He who is not against us is for us - Where are you?

Mark 9:30-10:12 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

From there they went out and began to go through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know about it. ³¹ For He was teaching His disciples and telling them, “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.” ³² But they did not understand this statement, and they were afraid to ask Him.

³³ They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, “What were you discussing on the way?” ³⁴ But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. ³⁵ Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.” ³⁶ Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them, ³⁷ “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”

³⁸ John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in Your name, and we tried to prevent him because he was not following us.” ³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not hinder him, for there is no one who will perform a miracle in My name, and be able soon afterward to speak evil of Me. ⁴⁰ For he who is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward.

⁴² “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea. ⁴³ If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life crippled, than, having your two hands, to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, ⁴⁴ where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. ⁴⁵ If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame, than, having your two feet, to be cast into hell, ⁴⁶ where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. ⁴⁷ If your eye causes you to stumble, throw it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, than, having two eyes, to be cast into hell, ⁴⁸ where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.

⁴⁹ “For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰ Salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

10 Getting up, He went from there to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan; crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them.

² Some Pharisees came up to Jesus, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife. ³ And He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” ⁵ But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. ⁷ For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, ⁸ and the two shall become one flesh; so they are no longer two, but one flesh. ⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”

¹⁰ In the house the disciples began questioning Him about this again. ¹¹ And He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her; ¹² and if she herself divorces her husband and marries another man, she is committing adultery.”

In today’s text it says:  They came to Capernaum; and when He was in the house, He began to question them, “What were you discussing on the way?” But they kept silent, for on the way they had discussed with one another which of them was the greatest. Sitting down, He called the twelve and said to them, “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”  Taking a child, He set him before them, and taking him in His arms, He said to them,  “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”     In Genesis 3:8-10, after Adam and Eve sinned it says:   They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”   When God asks us a question it is not because He does not know the answer. It is more often that our answer will reveal our heart.  In the case of Adam and Eve, they hid because of guilt and shame. In the case of the disciples, they too probably felt some guilt and shame, after all Jesus had just said:  “The Son of Man is to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill Him; and when He has been killed, He will rise three days later.”  The disciples reaction to what Jesus said was to discuss with each other who was the greatest among them. Were they planning which one might be Jesus successor? Even though they did not answer His question, Jesus, knowing what they were saying, answered their discussion saying:   “If anyone wants to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all.”  “Whoever receives one child like this in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me does not receive Me, but Him who sent Me.”  In Matthew 25:31-40 Jesus says:  “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne.  All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; and He will put the sheep on His right, and the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in;  naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? When did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ The King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me.’”   If we would receive Jesus, we must be a servant of all. If we will receive the least of God’s people, we will receive God Himself and we will inherit the kingdom.

In today’s text Jesus says:  “He who is not against us is for us. For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because of your name as followers of Christ, truly I say to you, he will not lose his reward. Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe to stumble, it would be better for him if, with a heavy millstone hung around his neck, he had been cast into the sea.”  It follows then, if Jesus says: He who is not against us is for us, also, he who is not for Jesus is against Him. If we cause others to stumble, whether through our own lawlessness or our lack of love and compassion, we are opposed to Christ and His will. In Matthew 12:25 Jesus says:  “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand.”   The kingdom of God is an eternal kingdom. It will stand forever. If we then are divided against the kingdom, it is we who will fall.   There can be no neutrality concerning Christ in our lives. Either we are for Him or we are against Him.

As Joshua said to the Israelites in Joshua 24:15:  “If it is disagreeable in your sight to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves today whom you will serve: whether the gods which your fathers served which were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living; but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”  Amen.  I too choose to serve the Lord. I choose to be for You and not against You. Holy Spirit I pray that You would make me a humble servant of all. I pray that You would guide me to always walk in righteousness, that I would not cause others to stumble. May I never hide from You but always run to You. May You never have to seek me because I have already been found by You.   Amen.