“None of you must prevent the man,” answered Jesus,“for no one will use my name in working a miracle, and yet find it easy to speak evil of me.
hey
stop stopping people
I’m here to claim all good
I’ll even take responsibility
for that which no one wants
got itthis world is wobbly enough
without taking inappropriate slights
your job is not to over-function
as you learned to fish
it’s time to teach others
how to fish better than you do
Jesus puts a positive spin on hearing that healing is taking place in his name. In light of the suffering and death talk this is a sign of resurrection or realized eschatology already begun.
Living in anticipation of a next opportunity or life assists in the taking of a risk of suffering and death. This response is a helpful reframing of our setting, with its intersecting partners in all the various arenas of life.
In the Rhoads’ chapter on Social Criticism in Anderson173 we hear:
The narrative explicitly rejects guarding boundaries by excluding people…. those inside the network are to do nothing to set the limits of the community. Rather, they simply spread the influence of the network. Those outside the network who reject the followers of Jesus are the ones who set the limits of the network by their acts of rejection. Jesus tells the disciples that if others do not welcome them they are to leave that locale and shake the dust off their feet as a witness to the rejection (6:11). However, they do so only to confirm a decision already made by the outsiders rejecting them.
Furthermore, Jesus gives no directions for expulsion from the network. In fact, he strictly prohibits any attempt to dominate or exclude “the little ones who have faith” (9:42). Jesus himself, knowing that one of the Twelve is about to betray him, nevertheless offers the cup to him at the last communal (Passover) meal, and they all drink from it—including Judas (14:23). The Markan Jesus defines the boundary lines that distinguish insiders and outsiders; however, he prohibits the people in the network from guarding those lines. And because followers do not guard or maintain the boundary lines, there is no margin to the boundary. People can get in easily, and once inside, they can be at various levels of commitment or betrayal.
This is a helpful verse in times of confusion and/or schism.