Gospel: Mark 9: 38-48
An all too familiar scenario: people are being healed and delivered from maladies by people working in the name of Jesus. What is our reaction? Is it: A. - to rejoice in the healing and deliverance of the person, or B. - to complain that those doing the healing and delivering do not belong to our community? The disciples in today's story choose option A, naturally, and with equal lack of surprise Jesus rebukes them for their narrow vision.
We have seen the disciples repeatedly attempt to narrow access to Jesus for only those they deem worthy, rejecting women, foreigners, children, the unclean. And while Jesus appeals to God for people to work in the vineyard, we find the disciples narrowing that category to a small number of select people that only they deem part of their club - further limiting those who will find healing, deliverance, and nourishment. All of this sounds very familiar to us today...
As always, we have the choice to be like the disciples who wish to create a very small church of the frozen chosen who will minister only to a small select group of the worthy. Or we can be like Jesus who provided healing, liberation, and nourishment to all without qualification, inviting many to participate in such ministry in his name. The Church, and God, are always bigger than we think.
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