Sunday Readings: Numbers 11.25-29; James 5.1-6; Mark 9.38-48
John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” Jesus said, “Do not stop him. No one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward 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 one 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 (Mark 9.38-42). Jesus claims broad middle ground in this saying, “Whoever is not against us is for us.”
Such middle ground is fertile space for transformation. Often activists, liberal and conservative, reverse Jesus’ saying and eliminate middle ground. In trying to mobilize advocates for change in public policies, they insist whoever is not for us is against us. Middle ground is where real people replace stereotypes and liberate each other from the demons of prejudice and unexamined certainty. Middle ground is where someone else’s lived experience can broaden and transform our own. It is in the space between us where we communicate, learn, and love one another.
The sayings that follow in the gospel use hyperbole to challenge us not to sin. We often use hyperbole in our everyday speech—“I’d give my right arm for that.” The gospel sayings dramatize the danger of scandalizing new Christians and putting their faith at risk.
- To who and what does the name Christian obligate us?