Mark 9:38-50
September 27, 2009
[Note: Thank you to Brian Blount for his outstanding sermon on this passage at Duke Divinity School. He greatly informed and influenced some of my thinking this week.]
Wow! This is a hard passage to read. I mean, how gruesome. Surely Jesus, our loving compassionate savior, would not advocate such extreme judgments and violent punishments when we sin. You sinned? You have a choice. Chopping Block or Hell.
But, let’s dispense with one thing right away. It is quite gruesome if read literally, but we are not literalists; this is metaphor and hyperbole. Jesus was exaggerating and using strong images to make a point. His statements about cutting off one’s foot, hand, and eye can be compared to some of our modern day metaphors and attempts at hyperbole. How many times have we heard someone say, after they have been utterly humiliated: “Oh, I just want to die!” Or someone might say, either in jest or out of anger, “I could kill you!” Yet in neither case is someone actually supposed to end up dead. How about, “He stabbed me in the back” when we’re betrayed. Or when we think someone has wronged us or others, “she should be tarred and feathered.” Anyway, you get the point. We use strong images as metaphors to indicate strong feelings, not to talk about the literal punishment.
And does Jesus really believe we should go to hell when we sin? Again, this is metaphor. The word for “hell” here is “Gehenna”. Gehenna was a valley near Jerusalem that was used as a garbage dump. It became a symbol for a place of future destruction. Basically it’s the same as us metaphorically sentencing someone to Timbuktu. It’s an actual place in West African Mali, the point is we wish they would go away as far as possible, even though we know they probably won’t. All the talk of mutilation and hell is metaphorical, and to read it otherwise will distract us, we’ll get bogged down in trying to deal with what would be an incredibly disturbing passage if we took it literally.
Of course, even though this is all metaphor, it’s still a very hard passage. These are still very strong images, indicating a level of emotion in Jesus we aren’t always comfortable with. He is talking to his disciples, and I think he’s doing a little “tough love” thing. In short, Jesus is not happy, and whenever Jesus is unhappy with the disciples, we realize he might just be talking to us as well.
So, why was Jesus so unhappy? For the author of the gospel of Mark, demons were real and prevalent. Demons caused all sorts of problems in Mark’s world. They caused people to be blind, they kept people from family and community, they maimed, they made you mean and destructive. In short, they destroyed people, physically spiritually, and psychologically. And people who could exorcise those demons were saviors of a sort. Exorcists were in high demand in Jesus’ day. It is one reason why Jesus was so popular. Exorcism dealt with real problems of real people, and it was one of the most compassionate things you could do for someone.
And here come the disciples complaining that someone who is not “one of them” is exorcising demons in Jesus’ name. And Jesus’ response is, “Are you kidding? Don’t stop them! Whoever is not against us is for us.” This last part – whoever is not against us is for us – is a beautifully inclusive statement, and one we all would do well to embrace as a life philosophy. But, Jesus doesn’t stop there, with that easy to hear, nice to contemplate platitude.
Jesus goes on to compare the disciples to this pagan exorcist, or non-Christian. And the disciples do not come out well. And to give fair warning, Christians today might not fair so well either. Just four verses earlier the disciples had been arguing about who was the greatest among them. And now, they are taking it upon themselves to guard Jesus’ name as if it were protected by copyright laws. Most likely the exorcist they were complaining about was using Jesus name in a derogatory way – they were mocking him. And the disciples figured Jesus would appreciate them standing up for his name and Jesus’ integrity. “You can’t use that name – you aren’t a part of this company – that name is proprietary.”
But while they are busy managing the details of their community and company logo, what is the pagan doing? She’s out there doing the most compassionate work there is. She was exorcising demons. She was giving out cups of water – that life giving, life sustaining, sacred liquid.
The disciples were more concerned with who was following Jesus than with who was doing the work of Jesus. They were concerned with image and reputation. They were concerned with how their group should be organized – who should be ordained, who should be on the church council, who should be “in” and who should be “outside” the community. And Jesus will have none of it.
After the disciples denounce this outsider, Jesus starts his litany of powerful and indicting metaphors. We need to remember that this section is not addressed to everyone. This isn’t about sinning in general. This certainly isn’t about Jesus condemning people for not following a moral code. This section is addressed to the disciples in this specific situation. “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believes in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea.” The term “little ones” here means the Gentiles – non Christians. They are the unbelievers and the unimportant.
Basically Jesus is saying, “Listen up! I’m talking to you, Peter, James, John and the rest. Even though these people are not Christian, and even though they haven’t said the right things or followed any of the Jewish laws, and even if they are using my name mockingly, if any of you get in the way of this compassionate work, I’ll send you to Timbuktu, where you can just curl up and die for all I care.” Are these metaphors?….of course. Is it an easy message?…nope.
Jesus makes it painfully clear that the disciples are not to be praised because they have followed Jesus around. That is a gross misunderstanding of what it means to be a disciple. They should be exorcists – like the one they are complaining about. But they aren’t out there healing people. Now to be fair to the disciples, its possible they tried and just weren’t successful. Maybe the reason they were complaining about this rouge exorcist was jealousy. They couldn’t do what she was doing.
