What were you arguing about on the way?

 

Twenty Fifth Sunday in OT  B  2024 

 

In today’s Gospel, Jesus brought the disciples up short by asking a very revealing questions:  “What were you talking about on the way?”

 

He had just told the disciples for a second time that He was going up to Jerusalem to suffer and die and that he would rise again. 

Jesus’s message was that our lives gain our meaning from sacrifice, not power.  Jesus came to serve, not to be served.  He was going to teach his disciples that they were to transform the world by getting down on their knees to wash the feet of people in need.

The disciples were having big time trouble understanding the message of Jesus.  This wasn’t the kind of talk from Jesus they liked.  They had another vision of the type of Messiah they were looking for.

 Peter had previously argued with Jesus about this and Jesus had told Peter:  “Get behind me Satan.”  But they still did not understand that Jesus was to suffer and experience rejection and was going to lay down his life.

In responding to the question Jesus asked:  “What were you talking about on the way,”  the disciples were silent for with some embarrassment they were arguing about who was the greatest among them?  Was it Peter?  Was it James?  Was it John?  So, who you think is the greatest?

For sure, all too often that question is very important.  We live in a very competitive society.  The cult of “We’re Number One” stimulates every unholy emotion known to humanity.  Internationally, we want to believe the USA is the number one superpower.  You want your children to be number one in wherever they find themselves.  I want St Joseph’s to be the number one parish in the diocese.  It is in our DNA that we want to climb the ladder of success.  Does this even apply to the Buffalo Bills who we want to be the Super Bowl champions?

In the second Scripture reading, James says:  “Where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every foul practice”  Yes, the desire to climb the ladder of success is instilled in us at an early age.  The apostle tells us that this too easily leads to jealousy and selfish ambition.

In reversing this mindset, Jesus tells the Twelve and all of us that the only to be first, the only way to be the greatest:  “If anyone wishes to rank first, he must remain the last one of all and be the servant of all.”  This is the world turned upside down.  All of our common measurements of importance and greatness need to be revisited.  Jesus halts the human parade and puts it in reverse, with servants at the front, and all the pompous kings who ever reigned bringing up the rear.  And in front of the whole parade is the greatest servant of all:  Jesus:  the Jesus who emptied himself, became a slave to all, dying on the cross for  our sins and out of love for us.

So Jesus brought them up short that day by a revealing question:  “What were you talking about on the way?”  It should be a question that is unsettling for us as well.  We can ask the question:  “Who is the most important person here at St. Joseph’s parish?”  Is it the pastor, the co-administrator, the finance director, the school principal or, or is it the person who cleans the bathrooms and scrubs the floor?  Do we view importance in the same way that Jesus does?  Can Jesus join our conversation about who is most important and feel we have understood his message that he is to suffer, be rejected and die on the cross and be raised up again?

Jesus’s chief criterion for greatness is the willingness to be of service to others. Please God, that is our parish mantra for greatness:  our willingness to be of service to others; the God we reverence and adore is a God who emptied Himself to the servant of all, to be the slave of all, willing to embrace death, death on the cross for us and for our salvation.

Jesus’ disciples loved him but they did not understand him.  His way of thinking was just too different.  So, when words didn’t suffice, he picked up child to show his argumentative disciples what it looks like to be in first place in the reign of God.

Their mission was to share the love they had been given so freely.  They were called to the humble, humbling service of embracing the little people just as Jesus did.

When Jesus picked up the child, he was performing a living parable, teaching that loving someone is the greatest service you can do them; everything else flows from that and nothing else is very valuable without it.  Jesus presents them with a new flowchart for organizing the kingdom of God.  And children are on the top of the list.

We have the privilege in our parish community to have many, many young children.  May they reveal to us about what are our most important Christian virtues.  More that the credentials that may or may be after your name, more than the size of your portfolio, what is most important for our parish community is for our children always to have our undivided attention as we seek to fashion them after the mind and heart of Jesus.  Is St Joseph’s School just an extra in our parish priorities?  By no means.  Definitely not.  Our school is a parish priority in which we seek to instill in our children the mystery of God’s great love for them.  May everything we do in our parish faith formation initiatives with all of our parish youth always be a major parish priority.  In the vision of Christ Jesus, children are on the top of our list of who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

Have a blessed day.