Anything You Can Do

Rev. Brian Weinberger

RCL Year B • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Mark 9:30–37

Children with Jesus

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We’re going to dive right in this week and talk about today’s story. For a second week in a row we have Jesus talking about his eventual death and resurrection. It is the second time he does it and since we talked about it last week I want to spend just a moment recapping what we talked about last week to help us get into the context of today’s story.

Last week we heard Jesus ask about what the disciples had heard from people about what they thought he was, and then asked them who they thought he was. We talked about and heard in the story how Peter responds that Jesus is the Messiah. So then Jesus does the first prediction about his death and resurrection and Peter rebukes him for it, and Jesus subsequently rebukes Peter for rebuking him.

I bring that up again because I believe the whole reason that the disciples are afraid to ask Jesus what he means by his death and resurrection in this weeks story is directly related to last weeks story when we heard about his first prediction. Even though Peter was the one to rebuke Jesus, I’m sure there was a good chance that Peter was just the spokesperson for all of the disciples. I doubt that any of them wanted Jesus to go from being a Messiah to a dead person even if he would rise from the dead. But what did rise from the dead mean anyway? There wasn’t a whole lot of context for them to draw from when it came to people dying and rising from the dead and bring the Messiah. None of those puzzle pieces fit together so they were confused. So Peter rebukes Jesus and is then told to get in line and that he is the devil for saying that, so it is no wonder that tells us that the disciples were afraid to ask Jesus anything.

They still don’t really understand what it means for Jesus to die and rise from the dead but because last time someone tried to do something about it, and they got chewed out for it, they decide not to say anything.

But as they are traveling from Galilee to Capernaum the disciples may have had too much time on their hands because even though they didn’t want to ask Jesus about what it means to die and rise again they have somehow decided that if Jesus is the Messiah and if he is going to rise again they probably want to know who’s the best and greatest among them. It could either be that this story is a precursor to when James and John ask to be at Jesus right and left hand when he enters into heaven, or it could be about who is going to take over as rabbi when Jesus has left them. But no matter the case the disciples argue about who’s the best.

How would the disciples begin to have that conversation and eventual argument? What are the criteria? Would it be related to who Jesus called first when he called the disciples?

If that’s the case then it would between the two brothers Simon and Andrew. Which one would it be? Would it be Simon Peter or Andrew? Would we assume Peter because he is later named the rock on which Jesus will build his church? Then again, why would Peter be the front runner when he constantly gets the answers wrong and always seems to have his foot in his mouth? We don’t hear a whole lot about Andrew, so is he the greatest? We do know that Jesus takes Peter, James, and John with him to the transfiguration and because of that it is assumed that out of the 12 disciples those were the three closest to Jesus. Does that mean that those were the ones arguing the most about which one of them is the greatest? Or does that mean they were the ones who were least involved in the conversation?

Perhaps they were comparing and contrasting who had done better when Jesus had sent them out into the villages to preach and teach and heal and cast out demons in his name. Maybe there were some of them who kept track of how well they did and they used that as a chart to figure out who was better and therefore the most suited to be the greatest among them. Or perhaps they had remembered who had listened the best to Jesus’ teachings or who had answered questions correctly when Jesus had asked them about God and faith.

This whole conversation among the disciples about who is the greatest reminds me of the song from the musical “Annie Get Your Gun” which is about Annie Oakley played by Ethel Merman. The song is “Anything You Can Do” and it is all about Annie and Frank saying how much better they are then the other person. They are constantly trying to ‘one up’ the other person. I can see how the disciples would be trying to do the same thing when they are talking about who is the greatest. And just like in the song once you get in the mindset of trying to be better than the other person, it only gets worse and more involved the more you dig your heels into that way of thinking.

Perhaps there are other means by which they discussed who was the greatest but they spent the entire journey from one part of Galilee all the way to the seashore village of Capernaum to talk about it. When they finally arrive in town Jesus wants to know what they were talking about.

Everyone is quiet because:

They knew that what they were talking about was foolish.

They may have just realized that for the first time in their walk that they had been so engrossed in that conversation that they didn’t even talk to Jesus.

Even though the text says they were silent we can see from Jesus’ teaching that he knew exactly what they were talking about. Just like parents asking their children what they are doing or what they are talking about even though they already know…Jesus knows what they were talking about.

The way in which Jesus teaches them is a bit confusing because he the tool with which he teaches them about being greatest is actually about being a servant, is through a child that happens to be nearby. The reason why this is such an odd method of teaching is because a child in Jesus time was worthless. The mortality rate of children was high at that time. Actually the death rate of children before and during birth were also quite high. It wasn’t until a child became older that they were worth anything. Most families hoped for sons so that when the sons were old enough they could work with the father in whatever work they did. Children were the work force of a family and it was the men (adults and children) who brought in the money. The daughters cared for the house and were hopefully one day married off and the family received a dowry for the marriage of their daughter. Otherwise a daughter was even less useful than a son.

In fact children, until they were old enough, were a burden on the family. All they did was consume resources from the family but brought nothing back in return. That’s not to say that children weren’t loved, but, having children was a risk. They needed to eat to stay healthy and live and grow up to be a productive member of the family, but if they ate and consumed resources and died then that investment didn’t produce a return.

By placing that child in front of the disciples Jesus isn’t telling them to simply welcome children, but to welcome anyone who is like a child. When I say welcome anyone who is like a child, we’re not talking about someone who is innocent and curious as we might think, but Jesus it talking about welcoming those people who are worthless. Jesus is telling the disciples that all the people in society and in the world that are considered a burden on society. All the people who are cast aside and not considered worth people’s time are the kind of people that God loves and cares for and the kind of people that God wants us to pay attention to when we think about who is welcome.

We come to church and to the Lord not as the inner 12 vying for a position at his right and left and arguing about who is the greatest, but we come as someone who is in just as much need of love and forgiveness as everyone else in this world.

What is amazing is that Jesus sits down and welcomes us into his arms as his own children. Jesus invites us to sit at his feet and listen to his words so that we may know how much he loves this world. Jesus loves all the children of the world, he loves each and every ones of us no matter what circumstance or part of life we are in or came from. Jesus welcomes us as he welcomed that child, knowing that we are all in need of grace and forgiveness. Come and sit at Jesus feet and be embraced by the one who lays down his life so that everyone may have life.