This morning I felt like reading a bit from Mark's Gospel, and as often happens, I saw something that caught my eye. These are verses I have often read, but for whatever reason I didn't remember part that grabbed my attention. Here are the verses - Mark 9:38-41 NIV:
[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. “For 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."
Previously when I read these verses, I had focused on the "whoever is not against us is for us", but today I was struck by Jesus' statement about being the Messiah! It is interesting, most of the time in the Gospel's Jesus does not directly refer to himself as the Messiah. Others do, like Peter in Mark 8:29, say He is the Messiah. Other than that, the Pharisees and even Pilate try to get Jesus to say that He is the Messiah, and He usually redirects or side-steps the direct answer. So, this morning I was surprised to see Him say in such a clear way that He was the Messiah (verse 41).
I guess we could infer that it was only normal for Jesus to refer to Himself this way, as just a short while previously Peter had made his declaration. However, if we read a few verses earlier, when Jesus was clearly speaking about His role as the Son of Man, and his impending death, we see in verse 32 that the disciples did not understand what he was talking about and this quite clearly fit into the Isaiah description of the Anointed one (Is. 53).
Once again, I think we need to try to understand these things from the perspective of the Apostles and Disciples in context, as they were hearing them. It is so easy for us to read these verses with our whole story understanding. I remember the first time I read the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and was totally wrapped up in the story, not knowing what would happen next. It was a great experience of discovery. Now when I read them, I know the whole story and understand things completely differently as I read them. In the same way, we can lost some of the excitement and miss the revelation that was occurring because we might know the whole story. One of the things I try to do when I meditate on a set of passages is understand how they would have been received at that time, the first time they heard them.
So today, we see Jesus refer to Himself as the Messiah almost in a nonchalant way, saying the disciples belong to the Messiah. Earlier in this chapter and in the preceding chapter, we see Peter proclaim Him as Messiah, and Jesus tells them all to keep quiet about that, and the Father glorifies Him on the Mount of Transfiguration, so the disciples are gaining a deeper understanding of Jesus. However, Jesus keeps bringing up His impending suffering and death, and this doesn't jive with the disciples understanding of what the Messiah would be like. They thought He would become King, like David or Solomon, and that they would rule along with Him. They were expecting that through God's power, He would cast of the Roman rule, much like God, through Moses, had set their ancestors free from Egypt. They were expecting an earthly rule and reign, and immediately after Peter proclaims Jesus as Messiah, Jesus starts explaining the truth of what He is really about, and the disciples just don't understand (Mark 9:32) and are afraid to ask.
It is in this environment that we see Jesus making His comments in the section I quoted above. The disciples are trying to figure this all out, what it all means, how it all works. Peter had proclaimed Jesus the Messiah, they had just failed to cast a demon out of a child, yet Jesus could! They had heard about the Transfiguration from Peter, James and John. Jesus had been discussing His coming death. In this environment, James was now trying to understand how Jesus was operating within the context of these new revelations. They had seen someone else casting out demons in Jesus' name, but this individual was not one of Jesus active disciples, and James was concerned. It seems to me that their concern might have been related to their future position in Jesus the Messiah's future government, but maybe it was just that they thought they had all the revelation because they were Jesus' followers, whatever that meant!
On a side note, sometimes we can have the same attitude when God gives us new revelation. We can think that we are the only ones who have received this, and get all prideful, like we know something special, or maybe just excited that we have something new to share. Then we find out that there are plenty of people in the Body of Christ that have already received this revelation, or are even further along in understanding than we are, and we can get slightly bent. The reality is that God is God and He is fully capable of revealing Himself to everyone, without our help or understanding of His revelation. IT is time for us to learn to express gratitude for new revelation, without getting all prideful or protective of that which we have received. The gifts are for the common good, and so is the vast majority of revelation!
Ok, back to the story, I think something like I just described is at work here. The disciples thought they were the chosen ones, the ones selected by Jesus for deeper revelation, and here is some unknown individual, someone not part of the "chosen" group, casting demons out in Jesus' name. It is clear that they were operating under some level of authority and revelation from the Father, for they were apparently successful, and thus a bit of a challenge to the "Chosen" label of the disciples.
Jesus, in His wisdom from the Holy Spirit, understands this issue and calms their hearts and minds. He explains that anyone not against them is actually for them, and in essence, part of the team, and not a danger to Jesus (which should have been their concern as His followers). Secondly, He clearly proclaims His choosing of them again, by saying they belong to Him. He was essentially saying that they were His chosen, His selected followers and any glory He received flowed down to them. Likewise, just as anyone would be rewarded for treating Jesus well, that person would also be rewarded for treating the disciples well.
That is really quite a comforting statement. Jesus is going to share His glory, and share His blessings, and even extend those blessings to those that treat His followers, His chosen, well. That, by the way, includes us! If we treat each other well, we are rewarded as if we are treating Jesus well! Rather than focusing on our differences, as James was in verse 38, we should be blessing one another and embracing over our shared calling as followers of Jesus!
One of the prophetic people I follow on Instagram is Doug Addison (dougtaddison) and just yesterday he posted something that was directly related to this reflection. He said the following, "Instead of complaining about people who have different beliefs than you do. Bless them instead: Find someone different than you and show them an act of kindness." Wouldn't that be great if that was our approach to the differing parts of the Body of Christ?! Jesus shows us that very approach! Assume that our brothers and sisters are for us, and bless them and show them kindness! When we do that we will receive the reward as if we were blessing Jesus Himself!
Amen! I am encouraged to be for my brothers and sisters in this great Family of God, this one Body of Christ! Let us bless each other, and be kind to each other, focusing on and blessing our similarities, rather than arguing about our differences! Let us get over ourselves, and be for others who walk in greater revelation or even the same revelation that we thought was ours! Lets press forward towards unity in our Love for Jesus our Savior, and our love for one another!
Amen and amen!
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