061001 Sermon - Mark 9:38-50 Jesus is our First Responder

This is a continuation of last Sunday’s Gospel. Remember that Jesus and his disciples had left Galilee. They reached Capernaum after He had again prophesied His death and resurrection and after the disciples were encouraged to take the last place instead of the first. To lead others you must become their servant. We must embrace one another as if we were children so as to embrace God in Christ.
As if to somehow respond to this challenge to embracing and showing hospitality to others, John chimes in with a point of interpretation, as if to say: “How about those people who use your name to get rid of demons. Shouldn’t we stop them since they are not in our special in-group or assembly?”
Jesus responds immediately. He forbids John and the rest of us from standing in the way of others who do good in His name. After all, they couldn’t be doing that without being on God’s side anyway. Even if all an outsider was to offer a cup of water in the name of Jesus. That is a sign of agreement with God. Who’s in and who’s out, anyway? Who is the true disciple? The one who does His will, right?
Still speaking to John’s challenge of those who are not disciples but who use the name of Jesus to do good – Jesus warns his disciples not to bully or take advantage of those who are not disciples. Their simple trust is enough to give them protection by God and even a disciple of Jesus might be treading dangerously close to doing something they would wish they hadn’t. It would be better to sink in the middle of a lake with a millstone around your neck, than to lead these “little ones” astray.
Still speaking to the disciples and not to the unbelievers or to the simple ones who can only use the name of Jesus to do good things – Jesus says that it would be better to remove a hand, a foot, or an eye than to be condemned to hell. Modern readers like us may not grasp the reason for this reference to self-maiming, but the story of Oedipus the King was a well-known moral tale of the time.
Jesus has a quick response to John’s seemingly haughty isolationism from the “ner’ do wells” who can’t seem to truly follow Jesus, but still work good and not evil in the name of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the Prince of Peace and the First Responder to those who are doctrinally outside the church but who do good as if they were in the church.
Like many of you, I grew up hearing sermons on this passage that resembled John Wesley’s. I was repeatedly reminded that everyone is going through a refining fire sooner or later, but that Jesus will be quick to respond, protect and preserve those from the eternal flames, if I let go of parts of my self that need to be cut off and discarded.
I must die so that Christ may live in me. Oedipus the King did not have that understanding. His moral lesson was without the promise of eternal life in Christ, but Sophocles in that Greek tragedy centered around a man who unknowingly killed his father, King Laius of Thebes. He then marries his mother, Jocasta. And when he learns the truth, he blinds himself in despair.
There is no despair in Christ our Redeemer. Jesus responds with a solution to man’s inhumanity and frailty. You and I don’t have to lose our present lives for nothing. We can lose the things of this world without losing our souls.
JESUS IS OUR FIRST RESPONDER
The truth is – I am no better than the least of the children who unknowingly give help to others in the name of Christ without any proper teaching and without disciplined devotion to Jesus in their daily life. Today we celebrate the Lord’s Supper as a simple act of obedience and devotion that calls us as little children to Christ’s table of submission and service.
By coming here and partaking of God’s food of deliverance, each one of us confesses: I am one of Your children in peril. I am on the edge of eminent disaster and total loss without You, Lord.
Psalm 121:8 promises that “the Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.”
Neri Ruth Gattinoni of Provincia del Chubut, Argentina was on the patio of her apartment complex hanging out laundry when she heard a small voice say, "Hi, Mommy!" She looked up and to her horror saw her five-year-old walking on the slanted edge of their balcony more than 20 feet above the ground. Apparently, he had slipped between the columns of the balcony railing.
Neri Ruth can't remember running up the stairs or thinking about how she would get him to come back in without falling. But she does remember grabbing a piece of candy and saying, in a calm voice, "Come to Mommy; I have some candy for you."
He smiled at his mother and slowly made his way back through the railing until she held him safely in her arms. Neri Ruth realizes how the Lord took care of her son that day.
He was too young to realize the danger of his acts. But even we who are older many times walk perilously close to the edge of disaster. We can chose to come to our Savior when He beckons us with His sweet food of deliverance? We could just fall, you know. But God does really care for us even when we stray. Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to respond to our needs.
Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Your Son Jesus to be the first and only responder to our true needs of everlasting life. Thank you for being with us in these dangerous times. Thank You for taking care of us. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord (Psalm 121:1-2). Father, urge us to kneel at this Your table while remembering how you saved us at Your baptismal font. Your voice of the Holy Trinity sounds and we make the sign of the cross while kneeling and confessing You who spoke to Moses from the burning bush speak to us through Your Son. We receive Your Spirit in Your means of grace – including this sacrament. Father, thank you for marking us as Your own in our baptism and at Christ’s table. Abba Father, we are all children in peril. Save us by Your Grace and in the Name of Jesus Christ our Savior. Amen.