February 25, 2024. Texts: Genesis 17:1-7, 15-16; Psalm 22:23-31; Mark 8:22 – 9:50
To read this passage online click this link to Biblegateway.com
Familiar teachings from Mark 8 and 9 come up later this year. Consider instead, these things…
Observations in Mark’s Gospel – Generations
There was the Greatest Generation, the Silent generation, the Baby Boomer Generation. After that came Gen X, Millennials/Gen Y, Gen Z. And now Generation Alpha.
Each has its characteristic features. Brave and loyal, cautious and traditional, cooperative and adaptable, tech savvy and barrier breaking, free spirited and resilient, empathetic and persistent, diverse and connected. At any given time multiple generations live together, all mixed up.
Commenting on generations is not actually all that new. Four times in Mark’s gospel Jesus calls out the generation of that day. Two of those occur in chapters eight and nine. The characteristics that Jesus names are troubling.
In Mark 8:38 Jesus says, “Those who are ashamed of me in this adulterous and sinful generation, of them the Son of Man will also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.” In Mark 9:19 he says, “You faithless generation, how much longer must I put up with you?” Adulterous, sinful, and faithless. That’s got to be hard to hear!
What is the standard of comparison? Abraham and Sarah as the original faithful generation, devoted and unwavering? Or Moses and Elijah, making their mark as generations that exhorted and led?
But Jesus wasn’t talking about generations in the sense of a particular group in his time. This generation mean everyone who has life here, now. His words speak to all times, all peoples.
Jesus didn’t just call out people who were clearly messed up. He addressed everyone. People who came to him for healing, crowds who just hung around him, and the disciples who were all in for Jesus’s mission. You adulterous, sinful, and faithless generation. This generation.
By adulterous, Jesus meant abandoning Israel’s God of steadfast love for gods who had no real substance. Sinfulness meant failing to honor God’s commandments. Faithlessness meant living as if there is no God worthy of devotion.
Then, as now, we come to Jesus all mixed up. We wobble unsteadily between doubt and commitment. We want healing, proof of God’s power, we overpromise our devotion. We work around commandments when they are inconvenient. We are adulterous, sinful, and faithless.
Does Jesus sound angry? Perhaps a better word is disappointed. You are better than this. Consider what you are born to be. So much more is possible!
God’s good news summons a new generation. One that is not ashamed of Jesus with his unrestrained love, his ridiculous generosity, his belief that goodness is possible. His undying faith in us.
Observations in Mark’s Gospel – The Honor Walk
The room slowly empties. People leave quietly. Some were here to advise. Others were here to support. Most are here because they care. Several only came as a matter of proper appearances.
It was hard news to hear. This beloved one will die. This is the beginning of the end. There will be no miraculous intervention. There is only a bit of time remaining for this dear family member; precious, irreplaceable friend. But there is no stopping this, and too soon, the honor walk begins.
Every day, many times a day, an honor walk happens somewhere. Perhaps you’ve seen, or been part of one. Maybe you saw one that was posted on social media.
An honor walk happens when an organ donor is taken to the operating room so that their body can save or restore life and health to other people. Along the way staff and family members line the halls in respectful, appreciative silence. It is a powerful thing to experience.
Yet some people do not adjust well to the decision to donate. It seems somehow like giving up too quickly. Or like it’s shameful to consider any sort of positive outcome from this terrible loss. And we know that when this one dies, a part of us will die too.
In Mark 8:27 Jesus was on the way to the villages of Caesarea Philippi with his disciples. “…He began to teach them that the Son of Man must undergo great suffering, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He said all this quite openly. And Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.”
And so Jesus’s honor walk began. There was still a mountain to ascend, representatives of faithful generations to be witnessed, and the voice of God to be heard. But in Mark 9:31-32, passing through Galilee Jesus again said to his disciples, “The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed he will rise again. But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him.”
The disciples were not ready for this walk. They hoped that the prediction of Jesus’s death was premature. They wanted him to live on into peaceful old age. But it was not to be.
Lent is the season when we accompany Jesus on his honor walk, knowing exactly where it will all end. Amen.
Questions to Ponder
What summons do you hear in the gospel today?
What are your fears about death?
How might your faith be different if Jesus had died in old age?