Mark 9:38-50

   Just before this exchange with his disciples, Jesus catches them arguing over which one of them will be the greatest.  In this passage, the disciple named John has learned of somebody who is healing in Jesus’ name, imitating the work of Jesus.  John has problems with this healer’s credentials.  He’s not following us, John says.  How do we know he has it right?  The disciples seem to think that it’s important for those who follow Jesus to do so in one prescribed way, their way.  This healer is not following the rules.  It’s not surprising that the disciples would conclude their way is the right way; they’ve given up a great deal to follow Jesus. They’ve left their homes, families, and livelihoods.  But it looks as though they’ve also become attached to being the special ones, the insiders. 

  Jesus gives a two-part response: First, he answers the specific question.  Don’t stop him.  If he’s doing it in my name, he’s on the right track.  If he’s not against us, he’s for us.  Look at what he’s doing, not at his credentials. 

   It’s the second part of his response that’s harder to read.  These verses are often interpreted as a dire warning about temptations to sin.  But what’s interesting here is that the warning is aimed at his disciples directly in response to their challenge to the credentials of an outsider.  Jesus knows the damage that can arise from “I’m right, you’re wrong” relationships.  His ongoing conflict with the Pharisees is over their insistence that anyone who doesn’t follow their rules is a spiritual outsider.  Maybe he even had some insight into the evils that would be done in his name in the millennia to follow, when Christians encounter others, both other Christians and non-Christians, who aren’t doing things or believing things in exactly “the right way.”

   Jesus is clearly exasperated.  “Don’t get in the way of those who believe in me,” says Jesus.  Don’t put obstacles, stumbling blocks, in the path of those who are not yet strong in faith.  If you do, says Jesus, then you, the disciples, have stumbled; you’ve messed up big time.  His harsh tone tells us how important it is that the disciples understand it’s their job to take the wide view of faith, not the narrow one.  The followers of Jesus aren’t supposed to be a little clique off in the corner.  One writer put it like this: “If, to use one of Jesus’ own analogies, the coming of the kingdom is like the start of a grand dinner party, then Jesus wants his followers to be like gracious hosts welcoming the guests…. Jesus neither needs nor wants bouncers guarding the door to the grand feast he is initiating.”

   We are to welcome, wherever we find them, the allies of the Christian faith.  When we see people doing those things that Jesus taught and in which Jesus rejoiced in others – mercy, justice, integrity, reverence, faith, love – welcome them.  Make room for them.    

   Then Jesus says, “Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”  In the ancient world, salt was used to cleanse and preserve as well as to season.  Jesus seems to be referring to both uses.  The cleansing/preserving aspect is that the disciples are to be harder on themselves than they are on others; they are to hold themselves to high standards of service and compassion while at the same time making room for others on the journey of faith.  If they do this, they will bring good flavor – saltiness – to their ministry, and to the world.  They will be at peace with each other because they won’t be competing to be the greatest or scrambling to maintain discipleship as an exclusive, private club.

© Joanne Whitt 2024 all rights reserved.

Resources: “A Season of Discernment: The Final Report of the Theological Task Force on the Peace, Unity and Purity of the Church,” approved by the 217^th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) (2006).