Mark 9.38-end
John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’ But Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me.Whoever is not against us is for us. For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
‘For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.’
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Jesus says a lot of strange things in today’s passage, indeed scholars believe that it’s a compilation of many sayings of from elsewhere brought together by the writer to make a particular point. So, if this is true, we can assume that there is a definite purpose or a theme to what is being said here.
This passage follows on from a discussion that was in last week’s gospel reading. There the disciples had come to a house in Capernaum, Galilee, and Jesus asks them what they were discussing on the way there. They don’t want to tell him because they were discussing amongst themselves which one of them is the greatest.
Modest bunch the disciples were!
It’s ironic as well, because before Jesus predicts his death a second time, which we discussed last week, the disciples themselves were unable to cast out a demon. Keep that in mind as we continue. Verse 38:
‘John said to him, ‘Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.’
Oh the Irony! The disciples fail to heal the demon possessed boy and here they are saying that they told somebody who did it successfully in Jesus’ name to stop doing it because they are not one of the twelve. Jesus’ response is stark, verse 39; ‘Jesus said, ‘Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterwards to speak evil of me.’
Jesus speaks against any ‘institutional exclusivity’ one may be tempted to fall into when they follow him. The disciples seemed to believe that it was they who had the power and the authority to do the work of the kingdom, and it should remain with them. Something restricted to ‘his kind of people.’
But we have seen over the past few weeks on different occasions how Jesus cuts through such simplistic thinking. The healing of the Syrophoenician woman’s daughter a couple of weeks ago, for example. The disciples have still not learned the lesson; the work of the kingdom of God goes beyond national or racial or political or any other boundaries. Jesus says that the person who does good in his name honours him and his mission. And if it is being done in his name, then it should not be stopped. He makes it clear how dire it is if the attempt is made in verse 42:
‘If any of you put a stumbling-block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.’
His language couldn’t be stronger. Do not get in the way of others doing good. If you do, it’s death for you. Now to be clear, this is not just an example disciples being silly or daft. It is not yet another opportunity for a preacher to say that the disciples just ‘didn’t get it.’ So many preachers have preached about this matter, yet I think that much of the time it is just words that ‘bounce’ off us and we fail to truly understand.
For the past few weeks, Jesus has been calling us to go beyond our own ways of thinking, and our own certainties, to inhabit a kind of ‘middle space’ where things aren’t always clear, where there are no clear black and white answers. There is no simple ‘us’ and ‘them’. Such certainties have disappeared.
The church doesn’t belong to me, it doesn’t belong to us. It belongs to Jesus Christ. The church is not about how good we can feel about ourselves spiritually or worshipping in the way that we like and excluding and looking down on others. It is not about doing things in the ‘proper way.’ It is not about me standing here preaching or when I preside at the celebration of Holy Communion in a few minutes time. The church, the kingdom of God is about doing the will of Jesus; of thinking the way that he thought, of listening to his words and putting them into action. The reading this morning is not just a trite bit of wisdom which we can take or leave. It is central to everything.
This is tough to understand. We are hard wired I think to act in a way that is opposite the way that Jesus wants us to think. We are hard wired to think in terms of our wants, desires and benefits (I’m not saying that these are bad as such, but I am saying that we miss the bigger picture) We can’t look at the disciples in this passage and think ‘oh aren’t they silly,’ for we are them!
Look at the other sayings of Jesus that the writer of the gospel has put this message; the language here is being used metaphorically, but the message is clear that we need to take this lesson on board, verse 43.
‘43If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire.45And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., 47And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.’
The consequences of getting this wrong, are hell itself. What is hell? Well, it has two meanings. Hell, or Gehenna, this was a valley which in those times was Jerusalem’s rubbish tip which was always smouldering (hence why Jesus says that the fires won’t be quenched). It was also a place where in ancient times, children were sacrificed to the pagan Canaanite gods Molech and Baal. It is also a metaphor for the fate of those after they die who refuse to follow God’s way. Jesus is warning his followers, the kind of parochial thinking that they exhibit will have dire consequences, the battle is in the mind. Jesus’ warnings were very prophetic, as the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed in AD70, the one remaining bit being the famous Western Wall that you can still visit today. Jesus continually warned his people to pursue the ways of peace and not war, and they faced the consequences by choosing the wrong way. But this isn’t just about history, the consequences are for every one of us. What we do matters, what we say and think matters; the way we act matters. We can’t just do as we please and carry on as if there are no consequences, for there are. Jesus mentions different parts of the body in this passage, eyes, arms, and feet. He leaves it for the reader to decide where action is needed. We need to examine ourselves and see what needs to be thrown out.
How do we do this?
We do this with the help of God’s Holy Spirit. That is the only way. He is the one who guides and helps us to be more than we are, to think differently; to look to each and every human being and see somebody of infinite worth and value. He is the one who helps us to put the words of Jesus into practice, to look beyond our own concerns and ideas and to think in the way that he would have us think. I pray that we will all know His stirring in our hearts, to see good in the world and celebrate it, and take part in it. For wherever in the world good is happening, that is where Jesus is. Amen.