Or maybe, they were afraid of having that kind of power. Jesus clearly gave it to them. Mark 3:14 says, “He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach, and to have power to heal sicknesses and to cast out demons.” It’s scary to have that kind of power. We’re not talking about having power over someone, or the power to control. That’s not really so scary. Instead, it’s the power to free someone and give someone back control over their lives. And we don’t want this power because it means we should be using it. Most of us really want to live under the radar – but in Jesus’ day, exorcists didn’t live under the radar. They attracted more and more people the more they healed. You see, with this kind of power comes responsibility.
There is a quote that is usually attributed to Nelson Mandela – but I actually think it comes from Marianne Williamson. Regardless, I think it hits the nail on the head for most of us: “Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate, but that we have power beyond measure.” If we are inadequate or not capable, it makes sense to not even try. It means we can just sit back and let demons do what they will to people because there’s nothing we can do anyway. If we are powerful beyond measure, sitting back while demons run amok is cruel.
Jesus gives all Christians the power to exorcise demons. But how many people who call themselves Christian are out there exorcising demons? We like to say that demons were something they believed in in Jesus’ day, but that we know demons aren’t “real”. But, that’s not the truth, is it? We might not be comfortable with the word demon and the occupation of exorcist, but we know people are being destroyed by all sorts of things. And when I really look at the world, and see what is happening to some people, I’m not sure “demon” isn’t a pretty good description of what besieges people. It may be demons of natural of human origin, but the reality of pain and suffering is as real today as it was in Mark’s day. And it is certainly something followers of Jesus should be concerned about.
It can be a bit painful to step back and look at the Christian Church today and ask the question: Are we out there freeing people, or are Christians so busy arguing and controlling each other than we don’t even see the realities facing so many people today. The Church is pretty fascinated with the question of who is “in” and who is “out”. People in churches work hard, but sometimes only to perfect a creed or to define the boundaries of the community. The denominations certainly work hard deciding who is to be the greatest – the ordained ones, and who is to be the least – the ones condemned as “sinners”. All of this while demons are having their way with people.
Is this true of us here at First Pres? Of course the answer is both “yes” and “no”. I see you time and time again turning your gaze away from this building and out into the world, seeking out those in need of compassion and care. I see you feel people’s pain almost as if it were your own. You work very hard to muster your courage to use the power you have been given to exorcise the demons of oppressive structures, consumerism, poverty. When faced with the demons of mental illness, chronic pain, addiction, loneliness, you know that the ones imprisoned by these demons is your brother or sister. You are remarkably successful at remembering that the institution should serve the ministry and not the other way around. And you don’t get bogged down in internal conflicts over carpets and creeds.
At the same time, we all know that it’s scary to be out there exorcising demons. We know that Jesus was eventually killed, and probably his work as an exorcist was a big part of that. Because the truth is, sometimes the demons fight back.
For example, we confront the demon of mental illness in a family member or friend, knowing if the person were free from that demon, they would be less hurtful, less dangerous, less desperate. But mental illness is one of those demons that fights back. And we wonder, do we really have the power to do something there? And what is it, exactly, that we are supposed to do?
Or we might confront the demon of consumerism, knowing – knowing – that if we and others consumed less, the benefits to our fellow human beings and our beautiful planet would be immeasurable. But that is a demon each of us struggles with and often the demon wins. Not because we’re bad people, but because it’s scary to battle such a powerful system. People would notice and would resist. So many people depend on that demon staying alive. And more people depend on not seeing it as a demon at all.
And yes, at times we too are jealous. How many of us want to admit that the radical fundamentalist, bible beating, fire and brimstone breathing congregation is far more active at reaching out to the lonely and giving to the poor? How many of us are reluctant to join them in their work because we are afraid of being associated with “them”? And don’t our churches, in all their deliberations about ordination, standards, discipline and moral codes attempt to stop people from claiming their power to heal and exorcise demons because we don’t think they are Christian enough?
Healing is healing. Compassion is compassion. And when these things are happening, shouldn’t our response to everything else be “who cares?” Who cares if they are sinners? Who cares if they look different from us? Who cares is they don’t meet our standards? Who cares if they’re not Christian? Who cares if they are in prison for murder? Who cares if they are mocking us while they do it? What matters in that moment is one more demon has left one more person. Why on earth would we want to stop that?
The world needs exorcists. The world needs people to go out in droves and give cups of water to those dying of thirst. The world needs people who recognize a demon when they see it. We need people who really understand what demons do to people – the toll they take, the communities they destroy, the lives they claim. And perhaps the difficult truth we need to face is there are people out there – lots of non Christians – exorcising demons every chance they have. And maybe they have an advantage because they are not a part of the Christian club. They don’t have pews to fill, meetings to attend, membership to manage. They don’t spend time deciding who should be ordained, who is authorized to do God’s work. They don’t worry about which church has the right theology, about who is greatest among Christians. They aren’t concerned about who is going to heaven and who is going to hell. They see a demon, and do whatever they can to get rid of it. Perhaps we Christians need to claim our power and join them. Amen.
