i wish we could change it

to before we changed it

The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark 9!

Well, wouldn’t you know it, I’ve got another problem on this third week of Lent… 

And my problem, as I hope you’re not surprised by now, is Jesus; Jesus and his foolishness.

“Then take last place,” he dares to say! Can you believe it?

Take last place?!?!

I mean, what am I going to do with that up here?

First of all, you’re no fools; you all know that is not the way it works. 

It’s a dog-eat-dog would out there, you gotta prove yourself, you have to be ambitious!

Take last place? No, not if you’re going to make it in this life!

Yet here I am, stuck with Jesus’ Word today that is just far too foolish to do anything with.

This foolish Word doesn’t work as advice. I mean, what kind of advice is giving up, taking last place?

Nor does this Word work as motivation. Who would be motivated to anything with encouragement like, ‘just give up?’ 

And finally, even our last refuge, morality, doesn’t work, either. On the face of it, this foolish Word of Jesus could seem to be putting forth a moral of humility. The problem, though, is that Jesus isn’t talking about humble service; no, he’s saying just give up, take last place, assume the role of the defeated. You can’t make a moral out of just giving up!

So what am I going to do? This Word is just too foolish. 

Now had a cynic spoken this foolish Word, we could just dismiss it. Or had some nutjob, or even a competitor said it, we could just ignore it. The problem, though, is that none other than Jesus is the speaker of this foolish Word.

So we cannot simply discard it. 

The only power a preacher has up here, is not their prestige, persuasiveness or even audience. 

No, the only power a preacher has, is simply the fact that Jesus has authorized the Word that is spoken from the pulpit.
So although there just isn’t any sense we can make out of this blatantly foolish Word, we cannot dismiss it, either. 

Take last place???

You’d think we’d know better by now, but apparently we aren’t much different than Jesus’ first disciples, two-thousand years ago. Neither do we understand what Jesus means…

His Word is just too foolish for us to make any kind of sense out of…

What if, though, what if it’s our attempts to make sense out of Jesus’ Word that’s my problem; or more accurately our problem today?

All of our life, it’s a matter of proving yourself - doing something. So when Jesus shows up, saying, ‘take last place,’ we can’t figure out what to do with a Word that is so blatantly foolish.

And that’s the key!

Jesus starts off our discussion of proving, of worth, by throwing the whole thing out the window! Jesus refuses to deal with the disciples or us in terms of proving, of doing. 

In fact, if we would just stop and actually listen to Jesus for once, we would have to admit that he’s being pretty darn explicit today. Any inability to understand this Word of Jesus is squarely on our shoulders…

Listen, Jesus doesn’t say “here’s what to do.” No, Jesus says take this; take last place. Take it!

This Word of Jesus, in other words, isn’t a word of advice, motivation, or morals. This Word has nothing to do with doing. No, this Word of Jesus is about taking, it’s about getting, receiving.

We, like the disciples, have spent our life assuming that greatness is earned. So of course, Jesus’ Word sounds to us like pure foolishness.

As St. Paul says, “The message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.”

For those who are being saved, though, it is the very power of God.

As it turns out, this Word of Jesus, “take last place,” isn’t foolishness, it’s the very power of God; the power of God to give life, give life where before there was only death…

“The Son of Man,” Jesus said about himself, “is about to be betrayed to some people who want nothing to do with God. They will murder him. Three days after his murder, he will rise, alive” 

Is this foolish Word having its way with you yet?

Hear this, Jesus’ call to take last place is made by the only one who has the power to give such a thing. 

Jesus, the one who will go to last place; as he says, he will be murdered. And what could be further last than dead-last, folks? Yet even from there, from dead-last, Jesus will rise after three days, alive.

Take last place, Jesus said.

And if anyone else had said such a thing, the Word would be totally foolish. When Jesus say this, however, it’s the very power of God at work, brining life where before there was anything but. 

Jesus goes to last place, and yet rises! Last place, death is not able to hold Jesus! Jesus goes there and takes away its power - he defeats death!

So take last place, Jesus says.

Dead last; when your ambition finally and fully fails. For now the failure is partial - it just leads to petty squabbles like the disciples, or the crucifying Jesus. But when we find ourselves in dead last, we will have no ambition left.

So take last place, Jesus says.

Dead last, when we have nothing left to prove; because we will be six-feet under, completely unable to prove anything.

So take last place, Jesus says.

Dead last; when our greatness won’t matter one whit; because our greatness will have been shown to be pathetically inept to deal with death, as we lay there mouldering.

For us, and the disciples, last place could only ever mean one thing; death. But Jesus has gone ahead of us, and destroyed death. Death has now lost its sting, its power to take everything from us. Now you can take death because Jesus just comes and gives it away! That’s what baptism is all about; if we’ve been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his!

Jesus has taken death of its power, transformed it; all to give it to you.

So take it, take last place!

Jesus gives it to you; you don’t have to prove a single thing. Jesus comes, wanting to be the one you place all your trust in. The one you follow to last place, certain that even from there Jesus can bring new life. 

Take last place; there’s nothing to fear.

Amen