THE
An argument arose among the
disciples about which of them was the greatest. Jesus realized the intention of
their hearts and took a child and placed it by his side and said to them,
"Whoever receives this child in my name receives me, and whoever receives
me receives the one who sent me. For the one who is least among all of you is
the one who is the greatest."
Then John said in reply,
"Master, we saw someone casting out demons in your name and we tried to
prevent him because he does not follow in our company."
Jesus said to him, "Do
not prevent him, for whoever is not against you is for you."
Luke
9, 46-50
I’ll begin
an approach to this passage by examining the two word phrase, ‘in reply’. As simple as that phrase is, it’s actually
quite startling, and quite revealing. Let’s
put the phrase in its context. Jesus had
just finished elaborating on one of the profound truths in his message of
salvation, and he’d challenged his disciples to begin thinking in a radical new
way. He was actually chiding them, and
warning them that their old ways of treating other people were greatly in need
of change. It’s a very bad idea,
according to the Lord, for people to expend too much effort looking for the
‘big cheese’, the ‘great disciple’. Far
better, he said, for us to seek out the lowly and the downtrodden in our midst
and to remember that the way to draw close to God is by tending to their needs.
John
had something to blurt out as soon as there was a pause in the conversation. It seems as if he hadn’t been listening at
all – and he hadn’t been. His ‘reply’ is
no reply – it certainly wasn’t influenced by the words of Jesus. John was intent on ‘showing off’. He wanted to toot his own horn and let everyone
know what wonderful work he was doing.
John, of course, was one of the ones in the running for the “greatest
disciple” moniker. He was practically in
‘campaign mode’.
The
things that were true in gospel times are true now – there continues to be a
huge gap between the importance Jesus puts on certain issues, and the
importance the highers-up in the ‘Jesus organization’ put on these same issues. One of these issues is the matter of staying
in control. John maintained a keen
distinction in his mind between those who “follow in our company” and those who
don’t; and he’d taken it upon himself to make sure that important religious
activities only took place with the proper ‘company authorization’. Interestingly, he didn’t tell Jesus, “We
tried to stop someone who was being hurtful and hateful” or “we tried to stop
someone who was breaking the commandments” or “we tried to stop someone who was
oppressing foreigners and neglecting widows”.
Instead, he laid down the law on some ‘religious renegade’ that he
happened upon.
If
John had lived in this era he might have said, “I saw someone organizing prayer
meetings in your name…”, or “I saw someone commenting on Church policy in your
name…” or “I saw someone scheduling religious classes in your name….” You can be sure that if that person didn’t
“follow in our company” John would have put a stop to his work!
John
tells Jesus about his activities and expects to be praised for it. He’s convinced that he’s ‘got it’ as far as
spirituality goes. He’s one of the
learned, and his ears are stopped up against the ‘new learning’ Jesus wants to
share. How does Jesus react? How would you react if you were in Jesus
position? I know what I’d want to
do. I’d want to take a page out of
Donald Trump’s book. I’d want to turn to
John and say, “you’re fired!” but Jesus takes a kinder, gentler approach. He assures John that the renegade he can’t
control is actually on his side. Is John
assured? Does John do a better job of
listening to Jesus’ second comment than he did the first? The Bible doesn’t tell us the punch line to
this story and, frankly, I’m glad it doesn’t.
I’m glad because the story captured here is the same story that has
played out again and again throughout the generations – and the punch line
changes depending on how any particular ‘John’ decides to respond to Jesus.
If
you happen to be a ‘great disciple’ and exercise authority within the local,
regional or international Church, you would do well to ponder the words that
the Lord addressed to John. It seems
clear that it’s best to remember that God is the one who’s in charge, and that
it might not be a good idea for you to try to control everything that’s going
on. But what if you are under the authority of a great
disciple? One can only wonder what might
have happened if the one who was “not following in our company” had approached
Jesus to complain that John had tried to interfere with his work.
The
work that God gives us to do is hardly ever work that we can do on our
own. Christianity is not a
do-it-yourself project. If we’re to
advance the
If
you don’t find it, however, you might be fooled into thinking that the best
size is the largest size. There are some
really large crowds, these days, trying to operate as Christian
communities. What sorts of strategies
are needed for ‘crowd control’? For one
thing, large crowds require strong leaders – strong in the way that John was
strong. A strong leader is only able to
keep a large crowd in line by exerting firm control and by making sure that
everyone follows the company way. Like
John, such a leader has to suppress unauthorized activity, and can’t tolerate much
individual initiative. And like John,
such leaders blur the distinction between their big crowd, their big company,
and the people of God.
What
would the goal of this ‘big company’ be?
Why, it would be to become bigger still!
Anyone outside of the company would be invited in, and those who refused
would be told that they’re not allowed to act “in Jesus name”. Those on the “inside” would be told that it is
only by staying inside, and submitting to the control of the ‘great disciples’,
that one can do the will of God. Have
you ever come across an organization that operates this way? Where do you suppose the people in that sort
of organization got their inspiration?
Do you suppose they got it from Jesus, or from the one who didn’t listen
to Jesus, the one who’s ‘reply’ was ‘no reply’?
This
passage illustrates a couple of different methods for advancing the kingdom –
one method has divine inspiration, the other human. The “Johns” among Jesus’ disciples are as
likely to try to stop people from “receiving a child” in his name as they are
to stop folks from “casting out demons”.
What about these people, the ones who are rebuked by the “Johns”, the
ones who Jesus says are really “for” him?
The
way I figure it, from the time you’re baptized you’ve got three paths to choose
among as far as religion goes. You can
be quiet, you can lapse, or you can develop the reputation for starting trouble. The quiet ones are convinced that the safest,
surest way to get to heaven is to stay in the big company, to keep your mouth
shut and to follow your authorized leader.
The lapsed ones are the ones who tried being quiet, but eventually came
to the conclusion that they couldn’t endure the control tactics of the ‘great
disciples’. The trouble makers have the
tough job. They have to listen to what
the great ones say and then keep
listening, in faith, to what Jesus has to say in response.
The
disciple who’s ‘great’ will likely complain that you’re causing trouble while
you’re trying to do God’s work, and that disciples’ complaint might tempt you
to become quiet or to lapse.
Fortunately, there’s a third alternative, because no matter how great
that disciple is, your faith allows you to “go over his head” and to listen to
the one who took a child and placed it by his side.
September
24, 2005