Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost The text is Mark 9:38-50.

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³⁸John said to [Jesus], “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.” ³⁹But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me. ⁴⁰Whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward.
 ⁴²“If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. ⁴³If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
 ⁴⁹“For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, Adonai, my rock and my Redeemer.

Grace, mercy, and peace are yours from God the Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Let’s get the challenging part of this passage out of the way before we start to delve into what it is that Jesus is attempting to have his disciples understand about how they are to act when he is no longer with them.  All the talk of drowning and physical maiming that Jesus is insinuating that the disciples should undergo is really hyperbole…albeit, at a rather extreme level.  Jesus is desperately trying to get the disciples to grasp what it is he wants them to comprehend.

This morning’s verses from Mark’s gospel are a continuation of the same event that we have been reading about for the last few Sundays.  Initially Peter proclaims Jesus as the Messiah and when Jesus announces that he must be killed and rise again, Peter attempts to convince Jesus to change his plans.  Jesus tells Peter, “Get behind me”; step aside and let me lead.  Jesus then proclaims to the crowd that if any wish to follow him, they must “take up their cross”; this is his call to true discipleship.  Soon after, as they travelled to Capernaum, Jesus finds that the disciples were arguing about who among them was the best.  Again, trying mightily to have them understand what he must do, Jesus tells them that to be first, they must first be last, that they must be servants to all.  To illustrate this, he takes a small child in his arms and as we read last Sunday, he tells his disciples they must welcome any who wish to come to faith in Jesus as they would accept a small, vulnerable child.    

This morning, with the child still on his lap, Jesus is approached by disciple John who tells him that someone outside of their inner circle is healing people in Jesus’ name.  I can only imagine the amount of frustration Jesus is feeling at this point.  The more he tries to explain his mission and ministry to his closest followers and what he expects from them, the more they seem to remain oblivious to his teaching.  Initially, Peter could be described as being simply unaware of the manner in which Jesus was going to assume to role of the Messiah.  Jesus scolded him for his attempt to have Jesus abandon his purpose.  But when Jesus more fully explains his mission and the disciples still argue about their own greatness and glory, that’s when he feels the need to more stridently correct them; “there is to be no glory”, he tells them; “you must become as servants”.  And now, even as he has just taught them this, John becomes a “tattle-tale” and whines to Jesus that some outsider had the nerve to heal in Jesus’ name.  No wonder Jesus resorts to a listing of such awful bodily damage that ought to be the price for their pettiness.  Better to lose an eye, or a hand, or a foot than oppose any who would desire to profess faith in Jesus.  And, although Jesus doesn’t intend for his followers to actually suffer these bodily maimings, he certainly does imply that they really need to reach a point where they show some understanding of what he is all about.  Hence, the hyperbole.

Whether an innocent child, a stranger expressing their faith in Jesus as the Christ, and especially someone who feels they can heal others’ afflictions simply by invoking Jesus’ name; any who acknowledges Jesus is to be welcomed as a disciple.  Remember, all this is happening as Jesus taught them last week while holding the toddler: Mark writes, “Then he took a little child and put it among them; and taking it in his arms, he said to them, “Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes not me but the one who sent me.”  The key word here is “whoever”.  Jesus is not excluding anyone from the salvation that he has come to offer the world.  And when good deeds are done in his name, it doesn’t matter who gets the credit, as long as the Gospel is put into action.

But the disciples still struggle with coming to terms with their worldview and the decidedly different way that Jesus teaches them the kingdom of God will be like.  They sincerely, desperately want to surrender what they have always believed to be the way things are, and acknowledge that Jesus truly is telling them the way things should be.  They want to have strong, unshakable faith in Jesus as the Son of God and they know in their hearts that he is the Way they must follow.  Although his faith is the strongest among the disciples, Peter would give anything to not always be the one who continually second-guesses Jesus; the one who gets it wrong way more often than he gets it right.  But he struggles; after all, he is only human.

