Mark 9:30-37 Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke
Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost Sunday, September 22, 2024 “Be First by Serving”
“What were you talking about?” It’s an innocent enough question, isn’t it? If your spouse is having a conversation across the courtyard after church, you might ask later, “What were you talking about?” And then you can fill each other in about the separate conversations you had with friends and maybe relatives or the new person that you met that day. When you pick up your child from school, you might ask what they were discussing with friends before you arrived. And then you can hear the latest updates from sixth grade or high school or whatever level. It’s an innocent question, and it often has innocent answers. But there are times when we would just rather not answer that question. If someone has warned me that I should probably be careful about discussing politics at church, and I did anyway, I might be a little uncomfortable when that person asks, “What were you talking about?” If I was spreading rumors, gossip, about someone else, I ought to ashamed to admit it when someone asks, “What were you talking about?” Maybe you can relate to something like that, or at least you can think of some conversation that you would prefer other people never hear about. You certainly wouldn’t want someone you love and respect to ask you about it. If you can think of that time, you can also relate to the disciples of Jesus as they arrived in Capernaum. Jesus turned to them and asked, “What were you talking about? What was it that you guys were saying as we made our way here?” And the disciples said nothing. I can almost feel what that silence must have been like for them. They couldn’t tell Jesus a lie. They knew too well that he would spot it. They were embarrassed to admit the truth—that they had been arguing about who was the greatest. They had been jockeying for position as the best of the disciples of Jesus. To say it out loud was to admit that they had been foolish, that they had been selfish, that they had been wrong. So they said nothing. And even that silence must have screamed at them that they should say something, but they had nothing to say. And I don’t know how much this was on the minds of those disciples in their silence, but Mark mentions it right before this: Jesus had been talking to them about his death and resurrection. He was going to be betrayed and arrested and killed. And he would rise. The person they knew to be the greatest among them, the one they were following, was talking about dying. Not about doing impressive-looking things. Not about showing people how powerful he was. Dying. And there was silence on that occasion, too. The disciples didn’t understand, and they were afraid to ask. Oh, how frustrating! These disciples had been told these things before. This is the thing that Jesus had come to do. Everything that he was doing and teaching was wrapped up in this. It all led to him dying for the sins of the world and rising again in victory. And they still didn’t understand it. They still didn’t get it. They had Jesus right there, eager for them to understand. And they didn’t say a thing. Do you see the connection between these two long silences for the disciples? They couldn’t allow themselves to look bad. They couldn’t be embarrassed. They didn’t want anything to take them down in the eyes of others. So Jesus told them about his purpose, about his death and about his rising again. And they said nothing. They walked to Capernaum, and on the way they didn’t talk about what Jesus meant. They didn’t try to figure it out. They argued about which of them was the best. Those occasions provided natural opportunities for Jesus to teach the disciples the lesson he wanted them to learn. It’s a lesson that you need to learn, too. We all do. I said before that maybe you could relate to that feeling the disciples had when Jesus asked them what they had talked about. Whether you’ve had that feeling or not, you’ve had the attitude of the disciples. You’ve been worried about how it would look if you said something or did something. You have fought to be considered the greatest in whatever was important to you. Perhaps you’ve tried to convince people that they should listen to your take on politics or your opinion about people or your knowledge of how things should be done. And maybe you can