Not One of Us

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.

Self-Imposed Prejudice

Mark 7:24-30

      I love murder/crime mystery shows. I can never seem to figure out whodunit, until the big reveal. I fall victim to all the authors rabbit trails and obfuscation. They hook me and I jump. I really love the plots that include some code of some type. But code only helps when you know the code you are speaking. It doesn’t do any good to speak a code if you don’t know what it means. When you meet your contact in Moscow and speak the words, “It is raining in Detroit” and you don’t know that that means to call off the operation, you words have no meaning to you, but may have an unintended meaning to the hearer.

      Have you ever noticed that some people see prejudice under every rock! They seem to thrive on being the victim. Whether anyone is exhibiting prejudice or not, they see to find it everywhere. The words spoken turn into code words, even when the person speaking doesn’t know the code. My guess is that the prejudice resides in the hearer much more than in the speaker. How could it be the speaker if the code isn’t known by the speaker?

      I hear code in the words of Humanists. Humanists are people who deny God’s existence, who seek explanations only in the realm of what can be measured and tested. See Here for more information. When they speak they speak from that worldview. Without any external moral absolutes, they attempt to create a society based on a utopian ideal that humans can actually get along, that there is no ulterior motive, that people naturally want what is best for everyone. I am not sure what world they are living in, but it certainly isn’t our war torn, sin ravaged world of today.

      Our text today deals with a woman who has self-imposed prejudice. We would probably say she has a self-esteem problem. She comes from the other side of the tracks. Her ethnic background spelled compromise in religious matters. She was an outsider in Palestine. She might have spoken with an accent, signaling her outsider status.

      As we read the text it might seem as if Jesus buys into her self-imposed image. He does use an illustration of children and dogs in a culture that did not value dogs. He could have used many others to make His point.

      But Jesus sees faith in her heart. Her daughter has been overpowered by a demon. She has been unable to get her relief. She hears about Jesus’ abilities and she comes, even though He has tried to keep His presence a secret.

      What I see her exhibiting is humility. Jesus tests the level of her humility with his illustration. He does not humiliate her. He meets her at her point of need and heals her daughter.

      Are you humble enough to allow Jesus to test your humility? Or do you require a certain status in society, a voice at the table? Must you have your vote? Must the vote go your way or you rebel?

People Watching

Mark 7:1-4

      There are some people who just don’t seem to have enough going on in their own lives that they must spend time watching other peoples’ lives. That would be OK, I guess, if they would withhold their judgment. But instead, they usually find someone to talk to about what they saw and then add their own take on it, how it was wrong or substandard in some way. We have all run into them in our lives. We might have done it ourselves. So why is it wrong?

      I call the problem the “little box syndrome.” Some people live in such small boxes and they are can’t seem to see the world outside their box. What makes it bad is that they think they have a corner on the market in understanding the world. They think they have an exclusive and correct view of everyone else and they are more than willing to share that opinion with other people, as long as they never have to step outside their box.

      Sometimes the box has a deceptive name like “tolerance.”  But tolerance as it is used today in the United States is nothing more than official bigotry. We know this because anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the party line is labeled a bigot, without any tolerance of their viewpoint or room for variation. And there are some groups that are specifically targeted by these charges, those with contrary viewpoints. No rational discussion is ever allowed. The label gets glued and stuck. End of discussion.

      Our text tells of some religious people who come to see Jesus, probably with ulterior motives. They aren’t there to really hear what Jesus has to say and do, they are there to find something to shoot down. They are looking for an easy target to discredit Him.

      Mark includes an explanation of their standard of behavior. The washing of hands has nothing to do with cleanliness or personal hygiene. Instead, the washing was a way to separate themselves from the crowds in the public square. It was a way of indicating that they felt better than these common people.

      We do this today with the kind of car we purchase and the neighborhoods where we live. We do it with the clothes we wear and the restaurants we frequent. We do it with the professions we chose and don’t chose.

      Jesus offers a box that is large enough for everyone. Everyone is welcome to enter and find rest and acceptance. There is freedom and forgiveness. The only requirement is that you enter the box and accept the constraints of the box.

      One of the constraints is that you have to give up your prejudices. Just because you are in the new box, the Jesus box, does not mean you are better than those outside the box. On the contrary, if you are in the Jesus box, you realize at a very profound level how unworthy you are to be in His box. You know you don’t deserve it. Nothing you do makes your place more secure. You are only there because of what Jesus has done on your behalf. He paid the membership dues.

      So next time you are tempted to people watch and make judgments, think again.