Jesus is on the way to Jerusalem. In the verses immediately prior to today’s passage, the teacher, for the third time, announces his fate: he will be insulted, condemned to death, scourged and killed (vv.32-34).

In response we expect the disciples would attempt to dissuade him from travelling, suggest he stop for a moment, wait for better times. But we find none of this.

In the first part of the passage a rich young man enters the scene fast seeking advice to inherit eternal life. He is a just person and is conscious of having led a blameless life. Yet one feels that there is a deep concern in him that makes him suffer as if it were a spiritual infirmity. 

There are situations in which both spouses are wondering, with good reason, whether it is still worthwhile to insist on trying to fix a relationship gone bad and that is proving to be irremediably broken. 

They don’t love each other any more, there are character incompatibilities, annoyances, they speak only to offend and even the children are involved in the failure of the parents. 

Mark narrates, deliberately and provocatively, two episodes in the same chapter. 

In the first scene a man comes to Jesus and says, “Master, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit, deaf and mute. Whenever the spirit seizes him, it throws him down and he foams at the mouth, grinds his teeth and becomes stiff all over. I asked your disciples to drive the spirit out, but they could not” (Mark 9:18). 

In the first part of today’s gospel, an announcement of the passion is introduced: “The Son of Man will be delivered into the hands of men. They will kill him; but three days after he has been killed, he will rise” (Mark 9:31).