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spent1903
Unexpected Grace
Text:
Mark 9:38-50
Date: Pentecost 19
10/19/03 3gp movies torrents
Mark chapter 8. Jesus begins to teach his disciples
privately but plainly of the goal of his earthly ministry, namely
his suffering, death and resurrection. Peter illustrates they couldn’t
believe it. Mark chapter 9. A second time Jesus foretells his death
and resurrection. John shows they didn’t understand. Mark chapter
10. On the road to Jerusalem Jesus repeats his prediction a third
time. This time it is as if he were talking to a brick wall, James
and John just ignore him and changing the subject. When we don’t
understand or when we forget what is the main point of following
Jesus, we, too, are good at changing the subject. And when we change
the subject we end up not only looking foolish, but are in danger
of losing our place in the kingdom and even causing others to fall
away.
The primary purpose of Jesus’ earthly ministry was
to offer himself as the one-and-only, perfect sacrifice for the
sin of the world. His goal was and is to bring release from sin,
death and the devil, reconciliation with God and eternal, resurrection
life to all. The main point of following Jesus, then, is, first,
to receive his gift of forgiveness of sins and the life and salvation
that flows from that forgiveness for ourselves, and then to call
and invite all people to this same gift.
When Jesus calls to us and says, “Follow me,” he means
for us to get behind him and, blocking out all other distractions,
to keep our eyes fixed and focused on him. As his call to discipleship
is for all people of all nations, that call comes to them through
his Church. As he says to us, “follow me,” so we say to others,
“follow Him.” It is when we begin to be distracted, however, and
lose our own focus on following Jesus, that what should be our main
message, “follow Him,” begins to sound more like, “follow us.”
John says in today’s text, “Teacher, we saw someone
casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because
he was not following us.” Jesus’ command “Follow me” is changed
by his disciples now to “follow us.” Time is short. They’re almost
at Jerusalem’s gates where Jesus will finally reach his goal. It’s
time for some major, spiritual surgery—amputating the gangrene of
self, getting the cross back on your shoulder and following Christ.
Who was this anonymous exorcist the disciples tried
to stop? The name of Jesus is not magic. If the man was not authorized
as the twelve were to cast out demons in Jesus’ name, just saying
the words, “I command you to come out in Jesus’ name!” would be
of no effect. But this man was casting out demons “in your name,”
as John said. All we can say is that the man was a believer and
that Jesus’ power was active in him bringing release to men who
had been enslaved to demonic possession. So Jesus says, “Do not
forbid him! For no one who does a mighty work in my name will be
able soon afterward to speak evil of me. For the one who is not
against us is for us.” The wide range of participation in the mission
Jesus envisions is to go far beyond that of only the twelve. After
all, it’s not the man, or the Christian, or the minister himself
but Jesus’ power and authority working through this man and men
of faith. Wherever true faith in Jesus appears, it not only calls
forth the approval of God, but ought also to call forth our approval.
“Truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink
because you belong to Christ will by no means lose his reward.”
Now, I can see this passage being ripped out of its
context especially in these days we live in, to justify rampant
syncretism and universalism; that is, the belief that all religions
somehow lead to the same goal and the same god. We are told not
to criticize other religions or even other styles or ways of doing
things. After all, isn’t that what the disciples were doing in this
text that called forth Jesus’ rebuke? Syncretism says, it doesn’t
matter whether you call on God using the names “Father,” “Jesus,”
“Holy Spirit,” “Allah,” “Vishnu,” “Great Architect” or whatever.
Unionism says that everyone using the name “Jesus” mean the same
thing, anyway. But do they? And is that what Jesus means when he
says, “Do not stop him”?
Jesus’ rebuke in this text in no way is a blanket acceptance
of “everyone do your own thing.” After all, he would also say later,
“I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father
but by me.” And the self-same Apostle John would write in his first
Epistle, “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits
to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone
out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit
that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This
is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and
now is in the world already” [1 John 4:1-3 (ESV)]. On the one hand,
it is the Holy Spirit who works faith in the heart, where and when
it pleases God, in those who hear the Gospel. On the other hand,
that faith has a definite and definable content that can be tested
against the revealed Word of God centering in the one and only Jesus
Christ. True faith in Christ will show up, many times, in places
surprising to us. Yet we must also always be on guard that not everyone
using the name of Jesus has the true faith.
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