NOTES for Mar 9:43

Today in the Gospel according to Mark we read Christ's words as if they were addressed especially to our time. The point is that in life there are many things that in one way or another draw us toward sin. As a rule, when faced with these temptations, we permit ourselves many unacceptable things. God told Cain long ago: "sin is crouching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must rule over it" (Gen 4:7). In today's passage the Lord says the same thing. He calls us to renounce and free ourselves from what draws us into committing sin. We are not to justify ourselves by saying that we cannot resist our "natural needs," but to be freed from them.

In the fourth century, morals in the Roman Empire were no better than they are in our world today. Most people believed it was impossible to resist the thirst for pleasures of the flesh, the thirst for wealth, and the striving for success and power in life. And the Lord called an Egyptian named Anthony to renounce all this, so that we might see that the temptations of an age can be overcome. Thus monasticism was born, bearing witness to all of us through celibacy, poverty, and obedience that the words of Christ read today are possible to fulfill.

John's question is very easy to understand. The apostles accompany Christ, enduring with Him all the hardships of the road, experiencing the rejection of the Pharisees, and sharing the Teacher's attention with thousands upon thousands who suffer... Suddenly someone appears who has not gone through all these difficulties but has received every possible benefit. And we know that the disciples themselves did not always succeed in working the miracles that the Teacher worked... Such a question could have been prompted by simple human envy and resentment. In our own lives we are often tormented by a similar problem, asking God: "Why do I pray and fast, why am I zealous in faith, yet nothing happens, while Your gifts appear in my neighbor much more clearly, even though he does not even attend church?" In the Gospel Jesus gives us His answer: "Do not stop him." It follows that we must watch ourselves rather than determine how worthy or unworthy our neighbor is.

Today's passage is devoted to one of the main themes of the entire New Testament: the theme of the Kingdom of God. What is especially important here is that Jesus Himself gives the explanations concerning the Kingdom. At the center of His story is the image of a child, who symbolizes those who occupy the first places in the Kingdom of God (vv. 36-37). A person who causes a child to stumble is worse than a murderer, for even a murderer deserves trial, while Jesus compares such a tempter with a person who is thrown into the sea to be drowned without any trial (v. 42). This image, of course, does not appear by accident. In a traditional, patriarchal society, in large families, children as a rule did not occupy the honorable first places they often occupy in modern families. Children were regarded as natural servants and helpers, as the younger members of a large family or patriarchal clan. They truly were younger, and therefore the position of such a "natural servant" did not wound them at all and was not perceived by them as humiliation or as a lack of attention or love. Almost any adult in such a position feels a certain second-class status and dependence, which is understandable, given how important social position and the status connected with it are in an adult's eyes. Children do not think about this, and therefore for them there is no problem here. Apparently this is exactly what Jesus has in mind when He gives a child as an example, as the model of a resident of the Kingdom of God: for those who want to be its residents, it is important to renounce traditional ideas about the importance of social position and social status. Of course, in this case there always remains the danger that nearby there may be people who want to take advantage of such a state of affairs, just as in every age there have been people ready to take advantage of a child's familiar naivete and abuse it. It is precisely this sin that Jesus says is worse than murder and unworthy even of trial, for the person who acts this way not only rejects the fullness of the life of the Kingdom of God himself, but also prevents others from receiving it. Meanwhile, in a person's life there is always something that prevents him from becoming a child in the sense in which Jesus speaks of it: it may be a "hand," or a "foot," or an "eye," in short, anything a person uses in order not to be the child who can enter the Kingdom. Jesus advises getting rid of whatever interferes without regret (vv. 43-48). Sometimes it may seem that in doing so one loses something vitally important, something without which life will become damaged; but on closer inspection it turns out that the imagined "fullness" leads somewhere very different from the place where the fullness of life can be found, while apparent impairment at the end of the road turns into the fullness of the Kingdom of God.

The closer the Crucifixion comes, the more time Jesus spends with His disciples. He speaks to them about the sufferings awaiting Him. But His disciples do not understand Him; they are thinking not about suffering and death, but about glory and privileges. This is where the argument comes from: "Who is greater? Who will receive more authority in the Kingdom of the Messiah?" John, in addition, seeks to protect the twelve disciples from competition on the part of "outsiders." At the same time, the boundary of "our own circle" is drawn by a very simple sign: "ours" are those who walk with us.

Christ rejects both attempts to build a pyramid of power and honors and the desire to turn the community of disciples into a closed club. He says directly to John: "Do not forbid him." Then He unexpectedly begins a conversation about the danger of stumbling blocks, ending it with the words: "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." Here one can see an echo of John's question and of the disciples' arguments about who is greater. The desire to separate "our own" from "outsiders," and to arrange "our own" by rank, destroys peace and makes people suspicious and hostile. Without peace among themselves, Christ's disciples cannot fulfill their mission in the world: to be "the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13). (Let us recall that every sacrifice was salted with salt before being offered to God on the altar (Lev. 2:13). Salt, as it were, made the sacrifice fit for God).

What does the word "stumbling block" mean? Other translations of this Greek word ("skandalon") are trap, snare, noose. It is everything that by deception, on the sly, pushes the simplehearted toward a fall or simply gets in the way and obstructs. Let us think about the extent to which the struggle for power, quarrels, and divisions among Christians serve as a stumbling block for "these little ones" and hinder those seeking the Truth from coming to saving faith.