Drawing Lines, Choosing Sides...
Demons and hell and self-mutilation! This is the stuff of which our gospel reading today is made. In this reading, Jesus turns the spotlight on the disciples themselves, the story beginning with the disciples complaining to Jesus about a “rival” exorcist who was casting out demons “in Jesus’ name” and was apparently being successful, but who was clearly not one of “them”. Jesus, however, is not taken in by their gripes. Rather, he wants them to pay attention to their own behavior and where it will lead. The first audience to receive the gospel of Mark were those in early Christian communities who were struggling in the midst of persecution, who were in conflict over Jewish-Gentile relations, and who were dealing with all of the growing pains of an infant church seeking identity and faithful witness. Christian groups disagreed with one another, contested each other’s claims, and even sought to censure one another, to decide who was “in” and who was “outside”. It i...