Today’s readings are about spiritual gifts given to individuals and generosity toward the community, topics not often discussed together. Though the two topics may seem unrelated, the stories about them in the Old Testament book of Numbers and the Gospel of Mark illuminate each topic.
The book of Numbers gets its name from the two census lists that structure the book, 1:1-47 and 26:1-65. The first census is of Israel’s first generation during the wilderness period, and the second is of the generation that replaced the first and actually entered the land of Canaan. This episode took place in the time of the first generation, which, it must be said, was marked by rebellion; not all of them fully accepted the authority of Moses. Their tentative acceptance is important in the story, because, one would think, Moses would hesitate to share his spirit with people with a rebellious streak. Instead, Moses goes ahead anyway when the Lord gathers the seventy tribal elders and gives them a share of Moses’s spirit. In this politically delicate situation, Moses is told that two elders, Eldad and Medad, who were not in the original crowd, were nonetheless prophesying. Rejecting calls from his most trusted advisors to stop them, he tells his advisors, “Are you jealous for my sake? If only all the people of the LORD were prophets! If only the LORD would bestow his spirit on them!”
Moses’s generous and inclusive spirit, motivated by his concern for the common good, helps us appreciate Jesus’s leadership style. The Gospel of Mark probably composed the scene with the Numbers episode in mind. Jesus’s reaction combines political shrewdness and a relaxed openness. He brings the whole scene down to earth with his down-home comment, “Anyone who gives you a cup of water to drink because you belong to Christ, amen, I say to you, will surely not lose his reward.” (9:41).
The readings provide us with two important takeaways: don’t be afraid to exercise the gifts God has given you as an individual to enrich the community; resume that other members of the community also have their own gifts intended to enrich the community. Their gifts are not meant to rival or lessen your gifts.