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Good Shepherd Lutheran Church Today's Frontline Devotion March 17, 2007 |
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Frontline Devotion for Saturday, March 17, 2007 by Matt Pensinger
Mark 9:30-41
Listening, and speaking, and NOT speaking: important themes in this part of Mark. First Jesus speaks to the disciples about his betrayal and death, and they listen, and they want to ask questions because they don’t understand, but they don’t… they just sit and listen quietly. Then they walk home, and the disciples are speaking together quietly on the way, and they hope Jesus isn’t listening, but he is… listening quietly. Then when they get home Jesus breaks his silence to ask, what were you talking about back there? And the disciples sit in silence… embarrassed to admit their stupid argument, they sit quietly.
The disciples are obviously missing key parts of what Jesus is trying to tell them. But Jesus doesn’t give up on them. He keeps on, patiently trying to get the message across to them. The messages are very, very simple: serve each other. Love each other. Don’t try to be first; that’s the surest way to be last. Pay attention to children, especially their attitude about life, their openness to it. Let them be an example to you. Pay attention to those “other” people, too… don’t demonize or dismiss them, because they’re the same as you, doing the same work, struggling with the same challenges.
And those things reflect our own misunderstandings, and our own stupid arguments, and our own guilty embarrassment when we finally stop and listen to the questions that Jesus asks. We still try to be first; we strive to climb over each other, and we argue vehemently that we are right, and we push others out of our way, or at least don’t bother to pick them up when they fall. We still ignore children, or put them in a box; we think of them as naïve, or idealistic, or we say that they’ll “learn someday”… maybe we should instead be calling ourselves cynical, or scared, or ashamed to admit our own wounds. And we still demonize and dismiss the “others”… we refuse to admit that their experiences might be familiar to us, and that their existence is essential to the work that we are all called to do.
And so Jesus still asks questions of us: what are you talking about? What are you doing? Who and what are you concerned about? Where are you right now? And then again, patiently, not giving up, Jesus tells us again, it’s simple: serve each other. Love each other. Don’t try to be first; that’s the surest way to be last. Pay attention to children…
Prayer: Lord God, help us to hear your voice. Teach us, Lord… show us and tell us once again what you want us to do. And Lord, help us to do those things. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.
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