Mark 9:38-41
Someone Else Was Doing It Too
38John said to Him, “Teacher, we saw someone else driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.”
39“Do not stop him,” Jesus replied. “For no one who performs a miracle in My name can turn around and speak evil of Me.
40For whoever is not against us is for us.
41Indeed, if anyone gives you even a cup of water because you bear the name of Christ, truly I tell you, he will never lose his reward.
Berean Standard Bible
John speaks up, and the timing of it is not accidental. Jesus has just finished holding a child in the middle of an argument about who was greatest, and the next thing out of John's mouth is a report about somebody who should not have been allowed.
Teacher, we saw someone else driving out demons in Your name, and we tried to stop him, because he does not accompany us.
There are things missing from that complaint. Not that the man was a fraud, not that his work was failing, not that he was teaching something false. It was working. What John has against him is that he was not part of the group.
These men had a reason to be sensitive about it. At 9:18 nine of them had failed to drive out a spirit in front of a crowd, and now an outsider is doing the same job and succeeding. The text never says why John raised it and we are not going to put words in his mouth, but the two things are sitting close together on the page.
Something like this has happened before, in an older book, and the scene is nearly the same. While Moses was leading Israel, two men who had not gone out to the tent with everybody else began prophesying back in the camp. A young man ran to report it, and Joshua, who had been Moses' assistant since he was young, told Moses to stop them. Moses asked whether Joshua was jealous for his sake, and said he wished that all the LORD's people were prophets. Joshua wanted the circle protected. Moses wanted the circle bigger.
Now John, one of the three men closest to Jesus, makes Joshua's request and gets Moses' answer. Do not stop him. Then a reason, which is that nobody who does something in his name is going to turn around straight afterward and speak against him. Then a sentence people quote at each other, whoever is not against us is for us. He is drawing that line generously, because not everybody outside your group is an opponent and some of them are doing the work.
He finishes somewhere unexpected, with a cup of water. Anyone who hands you a drink because you belong to Christ will not lose his reward. He has gone from a man casting out demons to a person passing over a cup, and both of them count. The size of the thing was never the measurement.
How We Know
John's complaint has an exact precedent. Numbers 11:27-29 has Eldad and Medad prophesying in the camp rather than at the tent, a young man report it, and Joshua tell Moses to stop them. Moses answers that he wishes all the LORD's people were prophets.
The same thing happens here: someone operating outside the recognized group, an insider asking for it to be shut down, and the leader refusing.
The parallel is consistent with a pattern already in Israel's scriptures rather than a new problem, and neither account resolves the question of who the outsider was.
Questions
1 What exactly was John's complaint about the man?
AnswerNot that he was a fraud, and not that it was failing. That he did not accompany them. The whole objection is that the man was not part of the group.
2 There is a much older story that runs almost exactly like this one. What happens in it?
AnswerTwo men prophesied back in the camp instead of going out to the tent, and Joshua asked Moses to stop them. Moses said he wished all the LORD's people were prophets. Joshua wanted the circle protected. Moses wanted it wider.
3 When did you last hear about God doing something good through a church or a person you would not have picked? What did you feel first?
AnswerThe honest answer is more use here than the correct one. John felt something and acted on it inside a minute, and Jesus told him to leave the man alone.
4 Jesus finishes with a cup of water. Why is that a strange place to end up?
AnswerBecause he began with somebody driving out demons. He moves from that to a person handing over a drink, and says both of them count. The size of the thing was never the measurement.
What This Means for Us
The man was doing good work and John tried to stop him.
The instinct behind it is not wickedness, which is what makes it hard to catch in ourselves. It is protectiveness. John cared about the group, something was happening outside his control, and shutting it down felt like faithfulness. Families do this, and churches do it constantly: a different sort of church, somebody who came to God by a road we do not recognize, and something in us wants to see their papers before we are glad.
So when you hear that God is at work somewhere you would not have chosen, say out loud that you are glad. Do it in front of somebody who will remember you did.
Prayer
Father, we get protective about you, and it makes us small. Thank you for wanting a wider circle than we do. Make us glad when you work somewhere we would not have picked. And thank you that you count a cup of water. Amen.