JOHN: Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.
JESUS 1: 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.
JESUS 2: 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.
JESUS 3: If 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 Gehenna, to the unquenchable fire. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
JESUS 4: And 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 Gehenna, where the worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
Mark 9.38-48
Sunday Readings: Numbers 11.25-29; James 5.1-6; Mark 9.38-48