“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, for whoever is not against us is for us.” Mark 9:39
John is rebuked three times in this passage of scripture and it all comes down to the order of authority, one over another. “Who is the greatest?” Jesus is rewriting cultural norms into Christ’s Follower’s Norms. To be first, means to be last. There has been no social model of this behavior, especially among self-serving and corrupt synagogue leadership.
John’s early thinking assumed only those closest disciples would have power to heal and cast out demons because they were chosen and knew Jesus face to face, breath to breath.
Jesus’ words are in the manner of discipline. The world was small and primitive and Jesus is aware His time on earth was ending soon. He had to model and teach the gravity of love and compassion and John had to learn that Jesus was much bigger than a few moments in time.
It only takes a blink to become so wrapped up in our current crisis that we become the center of the universe. All roads lead to and away from us. John had this instant too, but he discovered, it isn’t who has the right to be the body of Christ, it matters that someone is! Be that someone.
Happy Weekend,
Gretchen