Do Not Stop Him

Scripture – Mark 9:38-42: ³⁸“Teacher,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” ³⁹“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “No one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, ⁴⁰for whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹I tell you the truth, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to Christ will certainly not lose his reward. ⁴²“And if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone tied around his neck.

Reflection: The net Jesus casts is far wider than I can envision. The natural way to phrase things would be, ‘Whoever is not for us is against us.’ Lots of groups do that. Right to Life, for example, has built its mission on that statement. The Jewish leadership had pretty well come around to that in Jesus’ day, as well.

But Jesus reverses our idea of common sense. “Whoever is not against us is for us,” He said. We welcome the efforts of many people. We don’t have to agree on every specific thing before we can join together.

Where there is a choice to do good, I’ll choose the good. Where there is a choice between helping or ignoring, I’ll help. The key, as always, is that I live and act in the name of Jesus.

Lord, open my eyes, ears and heart today. Show me how to live for you. Save me from those temptations to live against you. In my heart of hearts, you are the Lord – the Director of my life. Keep reminding me to let you be in control.

An Invitation: For anyone interested in sharing their personal reflections from this week’s readings, you are invited to come by the Tim Hortons donut shop at Dix-Toledo and Northline in Southgate tomorrow morning at 9:45am. We’ll have a cup of coffee and see what the Lord has been teaching us this week.

Reading for Sunday, March 2:

Scripture – Mark 9:43-50: ⁴³If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. ⁴⁵And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸where “‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁹Everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰“Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”