Mark 9:38-40 reads,
“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.”
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.”
John McArthur writes in Twelve Ordinary Men,
“[The Apostles] were perfectly ordinary men in every way. Not one of them was renown for scholarship or great erudition. They had no track record as orators or theologians. In fact, they were outsiders as far as the religious establishment of Jesus’ day was concerned. They were not outstanding because of any natural talents or intellectual abilities. On the contrary, they were all too prone to mistakes, misstatements, wrong attitudes, lapses of faith and bitter failure…Yet with all their faults and character flaws – as remarkably ordinary as they were – these men carried on a ministry after Jesus’ ascension that left an indelible impact on the world.”
And yet, there is much to glean from their recorded interactions, successes and failures, as they related to Christ during his earthly ministry.
Ministry, both the highs and lows, must drive us to our knees and the pages of Scripture. This past week drove me to the passage above and to glean from the faithful expositors below.
Warren Wiersbe
“Jesus did not treat John’s statement lightly; in fact, He went on to explain the danger of causing others to stumble and therefore stop serving the Lord (Mark 9:42–50). ‘These little ones’ refers to all God’s children who follow Christ and seek to serve Him. The way believers treat others in the family of God is a serious thing, and God wants us to ‘have peace one with another’ (Mark 9:50). The disciples did not get along with each other, nor did they get along with other believers!”
Albert Barnes
“True likeness to the Savior would lead us to rejoice in all the good accomplished, by whomsoever it may be done; and to rejoice that the kingdom of Christ is advanced.”
John Calvin
“There is reason to suspect the disciples of Christ of ambition, because they are anxious to maintain their privilege and honor. For why is it that they all at once forbid a man who is unknown to them to work miracles, but because they wish to be the sole possessors of this right?”
“If the disciples had not been more devoted to their own glory than anxious and desirous to promote the glory of their Master, they would not have been offended when they saw that glory heightened and enlarged in another direction.”
16th century theologian Richard Hooker is created with saying,
“Wise men are men, and truth is truth.”
This should be of comfort to all Christ-followers: our faith lies not in imperfect messengers, historical or contemporary, but in our perfect Savior and His perfect message of Salvation found in Scripture.
