Mark 9:38-end (NRSV)
Another
Exorcist
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.’39But 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.40Whoever is not against us is for us. 41For 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.
Temptations
to Sin
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. 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. 49 ‘For everyone will be
salted with fire. 50Salt 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.’
My text this morning is written in Mark 9, verse 50b:
‘Have salt in yourselves, and be
at peace with one another.’
In this reading we encounter the experience of the
disciples (and from other documents the experience of the early Christians) of
an exorcist who successfully used the name of Jesus for the purposes of
exorcism – but without becoming a Christian. Here, the disciples are troubled
by this – and by our Lord’s own solution to the problem – as Nineham suggests:
“… an exceedingly tolerant solution, indeed so tolerant as to arouse some doubt
of its genuiness …” Nineham is of the view that “… if the first Christians had
from the beginning such explicit directives to tolerance, it is hard to account
for the very intolerant attitude they seem often to have adopted in such cases
…’
I do not have the same difficulty! It would appear to be
quite logical that such occasions arose in Jesus’ own time and it is well in
line with our Lord’s demeanour to welcome the outsider. As Jesus relies: ‘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.40Whoever is not against us is for us.’
Tolerance, especially of those whose lives and good and pure, is vital
for us as Christians. For those who exhort the name of Jesus and never speak
evil of him are indeed ‘… on our side …’ I find this every day as some of the
loveliest boys I teach are of other faiths. They revere our Lord – but just do
not take the final step of accepting him as we do – as God incarnate. But they
see him as being of such great importance that they would never speak evil of
him.
Indeed, you might recall, when there have been blasphemous plays about
Jesus, it has often been the Muslim community that have protested most
vehemently and even challenged us Christians for being too weak to stand up for
our Lord.
I also love the way Jesus ends this first section; he focuses on the
ordinary, because we humans, often prefer to focus on the spectacular. It is
often in the simplest things where the presence of Christ becomes most manifest
– giving a thirsty person a drink of water.
Who belongs to God is God’s business. I firmly believe that Jesus is who
the New Testament claims him to be because this is my experience and I will
never deny it. But the same New Testament claims that when a person loves
another in an unselfish way, God is present and they dwell in him and he in
them (1 John).
It is too easy to try to argue this passage away as some later addition.
I believe our Lord wants us to focus on what matters: living the life of
tolerance and acceptance for others, especially those who deeply revere his
name, even if they do not go as far as we do and we would want them to do.
In verse 42, Jesus refers to the ‘little ones’ and on the
surface we think it is a warning against leading children astray – and indeed,
I believe, we as teachers need to beware that we do not do this. With the
recent child abuse scandals that have come to our knowledge this verse is
particularly apt in highlighting both the vulnerability and inestimable value
children are, and it is good that measures are now in place to make sure that
all vulnerable people and especially children are protected and safe.
But C F D Moule gives us another dimension and puts it a little
differently and suggests “Jesus, or God Himself, comes to us in a small child –
that is greatness …” Teachers seems to think that they have ‘arrived’ when they
teach predominantly in the 6th Form; university lecturers and
professors are valued more highly by society than other teachers, but Moule
makes the important point that Jesus comes to us in all people – but especially
in children.
I believe we must beware that we do not consider some people
more important than others; rather that ALL people matter. As Moule comments:
“Jesus was one of the first ever to see how essentially precious any person is,
particularly a young child …” It is true that, in their vulnerability we need
to be particularly careful in our treatment of small children, but all people
matter and when we see them as the way God comes to us, it revolutionises the
way we treat them and our overall experience of them.
I know only too well, that sometimes radical surgery is
needed in order to save the health of a body; for as you know I don’t have a
duodenum, a gallbladder, most of my pancreas and part of my stomach. Here,
Jesus tells us that the same is true for our spiritual lives. It seems pretty
obvious that Jesus is speaking symbolically and that he is saying – using
typically eastern imagery and hyperbole - that there is a goal in life which is
worth any sacrifice necessary to attain it; and this is referred to by Jesus,
as ’life’ or interchangeably the ‘kingdom of God’.
Barclay suggests that the Jewish style of parallelism is
used by Jesus to explain what he meant by the ‘Kingdom of God’. Barclay
explains:
“In parallelism two phrases
are set side by side, the one of which either restates the other, or amplifies,
explains and develops it.”
This means that one petition is an explanation and
amplification of the other. In the Lord’s prayer we therefore have an
explanation of what is meant by ‘kingdom of heaven’ and that is ‘… a society
upon earth in which God’s will is as perfectly done in earth as it is in Heaven
…” i.e. hence on earth as it is in Heaven. To apply this to our passage it means that it is worth any sacrifice and
any discipline or self-denial to do the will of God and that it is only in
doing the will of God that ‘… there is real life and ultimate and completely
satisfying peace.’
And this can mean drastic surgery!
This passage therefore needs to be taken not literally or
purely symbolically, but mostly ‘personally’! It means that it may be necessary
to get rid of some habit, to cut out something that might even have become very
dear to us, to abandon some pleasure, to be rid of some friendship even in
order to become obedient to the will of God. No one can decide this for us; it
is something we need to come to terms with ourselves. Barclay explains:
“… if there is anything in our
lives which is coming between us and a perfect obedience to the will of God,
however dear that thing or person is to us, however much the habit and custom
may have made it part of our lives, it must be rooted out.”
This will probably sometimes be painful and drastic, but if
we are to know real ‘life’, happiness and fulfilment – it must happen – and we
will enter the kingdom of heaven here on earth.
This is such good news and our society needs to be reminded
of it. Real life, not mere existence, is to be found when we follow the ways of
our Lord. It comes from living the Jesus way and that is for others. I was
interested to listen to a Radio 4 programme of an initiative of the Dalai Lama,
to challenge people to happiness; and his message is that it comes from leaving
self-centredness behind and doing things – good and generous things for others.
Jesus was way ahead of the game and this is the message that will recapture the
popular mood.
Do simple yet important things for others – deal with their
demons and meet their material needs – often simple things like food and drink.
Look after the vulnerable and especially the little
children, because in doing so our Lord meets us in that moment.
Get rid of all those things in our lives that make us self-centred,
living for ourselves rather than for others – and apply drastic surgery if
needs be.
When we do this we add salt to our lives and they become
much more tasty and fulfilling. When we do this, we also become attractive to
those outside the Church who are hungry and thirsty, looking for refreshment
and fulfilment. It is not about the words we use, but our actions that speak
louder than words. Let us follow the example of St Francis to his friars: “Everywhere
preach the Gospel, but only when necessary use words.” Jesus put it this way:
‘… Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace
with one another.’ Amen
No comments:
Post a Comment