Pentecost 18, September 26, 2021

Most of what Jesus is quoted as saying in the Gospel accounts is wonderful and beautiful and comforting and lifegiving.  Some of it is downright confusing.  If we were to compile o list of “Difficult Sayings of Jesus” we would HAVE to put today’s Gospel on that list.  Jesus talks about salting with fire, gouging out an eye and cutting off a limb!  That’s some wacky stuff.

So, we are going to focus on the things Jesus is very clear about. Namely: the cross and the love that compelled him to suffer and die there for all.  Ironically, even though Jesus told them about the necessity of his death quite plainly and more than once, the disciples struggled the most with understanding the cross. At the time of our Gospel, Jesus and his disciples are on their way to Jerusalem where rejection and crucifixion await Jesus and Jesus is having a hard time leading his friends there.

Remember that a few verses before our Gospel reading today, Peter tried to protect Jesus from the dangers that lay ahead for him in Jerusalem.  “This will never happen to you,” Peter said about Jesus predicting his rejection and suffering.  Last week we heard the disciples arguing among themselves about who was greatest even as Jesus was preparing to humble himself in death. Obviously, they don’t get it.

In order to try to teach them about humility and service, Jesus took a child in his arms and placed the child in their midst.  That’s how last Sunday’s Gospel ended.  Our Gospel today picks up the story there – at that moment — and it appears that Jesus still has the child in his embrace when he says to them:  ““If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.”  This is definitely one of the difficult sayings of Jesus I just mentioned, but it is also one that leads us to the very clear message of the Gospel and Jesus’ ultimate purpose and destiny on behalf of all God’s children.

When the Gospel writer Mark first tells us that Jesus took a child in his arms, he uses a word for ”child” that is the same word for slave reminding us that children were not highly valued.  They were considered useless and treated worse than household slaves or even pets.  “Welcome them.” Jesus tells his sometimes very unwelcoming disciples.

Later, Jesus uses a different word for children.  He calls them “little ones.”  This word can mean little in physical stature or a young person little in years or young in faith.  But it can also refer to a person of lower rank or status.  “Do not place a stumbling block or offend them.”  Jesus tells his disciples who often tried to keep the undesirables away from Jesus.

What kind of stumbling block might be placed in the way of those who are young or vulnerable that would keep them from God’s love?  What words or actions might cause offense to these who may be struggling or wavering on the path to following Jesus?

We might think that when it comes to children or young people or those a stranger to our faith that we have become too lax – too lazy.  We failed to make them do what they should do.  We didn’t teach them the law and its demands and punishments. But our failure to make them conform and obey is not what causes them to turn their back on Jesus.  Because It is not the little ones mistakes or failings or sin that cause them to lose their faith and trust in God.  In fact, it is precisely their weakness and limitations and brokenness that draws them to the love of God.

The stumbling blocks are the things the disciples place in their path.  The superiority, the moral authority, the expectations and pressures, the requirements they place on them.  Excluding them, condemning them, labeling them.  Making them feel unwanted or unlovable or simply not good enough – giving them they idea that following Jesus is more about being GOOD than about being FREE! THAT can and often does drive people away from Jesus.

So Jesus today calls his disciples and us to foster a community where even the least among us are cared for. A place where those still finding their way and whose navigation is sometimes wobbly and uncertain, who have questions and doubts but are drawn by God’s mercy – are nurtured and loved.  He is calling his disciples and us to put aside our fears, our need to protect and defend our status and our position, and sometimes even our deeply held beliefs and to simply follow Jesus.  HIS way.

All the offense we have caused theses little ones — all the burdens we have placed on their shoulders – it is all very familiar to us because we have felt it ourselves. And we perpetuate it because it is what we know. If we are honest with ourselves and put away the façade of righteous perfection, we must acknowledge that we know what it feels like to be wobbly and uncertain at times. We have our own struggles to trust in God and rely on his love. So we are in no position to be keeping anyone else away.

But we are in the perfect position to cling to Jesus and his love for us. And here is the wonderful, beautiful, comforting, life-giving thing about Jesus:  we too are embraced and encircled by Jesus who is on the way to the cross for us and for ALL God’s children. It is CLEAR that this is his mission.  Of the necessity of this cross and the certainty of his love, Jesus spoke quite plainly.  And nothing can stop him.  This is the reason he presses on towards Jerusalem.  This was the reason he is always butting heads with the Pharisees and the religious authority and the legal experts.  The cross is the reason his disciples are having such a hard time understanding ANYTHING Jesus is saying. 

But He must go there. And he did there.  NOT to reinforce the demands of the law – not to condemn sin – but to take on its demands and to become sin for us.  To show us how high and wide and deep is his love for us. And once and for all to put to death the things we clobber each other with – the burdens we place on the little ones and feel ourselves – the millstones of guilt and shame hanging around our necks.  As he makes his way to the cross, he is dragging all this crap with him.  And at the cross — that’s where all of it ends. And that’s where life for all the children of God begins. And that’s where the welcome and invitation of love continues.