Learning from Jesus: pro or anti?
Most of us have probably been perplexed by the apparent contradiction between these words, recorded by Mark, and what seems like the exact opposite - 'He who is not with me is against me' - recorded by Matthew and Luke. The uniqueness of Jesus and the consequent exclusiveness of the gospel incline us, perhaps, to set greater store by the clarity of this second statement.
It reinforces the categorical biblical distinctions between darkness and light, death and life. That was, of course, Jesus' intention, since he was responding to the Pharisees' jibe that it was by satanic power that he was casting out demons. The context determined Jesus' response.
It is easy for us to take it out of context, and apply it so that it reinforces our own sense of exclusiveness, and encourages us to see the 'world' outside as intrinsically hostile and opposed to Jesus, the gospel and the church.
That was not Jesus' intention. Indeed, in the Mark passage he explicitly refutes this position. The disciples wanted Jesus to rebuke a man who was using Jesus' name to cast out demons, because 'he was not one of us'.
Jesus' answer was that in casting out demons in his name, the man was not only doing something that was entirely consistent with Jesus' own mission but, in the way that he was doing it, was bringing honour to Jesus. What did it matter that the man was not 'one of us'? 'Whoever is not against us is for us.'
This encourages us to get involved with - and influence the policies of - all kinds of programmes and activities that are designed to make our world a better place, a place more in keeping with God's kingdom principles of justice, compassion and community, whether in politics, education, business or community building.
We need to be careful not to take this too far. We cannot engage with projects that - though they appear to be for the good of the community at large - have an underlying secularist or anti-Christian agenda.
But where we are involved the Holy Spirit is at work 'like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough'.
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