To remind you about exorcisms: People in Jesus’s day, when they were sick, would usually go to “physicians”—really witch doctors—for their medicine. These pagan “physicians” would either give you drugs, or call upon their gods to help you—usually by sending their little helper gods, or dimoni, to enter you and fix you. But these demons were frequently more trouble than help. So when Jesus went round curing the sick, he also had to throw out a lot of demons.
Jesus wasn’t the only exorcist in Israel. Many Pharisees were exorcists. The difference between Jesus and the Pharisees was how Jesus could order a demon out with a simple command. The Pharisees usually went through some long, complicated ritual, and weren’t always successful. That’s why they wondered about Jesus: “He’s too good at it. Maybe he and the demons are working together?”—which Jesus said was insulting the Holy Spirit who empowered him.
Jesus’s success meant, of course, he’d get imitators. Legitimate imitators, like his own students, whom he ordered to do as he did. And illegitimate: People who figured “In Jesus name” was a holy incantation which would never fail them. (Much like many Christians today.) So they tried to use it on people. The sons of Skeva are one well-known example in Paul’s day. (Ac 19.13-14) But it seems others in Jesus’s day were trying it too, and that’s the background of this story.
John told
Jesus , “Teacher, we saw someone throwing out demons in your name. We stopped him because he doesn’t followyou with us.”Jesus said,
“Don’t stop him! Nobody who does an act of power in my name will be able to turn round and speak evil of me, for whoever isn’t against us, is interested in us.”
The usual interpretation.
Christians frequently interpret this passage this way:
The exorcist had been driving out demons in Jesus’ name, i.e., with his authority. What irked the disciples was that, though he was not one of them, he was being successful at it! What made things even worse was that they doubtless remembered their own failure to exorcise the demon from the epileptic (cf. 9.14-18). The strange exorcist must have been a believer. However, he was not one of the exclusive company of the Twelve, and this apparently was the sore point so far as they were concerned. So they took it on themselves to stop him.
—Walter W. Wessel,
Expositors’ Bible Commentary, at Mk 9.38.
Typically the motive given why John, and Jesus’s other students, were trying to put a stop to this strange exorcist, is ’cause of some form of jealousy. This exorcist wasn’t one of them; he wasn’t part of their inner circle. It’s as if they saw themselves as the exclusive church of Christ Jesus, and here’s this other dude, acting like a Christian, and how dare he?
And this has led to the usual way Christians (admittedly, myself included) misuse this verse: Yeah, this exorcist didn’t travel with Jesus like his students did. Yeah, he “doesn’t follow you with us.” But because he can do miraculous things in Jesus’s name, he must be a Christian. So Jesus’s instructions—“Don’t stop him”—apply to us as well: When we find other people who claim to follow Jesus, who act in Jesus’s name, who do miraculous things with Jesus’s power, so what if they’re not in our clique? They’re Christians. Don’t stop them.
Now yes, there are multiple churches. Most of them work for Jesus, although some of them are heretic, and some of them are cults. This being the case, Christians should be willing to work together with fellow Christians, regardless of their denomination. But that’s not actually what was going on here.
This was no “secret Christian.”
John was the one who brought this exorcist to Jesus’s attention. He, by the way, wasn’t among those students who unsuccessfully tried to free a demonized boy. He was busy watching Jesus transfigure. Doubtless John didn’t remember any failure on his own part to perform an exorcism. Maybe nine of the other Twelve, but John’s own motives had little to do with sour grapes.
No. As I said, Pharisee exorcists were trying to perform exorcisms separate from Jesus, and some of them were starting to use “In Jesus name” as one of their incantations. What John and the other students encountered, was one of these Pharisees, illegitimately using the name of Jesus. And rightly, they wanted him to stop it.
If you read 1 John, you’ll see John regularly had to deal with people who wrongly used Jesus’s name. Such folks, like the Gnostics, figure if they throw a little bit of Jesus into their freaky teachings, they’ll get a little extra traction with those folks who are predisposed to approve of Jesus. John had to deal with a lot of folks who claimed to follow Jesus, and name-dropped him a lot, but were really antichrists. For all he knew, that’s what this strange exorcist was: Another opportunist who didn’t really believe in Jesus, but was willing to try the “In Jesus name” spell anyway.
But many interpreters assume the exorcist was a Christian—’cause he was successful at his exorcisms! But Christians who are ignorant of the supernatural make this mistake all the time. Let me tell you, success in the supernatural does not prove you’re a Christian. Fruit proves you’re a Christian. And we don’t know what fruit this guy had—other than some success in the exorcism business. We have no evidence this exorcist was a Christian.
In fact, we have plenty of evidence he wasn’t. As John pointed out, he “doesn’t follow you with us.” This was no “secret Christian,” no unknown, hidden follower of Jesus. The Twelve knew who all the secret Christians were. They were with Jesus all the time—it was part of their job description—and they inevitably found out about all the secret Christians. They knew about Nicodemus, (Jn 3.1-2) and Joseph of Aramathea. (Jn 19.38) But they didn’t know this guy. He didn’t join the crowds to listen to Jesus. He didn’t go to synagogue when Jesus was preaching. He wasn’t there. He wasn’t a Jesus-follower.
