesus with his hands tied and being judged before his crucifixion. It’s the kind of painting we’ve seen before in many churches. The difference is, this painting has bullet holes over the image of Jesus. While most of the building and art pieces have been refurbished or restored, the bullet holes over Jesus were intentionally left alone to remind us that the violence we commit is violence against God.
Pastor Dae