Please read the Scripture passage before the homily.
Mark recorded several times when Jesus asked his disciples why they did not understand. The multiplications of the loaves were more about use of power than about yeast and dough. Hospitality was more about serving than about pleasing guests by lopping someone’s head off nd presenting it on a platter.
Jesus healed a blind man. The man at first did not understand he was supposed to be healed. Jesus had to do it a second time before the man finally understood healing. In the first half of Mark’s Gospel, the disciples had a hard time understanding; Jesus would have to reschool them in the second half. In this passage, Jesus had started reschooling and reteaching his disciples.
“This is what it means to be my disciple. Just as I have come to serve, so must my disciple come to serve. If I am the Christ, I am not like Herod or some Roman emperor, banqueting over beheaded prophets and crucified subjects. Instead, I am embracing my cross, losing my life in the process. Some of you will see when the Kingdom of God comes through my death and resurrection.”
Like the disciples, we have to learn that only in dying are we born into eternal life. This what the disciples had to learn, and Mark will show us in the second half of his account how Jesus teaches this and how the disciples learn it.