Scripture Study for
Twenty-Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Isaiah 53:10–11 / Psalm 33:22 / Hebrews 4:14–16 / Mark 10:35–45 [42–45]
<< Back to LECTIONARY RESOURCES
Understanding the Word
By Br. John R. Barker, OFM
This last of the Servant Songs of Isaiah is the most perplexing, not least because it claims that in the mysterious plan of God, the Servant’s suffering will contribute to the salvation of others (53:5). Although our translation reads that God was “pleased to crush him in infirmity,” more recent translations reflect the idea not of divine pleasure but of divine will, which is not the same thing. It was God’s will that the Servant remain faithful despite the suffering, and this same suffering is now offered for the very people who cause it. The Servant will be glorified, however, and will see the fruitfulness of his suffering, which will not have been for nothing.
The author of Hebrews has been developing the point that the Son of God entered into the human experience, including death, to bring his brothers and sisters to glory. Now Jesus is able to fulfill perfectly the function of the High Priest, which was to worship God and to intercede for the faithful. The humanity and suffering of Jesus mean that he is able to commiserate with us, not standing aloof and indifferent to our struggles and need for mercy but finding common cause with us in our human weakness. Thus there is no need to fear when approaching “the throne of grace,” because we find there a sympathetic and infinitely effective advocate.
For the last several chapters in Mark’s Gospel, Jesus has repeatedly told his disciples that they must be like children, that they must give up everything, that the last will be first and the first last, that they must take up their crosses. Yet the sons of Zebedee, two of Jesus’ closest followers, have not absorbed any of this. Indeed, as Jesus’ closest companions, they expect to receive honors when he establishes the kingdom. Jesus once again tries to drive home his points about humility, spiritual poverty, and exercise of authority. The Son of Man is a model for them, and he approaches the world in a very different way, which the disciples still do not understand or accept.