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Mark 9:33-41
Who Is the Greatest
33They came to Capernaum. When he was in the house, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” 34But they kept quiet because on the way they had argued about who was the greatest.
35Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “Anyone who wants to be first must be the very last, and the servant of all.”
36He took a little child whom he placed among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said to them, 37“Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me.”
Whoever Is Not Against Us Is for Us
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
39 “Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, 40 for whoever is not against us is for us. 41 Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.”
Today’s reading is two little passages that seem to me to address two aspects of leadership among the followers of Jesus – and maybe especially to contrast the way leadership is practiced all too often to the way it’s supposed to be practiced.
The first of the two passages relates an occasion on which Jesus overhears the disciples arguing over which of them is the greatest. That comes as no surprise – a craving to climb up the ‘company ladder’ is a well-known part of human nature. In part, It’s the higher pay and other perks that motivate us to move up, but there’s also a powerful desire to be respected and influential that has nothing to do with money. And that craving for status and influence appears in the church as well as outside it.
But Jesus tells the disciples that among his followers, it’s being willing to serve others that’s the mark of success – not power and praise. Jesus himself established that standard by coming “not to be served but to serve” – including washing the feet of the ones who would betray and deny and doubt him. And in the reading, Jesus uses a child to illustrate the modest spirit he had in mind for his leaders. In that culture, kids were expected to be quiet and obedient, not to be cute and attention-seeking.
In our second passage, the disciples report to Jesus that they have discovered someone – an “outsider” – who claimed to be acting in Jesus’ name. The disciples tell Jesus that they had told the man to stop.
It seems to me this reflects a pretty common human tendency. It’s a tendency you see in the life of the church, but also in all sorts of other human movements, from governments and political parties right down to the local youth sports leagues. People who are in positions of leadership have a craving to keep control over their organizations, and to make sure that nobody who isn’t “authorized” is doing or saying things in its name.
We Presbyterians are famous for saying we should do things “decently and in order,” but I suspect people actually feel the same way in just about every church, whether they use that phrase or not. You can’t have random people standing up in church and starting to preach, or declaring themselves Bible teachers, or claiming to speak for the church. You have to be given some authority by the greater church.
It’s not uncommon to hear people say, “If you’re not with us, you’re against us.” And usually when they say that, it’s an way of demanding obedience and conformity to the rules and norms. We want people to buy into our whole way of doing things, to “get with the program,” or we put them on the other side of the “us vs. them” divide.
It’s always struck me as strange that we’re often more comfortable with people whose theology is quite different than ours than we are with people who agree with us on most things, but not on a couple points of doctrine. We regularly share in activities with the local Roman Catholic churches, but the other Presbyterian church around the corner from ours has seemed to regard us with suspicion.
So it seems really interesting that in the story, Jesus turns around that familiar saying. Instead of saying, “Whoever isn’t for us is against us,” Jesus says, “Whoever isn’t against us is for us.” Jesus tells his disciples to leave the ‘unauthorized disciple’ alone. He points out that someone can’t do things in his name and then turn around and say bad things about him.
And that seems to me to point to a pretty important principle that we should remind ourselves of from time to time. It’s human nature to be a little suspicious of those who are different than ourselves, and to focus on the differences that divide us. But Jesus’ teaching in this little passage seems like a reminder that what we have in common – the fact that we all follow and serve Jesus – is much more important than what divides us.
I’m not so naïve as to think all those who typically criticize us are going to decide to be our friends any time soon. There’s too much of the “whoever isn’t with us is against us” thinking going around for that, and we don’t have the power to make that kind of thinking go away. But what we can do is commit ourselves, and our friends in Jesus, to focus more and more on what we have in common with others who claim the name of Jesus.
If we can do that, even when others criticize our doctrines or practices or music or whatever, then we will be modeling the Christian unity that Jesus said will cause the world to honor him, and to say, “See how they love one another.”
Let’s pray. Lord, we pray that you will soften our hearts and move us to greater love for other followers of Jesus, even when we disagree with them on points of doctrine. Help us to practice our faith in such a way that when the world sees us, they know we are followers of Jesus by our love. Amen
Grace and Peace,
Henry
(The listed readings for today are Psalm 119:25-40; II Samuel 13:23-39; Acts 20:17-38; and Mark 9:42-50. Our readings come from the NIV Bible, as posted on Biblica.com, the website of the International Bible Society.)
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