John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.” “Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us. If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded. “But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand than to go into the unquenchable fires of hell with two hands. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one foot than to be thrown into hell with two feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out. It’s better to enter the Kingdom of God with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ‘where the maggots never die and the fire never goes out.’ “For everyone will be tested with fire. Salt is good for seasoning. But if it loses its flavor, how do you make it salty again? You must have the qualities of salt among yourselves and live in peace with each other.”

Mark 9:38-43,45,47-50

Dear God, after going through Matthew and now a good part of Mark, this is one of the few quotes we get from John. I can’t tell what he was doing at the beginning of this story. Was he bragging that they had done this? Was he curious to know if they had done the right thing? Was this a passive/aggressive way of disagreeing with what had been done and hoping to get Jesus’ message out to the rest of the disciples?

Since this is a retelling of the story, I’m going to assume that, if the author had felt John was being disingenuous in any way that he would have given us John’s thoughts as well as his words. But Mark didn’t do that, so I’m going to assume that John was trying to please Jesus with this statement, but it backfired on him.

The big lesson, I think, for all of us here is that there are people out there who are our friends and we treat them like our enemies. The obvious example is bickering between Christian denominations. But then it goes deeper than that. People within churches willingly turn on each other for superficial reasons. Families will sometimes turn on each other. It’s almost as if we look for differences so that we can assuage our insecurity and promote our superiority to others. “I’m holier than you.” “I’m smarter than you.” “I’m a better person than you.” Yeah, that makes us feel better.

One last thing I want to mention is the logic Jesus used for not rebuking the person. He says that the person won’t be able to say bad things about Jesus if he is doing good and powerful things in Jesus’ name. He can’t cast out a demon in Jesus’ name on Tuesday and then on Wednesday say that Jesus is a fraud. And the subtle lesson to the disciples is also that there will come a day when they need to expand beyond the 12 of them, and they will need to embrace people like this man.

Father, help me to embrace all those who are co-servants of yours with me. Sometimes my Protestant friends question my ability to attend Catholic Church with my wife because some of their traditions and beliefs are so different. My response is always that, on the important things such as Jesus deity, death, and resurrection, they agree, and the things we disagree on are completely insignificant. Additionally, the people with whom I worship there really love you and love Jesus. I have no issues at all with their faith or devotion to you. So, yes, I will gladly join my wife and worship you there with them. Help me to readily extend that to others as well and to not feel I have to judge someone else in order to feel better about myself.

In Jesus’ name I pray,

Amen