As we start to move towards the end of our church year, the character of our readings at mass changes. Over previous weeks we have focused very much on the teaching Jesus gave to the crowds, to the disciples, to us.
Now we start to focus more on Jesus himself – what was happening for him, what was going to happen to him, and (by implication) what does this tell us about him – who really was he. This is emphasized in the first and second readings also, from Isaiah (Is 53:10-11) and the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 4:14-16). These are passages familiar to us from the Easter season, speaking of what Jesus did for us. We might expect that Church year-end would reprise some of the material from Easter, which is in another sense “the end”, the culmination of everything that goes before.
Today’s Gospel reading (Mk 10:35-45) still has familiar elements, most obviously, the fact that the disciples are still nowhere near on the same the page as Jesus yet. But Jesus also starts to draw them into a comparison with himself:
whoever wishes to be great among you will be your servant;
whoever wishes to be first among you will be the slave of all.
For the Son of Man did not come to be served
but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
Given how woefully unprepared the disciples seem to be, given their behavior immediately preceding, it might be surprising that Jesus choses to go there at this point. Are they really ready to hear and understand what he is saying? Are they modeling themselves on him?
The answer is probably not. We certainly don’t usually feel ready for whatever God is revealing to us and asking of us. But that’s the point – it’s not about whether we’re ready, it’s about whether we are prepared to have faith, make the leap, get on the bus – and go wherever He is taking us. The disciples had only three years to go from zero to Pentecost. We’ve probably had much longer. They were unprepared for the life to come. So are we.
Fortunately God gives it to us anyway. The end is not far away.