Sharing Secrets
I want to tell you something, but you can't tell anyone.
Usually when I hear someone say that, I get the feeling that what follows is going to be juicy and I will be very tempted to do exactly what I was told not to do, share it.
Of course, once I hear the secret, I need to be able to understand it.
They went on from there and passed through Galilee. He did not want anyone to know it; for he was teaching his disciples, saying to them, ‘The Son of Man is to be betrayed into human hands, and they will kill him, and three days after being killed, he will rise again.’ But they did not understand what he was saying and were afraid to ask him. - Mark 9:30-32
In today's reading from Mark, we get the impression that the disciples were not that smart. What sounds obvious to us completely eludes them, and yet what Jesus is telling them should have been confusing.
How would they have understood that he was speaking literally, when most of what he had taught them was much more enigmatic. His parables left them wanting to know more, so they would ask him to explain, and they would spend hours talking about them.
So, why is this different?
Why were they afraid to ask?
Perhaps it is a lot like that awkward conversation we had with our parents back when the topic of sex was raised in school.
I have no idea how these conversations go today, with so much more exposure to sex on TV and on the Internet, but for me, it was totally weird. On the one hand, the biology made sense. It appealed to my scientific mind, and in a way seemed like an ingenious delivery system, but the thought of my parents doing that?
Fuggetaboutit!
That could be similar to the type of image the disciples had of Jesus, imagining him persecuted, stripped, beaten, and crucified like a common criminal. The sight of crosses along major roadways was as frightful than as burnings and beheadings are today.
"No!" they shouted inside. "Not you! Not that way!"
Maybe they didn't even hear the part about rising again. Surely they would not have understood that to mean they would see him again after he had died and he would eat and drink with them.
It is such a bizarre secret, we still have trouble telling it today.
Imagine what it might have been like for them when they saw him raised. Then all the pieces would have fit in place. The secret would be out, and they could share the good news of the resurrection without having to talk about the scary parts.
It's kind of like enjoying the excitement of the birth of a baby without having to share the details of how sperm and egg managed to get together in the first place.
I know. This is an odd combination of images I am dishing out, but I think that is the point of Jesus message. You won't understand it at first, but you will come to believe in the end.
Now, let me try to think of something else that will get that image of my parents out of my head.
More to come...
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