Mark 9:38-50 Commentary

They were arguing about who among them was the greatest. Let’s not forget that context while we read this week’s lectionary text. The disciples were afraid because they didn’t understand what Jesus was talking about, so they turned to an ego boosting exercise that backfires. They know they aren’t showing much maturity, staying silent when Jesus asks them what they were arguing about.

Last week, we heard Jesus tell them that the way to greatness is servitude and hospitality—especially to people who have nothing on offer. He modeled it by taking a child, hugging them, and keeping them close as he continued to speak to his disciples. Let’s not forget that context, either.

That’s where this week’s text begins. John pipes up and makes what he must think is a positive offering: “We put a stop to someone not following us, Jesus. He was casting out demons in your name.” It’s a bit of a yeah, but… What’s clear from John’s phrasing is that he’s still thinking of the disciples’ special place: “he was not following us.”

Jesus’s answer makes clear again, it’s not about you! Or at least not in the way John and the rest of the disciples want it to be… Jesus will get to that in just a minute or two.

But first, Jesus speaks a word desperately needed for our polarized times. Modelling us to trust in the Holy Spirit, Jesus tells the disciples not to stop someone using his name to work miracles. The implication being that if it is a genuine outpouring of God’s power, then whoever is experiencing it will be changed by it. Trust that. They are not enemies but fellow servants. It’s another way that the disciples need to grow in hospitality. Jesus, it seems, continues to be more ecumenical and less tied to doctrinal alignment in ministry partnership than his followers have been throughout the ages.

Having just witnessed the disciples display two significant characteristics that do not sit well with him, Jesus brings the teaching moment home to roost. If the disciples are so focused on themselves, then he’ll talk about what they ought to be thinking about.

The disciples have shown a penchant for exclusion, whether they realize it or not. Jesus starts there, describing their exclusive attitude as a stumbling block to other believers—especially the vulnerable and “unvaluable,” like children. Next, harkening back to the powerful image of losing life in order to gain life, Jesus lists in hyperbole the sort of loss they need to consider if they want to gain the life that following him gains.

When it comes to how we view ourselves, Jesus is teaching us to be careful which direction we’re predominately looking. The disciples were busy thinking about their greatness compared to others (both among the disciples as well as over and against other people), but Jesus is drawing their attention to introspection. Projection often coincides with self-deception.

Jesus’s words can be used for introspection. What are we doing with ourselves? What are we doing for others? What are we doing against others? How are we hindering other people’s faith? How are we hindering our own faith? Where are we going and getting ourselves involved in things that fool our soul about true greatness?

It’s not just about how we put obstacles in the way of others. Like the disciples arguing about who was the greatest, we can be our own worst enemies. Without giving up the kinds of things that lead us away from God—even if we originally thought they would lead us closer to God—we are better off telling the truth about our separation from God than to keep on fooling ourselves.

The negative unquenchable fire represented by the kind of life we might shape, one filled with anger or outrage, superiority or pride, so focused on purity that we don’t realize how big of a wall we’ve built around ourselves—and worse yet the community of faith—is as awful a life as can be imagined, like living at the dump where the garbage just keeps piling up. (See the textual point below.)

Either we will become so saturated by this kind of living that we lose all of our saltiness, or we will go through the process of repentance and become salty and useful in the Kingdom.

Jesus closes his words with a call to peace. Salt’s greatest usefulness is as a preservative. So as we think about the importance of introspection, of the humility and hospitality that Jesus is telling us to pursue, he gives us an image that helps us understand why. Preserving our own souls will allow us to be part of keeping the peace and preserving the community that is the Kingdom of God.

Textual Points

In Leviticus 8, Aaron and his sons participate in the offerings for ordination as God’s priests. One of the offerings, the ram offering (v 18ff.), includes having the blood of a ram put on their ear, hand and foot. Similar to our text’s eye, foot and hand, the idea is that the whole person is consecrated to God.

As you might be aware, Gehenna (the actual word translated by many modern texts as “hell”) was the garbage dump just outside of Jerusalem. Prior to that, it was where the Canaanites made child sacrifices to the god Moloch.

Illustration Idea

I am reminded of how important preservation is by shows like Alone, where contestants are dropped into the wild with limited resources and attempt to survive for as long as possible. Not surprisingly, food becomes the lynchpin. On the first season of Alone Australia, only one contestant brought a block of salt as one of their ten items and she was the only one able to preserve the fish and game she caught despite the humid conditions. She was also the winner.