25th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Cycle B

 

Wisdom 2:12, 71-20

James 3:16-4:3

Mark 9:30-37

 

Todays reading from Wisdom should have a familiar ring to it. The author is writing this from the perspective of a wicked person, the one who condemns the just person. This should remind us of those who were condemning Jesus as He hung upon the cross, those who were saying that if He was truly the Son of God, that God would save Him. The wicked one in wisdom is saying the same thing, that they should put the just one to the test, to condemn him, to put him to a shameful death. That is exactly what the people did when crucified someone. That was a very shameful way to die, nailed on a cross in front of the people.

 

The author uses the wicked in these passages to speak these things very sarcastically, not believing that the Lord would come to the rescue of the one who was condemned to die. The words they use are the very things they have to fear that the Lord will use against them and that they will be subject to the same punishment they wish inflicted upon the holy one.

 

This testing of the just one is not unlike what we hear from Job 1:6-12 when they want to see if the righteous one will preserve in their convictions that they have a just and righteous God who will look after them. They are not doing this as a means to decide if they will turn away from their wickedness, because they have not left any room for a change in their hearts.

 

James this week very clearly contrast for us the results of those who are just and those who are not. He points out that wisdom from above is not like the wisdom of man. He explains that the wisdom from above is pure, full of peace, gentle, full of mercy and full of love. The wisdom from man only brings jealousy, self-ambition, disorder and foul practices.

 

He goes on to say that these things that are evil, these things that lead to conflicts, lead to wars are things that come from the passion inside of us that is of our own making. These are not the passions of the Lord, but are the passions that come out from within us.

 

James is doing more than just contrasting right from wrong, good from evil. He is following the wisdom that the Christian faith should have, that wisdom deeply rooted in the Jewish ideas of wisdom as correct behavior and moral uprightness. These ideas are just like faith in that they have to be practiced, they are alive, they are community oriented. When we look back in the Old Testament these ideas are easily seen. It was to be their way of life.

 

James concludes that the evil and sin we see in this world all stem from within us. Temptation come not from God, but from within us. We tend to set aside the needs of the world for the wants we wish to have. We turn inward and become self-centered and neglect the needs of the world.

 

Mark’s gospel this week is the 2^nd time Jesus begins to teach His disciples about what He must go through, His arrest, His trial and condemnation, and His death and resurrection. Again, they fail to understand what He has taught them and He finds them arguing among themselves as they return to Capernaum.

 

One of the things we often hear is that the people question Jesus about His teaching, especially when it came to the eucharist. Here in this case His own disciples do not question Him about this prediction of His death and resurrection. This failure to ask Him what it means for them should make it easier for us to understand why they all left at the time of his arrest, trial and death on the cross. They just could not comprehend the things that were going to happen to Him and what it was going to mean in their lives. Mark is trying to help his followers to understand that we need to ask ourselves those hard questions sometimes. Do we have those fears, those doubts, those times when we question our own beliefs?

 

It’s ok if we do so long as we know that God is right there walking with us in those times of doubts, those times that our faith wavier. It’s one of the things that makes discipleship hard for us to follow and be faithful to. As hard as it is we must persevere in our faith, in our discipleship to follow Jesus at all cost. Discipleship comes at a cost and it is a radical change for us to follow. Even the disciples found it difficult, especially when they were arguing among themselves who was the greatest. They totally lost sight of what Jesus had been teaching them. To force them to reevaluate what they were thinking Jesus brings a child forward as an example. First, the child’s innocence of the evil in the world should be the starting point, but maybe in their time, children were not valued, they were seen as another set of hands to work around the house, the fields or to tend to the flocks. Jesus points out to them that when they accept that child in their midst then they are accepting not Jesus, but the One who sent Jesus to be with them and teach them and show them the ways they were to follow.