Today’s gospel reading leads us into a section of Mark’s gospel that explores challenges confronting all disciples on their journey of faith. The first challenge is to clarify the nature of our commitment as disciples of Jesus. If we fail to understand who Jesus is, then we have little chance of understanding the nature of our own call to follow him. To know and follow Jesus as the Christos or Messiah is to seek and support more moderate and lasting responses to both perceived and real injustice. It is to listen to the wisdom of those with insight and experience, to calculate with the utmost care the consequences of violent reactions to the problems in our world, in contemporary society, and in our homes. That may well involve hard work, personal misunderstanding, physical and emotional trauma or, in other words, it may mean “losing one’s life” for the sake of the gospel. It may call us to ensure that all have access to a more equitable share of earth resources. It certainly calls for profound trust in the saving power of God. In this Season of Creation, the gospel calls us into the ways of respect, of commitment, and of peaceful negotiation, to ever deeper insight into the ways of Jesus the Christ, the anointed agent of God’s empire.
Jesus opens our eyes to the reality of God’s presence in our midst, in the goodness of people and in the tenderness of life, even in its vulnerability. He opens our ears to hear the word of God spoken to us by others, revealed to us through the created world. Although the messianic future is already present to us, it is only unfolding, it has not yet opened completely. We still judge each other by appearances. We still miss the presence of God in the poor and the dispossessed, in those who suffer from disease or war or loneliness. We still shun those of another race, or those who have been shaped by another culture, or those who worship God in a different way. We have not yet put aside all of the biases of the past and we have not yet been fully transformed. But God has spoken, God has come to save us. God is trustworthy; God keeps faith forever.
When the word of God has taken root in us, everything becomes a religious practice. This word can come to us through the teachings of our faith, through the example of good people around us, through the wonder and mystery of creation. When it does take hold of us, our inner eye is opened, our hearts are softened, and we turn instinctively to God like a flower turns to the sun. When we are brought to birth in this way, covenant law becomes sacred, religious practices are cherished, and we are filled with the power that saves.
The choices we make determine the character of our union with God who called us out of the slavery of sin and protected us throughout the journey of our lives. Jesus walked with us through the challenges of life and performed wonders for us. Why should we look elsewhere? The new challenges we face and the new demands placed on us may be so great, or the commitment required of us may be so demanding that we feel that we can no longer walk with him. The church may be changing in ways we do not appreciate, or it may not be changing in the ways we believe it should, and so we may feel that we can walk with him no longer. If we decide to commit ourselves, we will enter into a union with God that is deeper than anything we have previously known. However, this union will be based on our faith in Jesus which does not come easily or naturally, as it is a grace given by God. We may understand no more than we did in the past, things may be no more to our liking. Jesus is God’s holy one; he has the words of eternal life.
Wisdom invites us to her banquet. Since she is the way to God, those who accept her invitation will feast on the things of God. The banquet of wisdom is an apt symbol of the generosity of God, open to all, enriching all. The banquet that Jesus offers is like the banquet of Wisdom. However, it far exceeds even Wisdom’s table. At Jesus’ banquet, we feast on his body and his blood. If we feed at the table of the Lord, we will have life because of him, and we will be raised up on the last day to live forever. This is truly a bold claim and a hard saying. We are told that the food we eat is his body, and what we drink is his blood. We are told that his body, not merely his teaching, is the true bread that came down from heaven. We are told that only if we eat and drink what he offers will we have eternal life. He makes the claim and extends the invitation. How will we hear it? How will we respond?
There are other times when we are challenged to change our way of thinking and to accept what seems to make extraordinary demands on us. A new way of understanding church may call us to be open to the cultural diversity within the community. Or it might claim that we have a responsibility toward the poor and homeless in our midst. New biblical insights make us question our familiar understanding of God or of Jesus or of ourselves. We want evidence to substantiate these radical new claims. But the evidence that Jesus offered could only be accepted in faith. And so it is with us. When we ask God for some kind of sign that will assure us that this new challenge is really what God wants, the answers received must themselves be accepted and understood in faith. The only assurance we have is rooted in faith, and those who are not open in faith will not understand. God does indeed ask a great deal from us.
Jesus insists that he is the true bread from heaven; he is the real basis of our survival. If we fill ourselves with all that the world provides as nourishment we will still hunger. Only faith in Jesus can satisfy our deepest hungers, and we will not be able to survive apart from him. Acceptance of Jesus as the source of our life and the very nourishment of our spirits effects a total transformation in us. We will no longer be content to live with full bellies but empty minds. We will put aside our old selves steeped in ignorance and self-interest and put on a new self, created in his image. Having fed on the bread from heaven, we will be mysteriously transformed into it. The spirit of our minds will be renewed by his teaching. As a result, we will be able to launch out into a way of living that witnesses to our new understanding, our new life.
Today we are reminded of God’s providence. We live in a world that feeds us and shelters us and supplies us with everything that we need to grow and to thrive, and all of this comes to us from the hand of God. God certainly cares passionately for each of us (not even a sparrow falls without God knowing it), but God’s concern is for the whole people. We are first and foremost members of a people. As unique as we may be, we are a unique expression of a communal reality. God created a race; God formed a people; Jesus died for the world. By the grace of God, we belong to the community. As members of the people of God, we are called to a way of life that is noble, not selfish. We are to live with each other in humility and gentleness, with patience. We are to bear with one another in love. Through baptism we all live by the same Spirit of Jesus; we are all united through the bond of God’s love. The bread that we receive from the hand of God is the bread of full life, life in all its dimensions, life in Christ.
There are so many searching people in the world today, people hungering for instruction, good people looking for direction. They are people who are looking for answers and for meaning. They are like sheep without a shepherd, and Jesus looks to us to shepherd them. In the midst of this confusion, there are reliable shepherds who walk with us in the dark valleys. They are willing to share the dangers through which we pass, even at the risk of their own safety. They do not pit one segment of the community or one theological perspective against another, scattering the sheep and driving them away. Instead, they work to dismantle the walls that divide us. They speak the word that gathers us together. They reconcile us with God and with each other. They may not give us easy answers, but their primary concern is to lead us to Jesus, the one who is our peace.
Jesus inaugurated the reign of God on earth. He chose disciples and sent them out to continue the work that he had begun, to preach his gospel and, through healings and exorcisms, to conquer the forces of evil that threatened that reign. And now we have been called; in him we have been chosen, in all of our brokenness and vulnerability. The task to which we have been called is awe-inspiring; and every spiritual blessing in the heavens has been bestowed upon us so that we will be able to accomplish it. If we allow Christ’s saving power to take possession of us, we too will further his prophetic ministry. We will bring the saving grace of God to the world that is terrified and that writhes in pain; we will bring it to those places where healing is needed and where demons still hold sway. We will bring all things under the headship of Christ.