This Sunday, You Don’t Have To Be the Greatest. Let Jesus Embrace You Like a Child

Take a walk with Jesus through your childhood neighborhood this Sunday, in the readings for the 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Year B. Be yourself around him, acting just as you always do — too willing to ignore Jesus and too willing to assert your ego.

That is what the Apostles do, and they learn a remarkable insight about spiritual childhood.

This Sunday’s Gospel passage would be funny if it didn’t sting.

It begins with Jesus and the apostles going on “a journey through Galilee, but he did not wish anyone to know about it.”

Last Sunday, Jesus told the Apostles where this journey was headed: He was going to Jerusalem to die, and each would have to “take up his cross and follow me” and be willing to “lose his life for my sake.” Then, a lot happens in the 30 verses we skip between last Sunday’s Gospel and this Sunday’s. First, Mark tells the story of how, with three apostles present, Jesus literally glowed while God himself said “This is my beloved Son. Listen to him!” Meanwhile, other disciples failed to expel a demon from a child and argued with scribes instead, making Jesus complain, “O faithless generation, how long will I endure you?”

So they should have been on high alert and listening when he said, “The Son of Man is to be handed over to men and they will kill him, and three days after his death the Son of Man will rise.” We can imagine what the discussion should have been like:

Continued below.