The Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity
“ He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all”
Summary
In our readings today both Jeremiah (Jeremiah 11:18-21) and Jesus (Mark 9:30-37) speak about the violence they are facing. A violence provoked by them speaking about power from the perspective of those who are powerless. They question the way we live now and offer a way of living in which no one is prioritised at another’s expense. The disciples lack of understanding is demonstrated in their fights over who among them is the greatest. In response, Jesus places a child (who had no legal status being the property of its father) in the centre, in the place of status, the place of importance. Jesus asks us to do more than care for the needy and powerless, he asks us to learn from them; the centre is also the place of teaching. The disciples were ignorant because they were afraid to ask. It is only when we ask that we discover what those who experience life at the bottom of the heap have to teach us. Inequality and poverty damage all of us, not just the ones at the sharp end. When farmers get poorer, the food they produce costs us more, when war ravages nations, the displaced end up on our borders. Jesus is inviting us to work for a world in which power is not used for our own benefit but to serve others. In such a world no one would be the greatest and no one would be the least.
First Reading
Jeremiah 11:18-21
It was the Lord who made it known to me, and I knew;
then you showed me their evil deeds.
But I was like a gentle lamb
led to the slaughter.
And I did not know it was against me
that they devised schemes, saying,
‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit,
let us cut him off from the land of the living,
so that his name will no longer be remembered!’
But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously,
who try the heart and the mind,
let me see your retribution upon them,
for to you I have committed my cause.
GOSPEL
Mark 9.30-37
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘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.
Then they came to Capernaum; and when he was in the house he asked them, ‘What were you arguing about on the way?’ But they were silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest. He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, ‘Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.’ Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, ‘Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.’
