24^th Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year B

Collect

Look upon us, O God, Creator and ruler of all things, and, that we may feel the working of your mercy, grant that we may serve you with all our heart. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

Lectio Divina

In the four Gospels we find many people and read of their reactions towards Jesus and his teachings:
– Those who recognised Jesus as the Messiah … and those who didn’t.
– Those who believed he is the Son of God … and those who wanted to kill him.
– Those who saw and believed … and those whose hearts remained closed.

In today’s account (found halfway through the Gospel according to St Mark), the Evangelist presents us with an episode about Jesus’ identity. This time, it is not the people who are asking who he is. It is Jesus himself who takes the initiative and asks his disciples who the people thought he is, and also asked the disciples themselves who they thought he is.

Jesus had now been with them for quite a while—they spent time with him, they saw him perform several miracles. From the first chapter in Mark’s Gospel we find a man with an unclean spirit who says “I know who you are the Holy One of God (Mk 1:24). However, only three verses later we find the same crowd who had witnessed the miracle asking: “What is this? A new teaching with authority!” (Mk 1:27). The same question was asked by the disciples when they were with Jesus on the boat “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?” (Mk 4:41). Later in the same Gospel according to Mark, we read about how the people were astounded when Jesus brought Jairus’ daughter back from the dead (Mk 5:42). Not even this miracle was enough because those who heard him teach in the synagogue said with astonishment: “What is the wisdom given to him…Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary?” (Mk 6:2-3). It comes as no surprise that he was amazed at their lack of faith!

They heard him preach. The heard him teach with authority. They saw him perform miracles. They saw him raise the dead. But they still did not recognise him. Not even Peter, who acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, had recognised him. Because, in Peter’s mind, the Messiah was to inspire awe and not one who was to suffer, be rejected and killed. Jesus was not how the Messiah was imagined to be. Although his fame had spread throughout Galilee, they still did not know him. They ate with him and they still did not know him.

Prayer

Jesus, you were not what the people of your time expected … and neither according to what I expect. It is not by declaring that you are the “Holy One of God” (like the man who was possessed). It is not by declaring you as “the Messiah” (as Peter did). What use is it if at the same time I disapprove when I hear you say something that does not sit well with me? What use is it if at the same time I turn against you because your perspective is not the same as mine?

Jesus, help me to acknowledge you, not by my lips, but by my actions.

Help me to acknowledge you by doing your will.

Help me to encounter you like the centurion who stood near the cross … to encounter you as you are: not as I imagine you to be or how I wish that you could be, but as you truly are, hanging dead on the cross, but glorious to those who know how to walk hand in hand with you. So that I can truly live (not just affirm) the centurion’s declaration: “Truly this man was the Son of God” (Mk 15:39). Amen.