Mark 9:39-41
Sometimes
we think that people have to show up at our rally in order to support us. They
have to either be behind us 100% or they are against us. But there is a middle
ground, in fact, lots of middle ground. Sometimes people have competing drives
and obligations that prevent them from lining up with you on every issue in
life. They have a soccer game with their kid during the time you set for your
important organizing meeting, so they can’t attend.
Jesus
makes a powerful statement: whoever is not against us is for us. Notice that He
didn’t say, whoever is not for us is against us. These are very different statements.
Jesus said that is someone is not putting up active opposition to what we are
doing, then they support us.
This
is very different from the second statement which places everyone against us,
if they aren’t specifically for us. Jesus’ way of thinking was that there was a
smaller opposition than what the disciples were thinking. The disciples
automatically threw people into the opposition side of the equation, if they
weren’t actively supporting. Jesus puts in the opposition camp only those who
specifically oppose Him.
Jesus
illustrates this with a simple example. If someone gives you some support, even
if it is as insignificant as a cup of water, they are no longer in the
opposition camp. It costs almost nothing to provide a cup of water, even in a
desert climate. If they give you this small support because you are connected
to Jesus, then they are not opposition. They are on your team.
Just
this simple fact makes us a larger group than we might have thought at first. Jesus
seems to not be worried about those in the opposition group. If people are actually
supporting Jesus in one moment, they won’t turn around and oppose Him in the
next. The same is true in our lives.
But
what about someone who flip flops on an issue? I think that they really didn’t
support the first position, and perhaps even the second position. Some people
just don’t have the backbone to really take a stand for something, anything.
They are like the shifting sand, never stable enough to support any structure
of substance. Their convictions are not convictions at all. They are just
opinions at a moment in time.
The
reason Jesus can be so sure that someone who does a miracle in His Name one
moment won’t turn around and change their mind is simple: the LORD won’t be
fooled by mere outward expression. He is not generally going to use a person proclaiming
His glory who is half-hearted. He wants people who are willing to stick their
neck out and have their head chopped off! He doesn’t want turtles.