Mark 9:38-40.
John said to Jesus, "Teacher, we saw someone driving out demons in your name, and we tried to prevent him because he does not follow us." Jesus replied, "Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For anyone who is not against us is for us."
Abraham Lincoln: "A house that is divided against itself can not stand, 'For anyone who is not against us is for us.'"
• Today’s Gospel narrates quite a beautiful and actual example of the pedagogy of Jesus. It shows us how he helped his disciples to perceive and to overcome the “yeast of the Pharisees and of Herod”.
• Mark 9, 38-40: A closed mentality: He was not one of ours” Someone who did not belong to the community used the name of Jesus to drive out the devils. John, the disciple, sees this and forbids it: We have stopped him because he was not one of us. In the name of the community he forbids that the other one can do a good deed! He thinks that being a disciple, he can have the monopoly on Jesus and, because of this, he wants to forbid that others to use the name of Jesus to do good. This was the closed and ancient mentality of the “chosen People, a separated People!” Jesus responds: “You must not stop him; no one who works a miracle in my name could soon afterwards speak evil of me. Anyone who is not against us is for us.” (Mk 9, 40). It would be very difficult to find a more ecumenical affirmation than this affirmation of Jesus. For Jesus, what is important is not if the person forms part of the community or not, but rather if the person does or not the good which the community should do.
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