Mark 9:38
One
of the tendencies of humans is to create groups. Groups can be good for
survival. Groups can be bad for cooperation. Groups create ‘us’ and ‘them,’
Democrat and Republican, 99% and 1%, union and open shop, public sector and
private sector, veteran and civilian, pro-life and pro-abortion, inside the
beltway and the rest of the country, management and workers. The list of these
types of ‘us’ and ‘them’ groups could go on almost endlessly. And most of these
could be split into even smaller groups.
Gallup,
the organization that does polls, has mastered the art of counting these types
of divides. They plan their questions so that the differences can be measured,
and then the results sold for a profit to those who wish to exploit those
differences. Don’t think for one minute that they do this because they love
counting things. They ask questions in order to make a profit. They are
capitalists.
The
disciples were just like us. They divided people into groups. They had the ‘us’
group which included only a very small group of people who were close to Jesus.
As you can imagine they probably knew lots about each other. They had to have
something to talk about as they walked from place to place. They knew about
each other’s families, their upbringing, their weird relatives, the childhood
accidents and resulting scars, and about previous and perhaps current love
interests. Most of the disciples were married by the end of their life.
So
the disciples see someone doing what they thought only people in the ‘us’
category should be doing. They tell them to stop. They didn’t think they were
qualified to do ‘us’ kinds of things. They were ‘them’, after all, and not one
of ‘us’. Jesus hadn’t specifically given them permission and power to do
demon-casting kind of work.
The
disciples had been given something special, or at least that is what they
thought, and they didn’t want their specialness being taken away by one of ‘them’.
It could be that they thought they were doing the right thing in that moment,
that they were upholding standards.
They
problem wasn’t that the disciples were mistaken about there being in ‘us’ when
it comes to Jesus, but their rules for being in the ‘us’ group were too narrow.
Jesus Himself made ‘us’ and ‘them’ distinctions. If you aren’t for me, you are
against me. Follow me, not follow anyone you want to follow. Walk in the light
because there are those who walk in the darkness. Have righteousness that
exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees. Sheep and goats. Salt and compost
pile material.
The
problem with the disciples is that they drew the circle too small. They were
excluding people who had the necessary entrance qualification, but were not
part of the inner circle. There were people who put their trust in Jesus as the
Messiah, but were not with Jesus in the same way that the disciples were. They
had jobs and family and obligations, but they still trusted Jesus and His word.
Make
sure you examine closely the perimeter lines of your group. Don’t exclude
people who want to join, but lack some insignificant discriminator. Don’t kick
out people needlessly.