MK 9: 30-37 

Marginally Mark… Pentecost + 18…Revised 2018

There’s an old story about a run-down monastery once filled with enthusiastic monks but now dispirited; its numbers dwindling, & no novices to swell the ranks. In a nearby wood an old & holy Rabbi has built a little hut-retreat. The monks have no contact with him, but they always know when the Rabbi walks in the woods. One day the monastery’s Abbot breaks with tradition & calls on the Rabbi noted for his holiness, & unburdens himself to him. Together, they spend a long time reading the Scriptures & praying. As the Abbot is about to leave, the Rabbi says to him, “I have a message for you to take back to your brothers. Tell them: “The Messiah is among you.” ”. When the Abbot returns & tells his monks what the Rabbi has said to tell them, they are all startled. They begin to look round at each other, wondering what this could mean; who this could mean! They find themselves looking at each other with new respect, new reverence. The quality of community life & prayer & faithfulness begins to change dramatically. The monks read the Scriptures more earnestly, pray more genuinely, sing God’s praises with more heart. Are much more open to each other. The old Rabbi is long gone, but the Messiah is still among these monks & their monastery.

We’re not told where it is Jesus & His followers leave from, but don’t we all have some-where we need to leave; some state of mind or spirit we need to move on from to reach where we ought to be? Christianity is a movement, not a marking time spot. Not some state of mind or spirit into which we’ve locked ourselves.

Jesus still presents Himself as an unusual Son of Humanity. Jesus is so earthed, such an earthed Messiah,  can we understand people not being able to discern the Divine in Him? Can they discern the Messiah in us any more clearly? Of all the glimpses of Messiahship given us in the O.T. Jesus opts to be Isaiah’s ‘Suffering Servant’ [v.35]. God’s Little One for other little ones! [vv.36-7]

The Disciples mostly don’t show up very well in the Gospels, do they? How well are we showing up in the ‘little gospels’ our lives are writing? Is the Messiah obviously among us? Are we writing our own stories just with ‘ink’ from our own veins? Or, with ‘ink’ from Jesus’ ‘veins’ by His Spirit? Showing us serving those whom Jesus serves, whatever that takes?

Look about us. Do we see the Messiah? Is it that person over there? Or this one here? Just as important, are these others seeing Him in us?

Afterthought: If we can’t see the Christ in each other, perhaps we need to go & find a holy old Rabbi out in the woods near where we live?

Brian