Mark 9:38-42, LSB
John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to hinder him because he was not following us.” But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. “For he who is not against us is for us. “For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name because you are of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. “And whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.
I wonder how John and the others were forbidding or hindering this one who didn’t follow them? Physical restraints? Rebuke? Slander? Did they discourage others from attending to his ministry? Perhaps it’s not revealed to us for a reason. Cancel culture is older than our generation and Jesus was not impressed.
Was this man a disciple of John? A lone fellow? We may never know. Bottom line, his crime was not heresy. His “crime” was that he was not in their church, he was not following them!
Very simply, John and the others tried to forbid him. Jesus corrected them. He did not correct him.
This passage does not mean that we should have one big ecumenical movement or that we can have equal levels of fellowship with everyone. This passage does not mean that the church does not matter.
But it does teach that we need to be more charitable towards others than we are sometimes.
Think about it!
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