Our Gospel readings in the last few weeks have been from the Gospel of Mark, and these have been difficult readings.

These readings from Mark’s Gospel perhaps help us to understand that so often the crowds were amazed, astonished, and sometimes even offended (Mark 6:3) by Jesus’ teachings. Because most of this is serious, difficult, challenging, and even offensive stuff.

It’s the stuff Jesus says about judgement and hell, about the seriousness of sin and causing others to sin, and about the demands of following Him that we sometimes seem a bit embarrassed about. We probably won’t put Mark 9 on our notice boards very soon, no one seems to want to have this type of reading at baptisms, weddings, or funerals, and I doubt I would have picked it to preach on it if it wasn’t for the fact that the Church of England has a reading rota that we follow.

Yet, though some of it might make us uncomfortable and may be challenging, Mark 9 is at the core of the Good News that Jesus came to bring. Let’s have a think about that in the next few minutes.

• Jesus as a Lion

We may be surprised by the strong words of Jesus, because in our time and culture, even in the church, Jesus seems sometimes to become a bit of a lovely hippie who is at best a sort of emotional support blanket that we can grab whenever we feel the need to. But also a Jesus who really doesn’t have too many opinions about how we lead our life.

The Jesus we meet today in Mark’s Gospel is quite different.

This Jesus is very clear about who He is, the Son of God, and that his Kingdom will come through his own suffering and death, and that his Kingdom is more valuable than anything this world has to offer.

This Jesus has little kindness for those who teach or lead one of his followers, one of these little ones astray.

Jesus is saying that it would be better for anyone who puts a stumbling block before one of his followers to have a great millstone hung around their neck and to be thrown into the sea.

This is not so much Jesus gentle and mild, this is Jesus as a lion. In the famous words of C.S. Lewis in the Narnia Chronicles, this Jesus isn’t a safe lion, but he's good. He's the King. You don’t mess around with this Lion, and you certainly won’t challenge him by trying to mess with his cubs.

That is pretty much Jesus’ warning. And quite a comforting thought that we are those cubs, we are those little ones who He will protect.

The Good News of Jesus is a matter of life and death, and it is a most serious thing to lead someone else away from Jesus.

• How the Gospel was written

These words in our reading perhaps even gain more significance when we look at when and how the Gospel of Mark was written.

There is a very early tradition, from the start of the second century, that Mark wrote his Gospel listening to the stories of Peter, in Rome, while the first persecution of the Christians, by the cruel emperor Nero was raging. A persecution that ultimately also led to the execution of Peter himself.

That the Good News of Jesus Christ the Son of God is a matter of life and death was literally true to those who first read this Gospel.

To believe that Jesus is Lord means that the Emperor is not and that you will not bring sacrifices to the emperor, something that is an extremely dangerous thing to do when the emperor himself believes he is a god and requests sacrifices.

As our own society moves away from Christianity, we as Christians need to freshly understand this urgency, and the difference between putting King Jesus in the centre of our life, or all the kings and gods in our current society, the gods that tell us life is all about ourselves, satisfying our own pleasures, desires and wishes, enjoying luxury and materialism. The gods who tell is that all that matters is what I want and what I can get out of it, rather than the Christian story that tells us to offer ourselves to God, to others, to the church, the Christian story that calls us to overcome our self-centredness and egotism.

• What is stopping us?

That the Good News of Jesus is a matter of life and death also becomes clear when Jesus goes on to say that if it is your own foot, your hand, or your eye that cause you yourself to stumble, cut it off, tear it out. 

Of course, Jesus is speaking metaphorically here, and you may find it reassuring that throughout Christian history this has never been taught to be a literal thing.

But Jesus is saying that choosing to follow Him is difficult and demanding, and that it requires our whole selves to focus on Him. It is a matter of life and death. As occasionally it is necessary to amputate an arm or a leg to save someone’s life, likewise, it is necessary to take things out of our life that stop us from following Jesus.

What is it in our lives that is stopping us from following Jesus more fully? Is it something we do with our hands, is it places where our feet take us perhaps too often, or is it what we watch with our eyes?

Whatever it is, whether it is priorities, busyness, hobbies, phones, or maybe a particular vice or sin we don’t want to leave behind, let’s bring it to God in prayer this week, and let’s ask for His help, strength, and courage to leave it behind and to follow Him with renewed love and fresh commitment.

• Jesus’ encouragement

But to stop there would be to miss the encouraging words in today’s reading. Because, just when we begin to wonder and sigh how it will be possible to live up to Jesus’ impossible teaching, we hear Him say, ‘whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ’ will receive their reward.

As one commentator points out, ‘We are not asked to do the great things for the other, things beyond our power. We are asked to give the simple things anyone can give’. (Barclay)

Give the simple things anyone can give and with Jesus they will gain a significance for eternity.

Shall we end with a prayer by Richard of Chichester:

Thanks be to you, my Lord Jesus Christ, for all the benefits you have given me, for all the pains and insults you have borne for me. O most merciful redeemer, friend and brother, may I know you more clearly, love you more dearly, and follow you more nearly, day by day. Amen.