Year B

Mark 10:35-45

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Where Is God In All of This?

You may be asking yourselves like I have these past few weeks. Where is God in all of this?  All our texts today express ways in which God is in all of this and the ways God speaks to us in difficult situations, in times of suffering. “Suffering” has been the main theme running through our texts for now three weeks. We may be getting tired of hearing about it without really getting any satisfying answers that explain why God allows suffering. Instead, what we have found is that we have been invited into a deeper encounter with the mystery of God, the creator and redeemer of all things. In our texts, suffering is not the end; rather it often marks a new beginning, a new understanding of God we never could have known before.

For instance; the God who answers Job’s cry is the same God celebrated by the psalmist; the God who created the earth and the heavens also cares about the suffering of humanity. God loves humanity so much the author of Hebrews reminds us that God in Christ is willing to die for us. Christ offered himself in perfect obedience to God and through him we are empowered to follow Christ’s example of obedience and service. Only when we are willing to share Christ’s cup and die with Christ as Mark’s gospel expresses today can we share in our destiny of new life with Christ. When all is said and done, the mystery of God is that it is God who shows up for humanity and has the final word.

God’s appearance in Job today is rather startling, to say the least. If we are startled just think of the shock Job must have felt. We have moved pretty quickly these past few weeks through this remarkable story, from the introduction of Job and his testing by Satan two weeks ago, to Job’s complaint against God last week, to God’s response out of the whirlwind today. Next Sunday, we will hear the conclusion of the story. Today finally, after thousands of words exchanged between Job and his friends, a myriad of theologies and dozens of strategies for approaching God, God decides to respond to Job’s complaints out of a whirlwind.

The logical conclusion would be that God would answer Job’s question, “Why do I suffer so? Instead, God cross-examines Job asking a series of unanswerable questions. These words may seem to present God as angry with Job, but this is not the case. Eventually, we learn that God is angry with Job’s “friends.” Job, in fact, has spoken “what is right.” God, showing Job the depth and breadth of the universe is not meant to lead him, now broken, to repent, but to address him as one who is strong enough to take this awe-inspiring vision of “the whole infinity of the universe” and his place in it.

After seeing the big picture, Job emerges with a new understanding of God, as God allows Job to see God even in the midst of his suffering. God reminds Job that there are many things that he cannot understand and suffering is but one of them and this becomes a source of comfort for Job, rather than frustration. In a literal sense, the book of Job raises more questions than it answers. However, we are assured that God is God, and we are not; and that we humans struggle with things we cannot understand. And yet, our hope is tied to the firm conviction that this same God will take care of that which we do not understand, as we see in the created world around us.

Hebrews reminds us today that because we do struggle to understand God, we need someone to mediate between ourselves and God. This someone is Jesus Christ. Jesus, the son of God, has been appointed by God “a priest forever.” The whole thrust of Hebrews is explaining the unique identity and role of Jesus and what that means for us. The author of Hebrews believes that Jesus is God come to earth in human form and he develops an extended argument asserting the superiority of Christ’s priesthood, which surpasses the priesthood of all others. Like the best of priests, Jesus, as we were told last week, is able to “sympathize with our weaknesses.” This makes him worthy to be our high priest because he suffered as we continue to experience suffering. Jesus embraced our human condition.

He felt the pains of those around him. He yearned for the coming of God’s kingdom even as he touched, healed, and wept with those who yearned for a taste of the heavenly realm in their midst. We want a God who can identify with our suffering. We want a permanent high priest who can at the same time identify with our weaknesses and mediate on our behalf to a just, compassionate, and patient God. This would be the same God who questioned Job but God did not know what it felt to be Job, to show faithful obedience in the face of profound and seemingly unnecessary suffering.

This is what Jesus learns through obedience and the cross and what God learns though Jesus. This new understanding brings the gospel text full circle by emphasizing that what Jesus learned through suffering becomes our lesson also. To be engaged with the world as Jesus did is to suffer and he had just predicted his passion to the disciples for the third time. The text today in Mark is the second to the last event in Jesus’ public ministry. In chapter 11 we read about Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, and the last chapters of Mark’s gospel are dedicated to the last week of Jesus’ life.

So perhaps it comes as no surprise that the seemingly dense disciples now ask for places of prominence in what they think Jesus’ glory will be. They along with Peter, had just accompanied Jesus up the mountain for the Transfiguration and they are still basking in the glow of this remarkable vision and thinking of their place in it, not realizing that this was preparation for them and for Jesus of great suffering and trial to come. The call to serve and to give up one’s life for the sake of others is not something they seem ready to hear. After all, they have already given up so much to follow Jesus, as we heard Peter claim in last Sunday’s text.

By choice or by denial they are blind to who Jesus truly is and what he is trying to tell them. Next Sunday’s gospel is the healing of the blind man Bartimaeus, who though physically blind sees who Jesus truly is, unlike the disciples and follows. The disciples want to be important and this is the very opposite of how the kingdom of God works and how we are to work. Jesus points this out when he says, “Whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all.”

This is our calling. A calling we cannot obey without suffering. Loving and serving others is who we want to be, but then discover how much it can hurt. Only when we are willing to share Christ’s cup, to embrace a suffering Messiah and allow our self-serving ways to die with Christ can we share in our destiny of new life with Christ. Following Jesus and his ministry, walking in his ways is a way of “hearing God speak” and answering our question ‘Where is God in all of this’? God heard Job and has spoken through Christ.