Let’s be logical. At that point in history, before Jesus had returned to his Father, what group could this guy have been with, where he could follow Jesus without actually following Jesus? What, did Jesus appear to him in a vision and convert him? Jesus didn’t do that yet. So how could this exorcist be a Christian apart from Jesus’s followers? How could he be a secret Christian, yet the Twelve knew nothing about him? It wasn’t possible.
So let’s not knock John for rebuking this exorcist. His thinking is totally understandable: This guy wasn’t one of them! He was using the Lord‘s name, but didn’t know the Lord. It wasn’t jealousy which provoked John to put a stop to it. It was a righteous defense of Jesus’s name.
“Don’t stop him!”
So if this exorcist wasn’t a Christian, even a secret Christian, why’d Jesus tell John, “Don’t stop him”? Because, Jesus pointed out, if he’s getting results, he’s not gonna turn round and knock Jesus.
“In Jesus name” worked. This means there’s something to Jesus’s name. That fact wouldn’t have been lost on the exorcist. If someone came round to him later and started knocking Jesus—“Have you heard of this Jesus fellow? He’s all wet,” the exorcist couldn’t easily agree with him. After all, he’d been using Jesus’s name! And it worked. Demons fear Jesus. He’d be an idiot to not fear Jesus himself, just a little.
When they’re in a bind, plenty of pagans will desperately pray to God. And sometimes those prayers will, contrary to their expectations, work. And when that happens, now what? Can they easily turn round and say, “Praying to God is a waste of time” or “I don’t believe there’s anything out there”? Well, people lie to themselves all the time, so of course they can do it—but if they’re really being honest with themselves, they certainly can’t do it easily. They experienced God’s power. That’s not something they can dismiss.
In using Jesus’s name, this exorcist made contact with the Holy Spirit. The Spirit was working through him. Which inevitably means the Spirit was working on him, and would keep working on him till he finally acknowledged Jesus—or quit using Jesus’s name altogether, ’cause he was just too afraid to go there. This is one of the ways the Spirit works: He’ll give you a little taste of his power, and bring you to Jesus because you can’t ignore that power. I admit this makes Jesus sound a bit like cocaine. But hey, whatever works.
So this exorcist was likely an opportunist, using Jesus’s name to get ahead. But the Holy Spirit is an opportunist too. Dabble in Jesus, and you’re gonna find yourself drawn deeper and deeper into him before you expect it.
That’s why Jesus said, “Don‘t stop him.” Jesus knows how the Spirit works. This exorcist needed to be encouraged to keep interacting with the Spirit. And we Christians should shrewdly do likewise with our pagan friends: If we see them reading Christian writers, or experimenting with Christian prayer and meditation techniques, don’t stop them. Don’t think, “Oh, but they’ll do it wrong.” Don’t worry that they’ll go astray unless you, or another Christian, are there to micromanage. Trust the Holy Spirit. Let ’em dabble. And once they stop dabbling and get serious, they’ll come to you with their questions… and you’ll take ’em to church, or lead them the rest of the way to Jesus. When the Holy Spirit is setting them up, don’t interfere!
“If he’s not against us, he’s for us.”
You’ll notice I translated verse 40,
Of course, “if he’s not against us, he’s for us,” is a lot simpler, a lot catchier, and a lot more useful when you’re trying to preach tolerance. And plenty of folks use this verse for just that: If a group isn’t antichrist, treat it like it’s pro-Christ. And so it’s okay to partner with heretics, cults, and other religions… ’cause they’re not antichrist. Right?
Wrong. We can partner up to a point. After all, we Christians are expected to love our neighbors, and if they want to do good, we should help. If the local mosque wants to clean up the neighborhood, raise money for an afterschool program, encourage literacy, and otherwise do good deeds to improve the community, by all means help ’em out. But in religious matters, we gotta divide: If they want to teach your kids about Jesus, we gotta tell them, “Thanks, but no.” We believe Jesus is God; they believe Jesus is a prophet, superseded by Muhammad; we’re not gonna teach Jesus the same way. Just because they like Jesus too, and believe some of the same things about him, it doesn’t make us interchangeable. A Baptist and a Catholic are both in the body of Christ. An Episcopalian and a Sunni are not. We can be good friends—heck, better friends than some of the folks in our own church—but we’re not family.
Plenty of people aren’t against Jesus. Usually because they’re apathetic: They never gave him much thought. From what they know, he sounds like a decent guy. They have nothing against him. Of course, they only like him because they don’t follow him any. If they were ever obligated to—like us Christians—their flesh would immediately rise up against him in outrage. Like Muslims, we can partner with such people only up to a point. Beyond that, our relationships—business, romantic, or otherwise—will fall apart. ’Cause darkness and light (even as dim a light as we Christians can be) don’t work together. (2Co 6.14)