The other disciples wish they would be able to put aside their desire to seek glory for themselves, and it’s certain that they recognized their shortcomings; we read last week that they were afraid to even approach Jesus about their discussion as to who among them was greatest.  But it was very difficult for them to set aside their desire for power and glory in the coming kingdom, even though Jesus has commanded them to be as servants and not glory-seekers.  But they struggle; after all, they’re only human.  Disciple John was rather sharply scolded by Jesus this morning for his pettiness when he informed Jesus that someone who was not part of the twelve was performing healing deeds in Jesus’ name.  I’m sure he felt the sting of Jesus’ words regarding millstones and the cutting off of body parts.  He probably wished he wasn’t so consumed with getting the credit for the good deeds that were being done in Jesus’ name.  But he struggles; after all, he’s only human.

And as exasperated as Jesus becomes with this group of struggling humans, he nonetheless never gives up on them; he simply tries harder and harder to make them understand what they must do if they are to be his disciples, if they are to be the ones to help usher in God’s kingdom.  And he makes the point that it is not enough for them to remain with him, to express their faith and trust in him; they are also commanded to welcome, accept, receive any others who may come among them, any others who profess Christ as Savior.  But they struggled; after all, they were only human.

Let’s recap these struggles the disciples faced; they found it impossible to accept that Jesus as their promised Messiah was to be put to death; they tried to change his mind about his mission, going so far as to suggest they knew better than him; they didn’t understand fully what it was they were being taught; they had to be forced to welcome others who came in search of Jesus; they sought their own personal glory; they had to be threatened with the loss of limbs when they complained that someone outside of their little group had the temerity to heal in the name of their Master; they were petty and sought credit for any deeds done in Jesus’ name.  It’s true, they greatly struggled; but after all, they were only human.

It seems that all these conflicts the disciples grappled with might be summed up in one general dilemma they faced.  While they did feel compelled to answer Jesus’ call to discipleship, and they did their best to follow his commands, the problems arose when they wanted to keep Jesus to themselves.  They missed completely Jesus’ proclamation that he came to serve all of humankind, not just the privileged few, not only the twelve.  He laid this out as clearly as he could, resorting to using a small child as an illustration, alluding to bodily harm, and declaring that any who are not in opposition to Jesus and his disciples are to be considered as companions and co-workers in God’s kingdom.  Yet, his closest followers still struggled with this; after all, they were only human.

And in many ways this atmosphere of the rejection of some, the tendency to override Jesus’ teachings, and the desire to seek glory and demean the deeds of others still remains within some aspects of the church today.  Thus, the struggle remains; after all, we’re only human, too.

But we are recipients of what the twelve were not; we are witnesses to the resurrection.  In spite of the disciples’ tendency toward exclusion, their pettiness, their misguided search for glory, and at the last, the power of the Roman Empire, Jesus Christ, the Son of God did what he promised; he rose from the grave.  Through him the kingdom of God that he proclaimed will come to be; in fact, it has already begun.  Whenever outsiders are welcomed as one would receive a small child, whenever a cup of water is offered to one who thirsts, whenever anything done in Jesus’ name is celebrated without regard for taking credit for the deed; this is when the struggle is overcome.  We’re only human, but we have been blessed to act in imitation of the One whose name we bear.  Let us be the ones who practice the radical acceptance Jesus demands of us.  Let us be the ones to reject glory and take up the cross.  Let us be the ones to rejoice whenever the Gospel is glorified, without seeking acclaim.  Let us be the ones to strive to be like Christ, in spite of our struggle with our humanness.                      

Will you pray with me?  Good, and gracious, and holy God, help us to overcome our human tendencies that cause us to stumble.  Direct us in the way of welcoming others, accepting all who profess Christ, and celebrating whoever might help usher in your Kingdom.  And we pray these things in the name of Jesus Christ, the One whose body and blood are given and shed for ALL people.

Amen.         

 God is Good, all the time.  All the time, God is Good.  Amen.