Mark 9:30-50, “Jesus Teaches What True Greatness Is / The Disciples Forbid Someone From Casting Out Demons In Jesus’ Name”

 

 

By

Jim Bomkamp

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1.                  In our last study, we looked at verses 1-29 from chapter 9 of Mark.

 

1.1.            Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to a mountain to pray and was transfigured momentarily into the glory He will have after He is risen from the dead and ascended up to heaven.

 

1.2.            We looked at why Jesus may have been transfigured.  We considered what benefit this may have had for Jesus, and what benefit will it had for the disciples? 

 

1.3.            Then, we saw that when Jesus and the disciples had come down from the mountain that they came upon a commotion because the disciples who remained behind were not able to cast a demon out of a man’s son.  We looked at why they might not have been able to cast out this demon.

 

1.4.            We looked at what we can learn about accomplishing things for God through prayer.

 

2.                  In our study today, we are going to look at verses 30-50 of chapter 9 of Mark.

 

2.1.            Jesus again is telling His disciples plainly that He will be delivered into the hands of men and be killed, but rise again, on the third day.

 

2.2.            We will see that as Jesus is going around Galilee with His disciples that the disciples are discussing among themselves who among them will be the greatest of all.  We will see that Jesus will teach His disciples what constitutes greatness in His economy.

 

2.3.            Jesus’ disciples will ask Him if they did the right thing in stopping a man who was casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and Jesus will tell them that they should not have hindered him.

 

2.4.            Finally, Jesus will warn His disciples sternly that no one should cause one of the littlest ones to stumble in their faith. 

 

2.5.            Jesus will finish up by telling the disciples that they are to cut out the offending part of their body.

 

3.                  VS 9:30-32  - “30 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.” – Jesus and His disciples were going through Galilee together but Jesus didn’t want anyone to know they were there, for He was taking this time to tell His disciples that He must be delivered into the hands of men and that they would kill Him, and then He would rise three days later, yet though the disciples didn’t understand what He meant by this they were afraid to ask Him what He meant by this

 

3.1.            Notice in these verses how determined Jesus is to plainly communicate yet again to His disciples what lay ahead for Him at Calvary’s cross when He would be arrested by the Jewish leaders, tried, beaten and crucified when the sins of the world would be placed upon Him and He would pay the debt for men’s sins.

 

3.2.            A Commentary Critical And Explanatory states the following about why Jesus and His disciples were going through Galilee:  “through Galilee; and he would not that any man should know it—By comparing Mt 17:22, 23 and Lu 9:43, 44 with this, we gather, that as our Lord’s reason for going through Galilee more privately than usual on this occasion was to reiterate to them the announcement which had so shocked them at the first mention of it, and thus familiarize them with it by little and little, so this was His reason for enjoining silence upon them as to their present movements.”

 

3.3.            Mark tells us here about the disciples that ‘they did not understand this statement’.

 

3.4.            Luke tells us more of what Jesus said here in order to try and get His disciples to understand this saying:  Luke 9:44, “44 Let these words sink into your ears; for the Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men.”

 

3.5.            In 1978, when I was living in Phoenix, AZ and just finishing up Bible college, I was playing pool with a friend at my parent’s house in Phoenix when I received a phone call.  It was my dad.  He told me that my mother had been a horrible car accident and had been hit by a train in her car.  Then, he told me that the train drug her 600 feet.  He told me to drive right away to a certain hospital and that he would meet me there.  Being so shocked by this news and fearful of the worst, I was afraid to ask my dad if my mother was going to be Ok.  So, I hung up the phone and my friend and I drove an hour to this hospital, with the length of time due to rush hour traffic.  That hour was the most horrible drive I could ever have made.  My friend drove and I cried the entire way to the hospital.  But, when I got to the hospital my mom was conscious and though she had some serious injuries that would require surgeries, she was really doing pretty well.  I learned from that experience to always find out the prognostication from doctors when you receive news about a loved one being injured or sick.  It is much better to get that news up front.  The disciples at this time were a lot like I was when I got that call.  They anticipated and feared the worst for Jesus because of His statements about His coming passion, yet they were afraid to ask Him a question that could have cleared up their understanding about what lay ahead for Him.  As a result a huge sense of dread and apprehension hung like a black cloud over their heads at this time.

 

3.6.            A Commentary Critical And Explanatory states the following about why the disciples were afraid to ask Him what He meant by these statements:  “and were afraid to ask him—Their most cherished ideas were so completely dashed by such announcements, that they were afraid of laying themselves open to rebuke by asking Him any questions. But “they were exceeding sorry” (Mt 17:23).”

 

3.7.            A Commentary Critical And Explanatory comments on the present tense used by Jesus here:  “The Son of man is delivered—The use of the present tense expresses how near at hand He would have them to consider it. As Bengel says, steps were already in course of being taken to bring it about.”

 

4.                  VS 9:33-35  - “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.”” – Jesus asks His disciples what they had been talking about on the way, but they kept quiet because they had been discussing who would be the greatest, then He sat them all down and told them that if anyone wanted to be first he should be last and the servant of all, and then bringing in a child to them He told them that whoever received even such a child in His name received Him and whoever received Him received the One who sent Him

 

4.1.            Gayle Erwin has pointed out that the gospels reveal that this is the thing that the disciples most discussed amongst each other, who would be the greatest in His coming kingdom.  We see that this was the topic of conversation even at the table of His last supper with the disciples.

 

4.2.            A Commentary Critical And Explanatory states the following:  “From Mt 18:1 we should infer that the subject was introduced, not by our Lord, but by the disciples themselves, who came and asked Jesus who should be greatest. Perhaps one or two of them first referred the matter to Jesus, who put them off till they should all be assembled together at Capernaum. He had all the while “perceived the thought of their heart” (Lu 9:47); but now that they were all together “in the house,” He questions them about it, and they are put to the blush, conscious of the temper towards each other which it had kindled.”

 

4.3.            There is such a contrast here between what Jesus is trying to communicate with the disciples concerning the gut wrenching reality of the suffering, humiliation, and death He was soon going to endure for mankind, and the things that the disciples were concerned with, namely, who would be the greatest in His kingdom.

 

4.4.            The disciples here were caught with their hands in the cookie jar, so to speak, when Jesus asks them what they were discussing on the way.  Their silence speaks volumes.  Jesus understood what they had been discussing without their having to tell him.

 

4.5.            The disciples had no understanding or appreciation for what constituted true greatness at this point in time.  Their hearts were full of selfish ambition and they were merely thinking of promoting themselves at the cost of everyone else, and evidently every one of the disciples thought they themselves deserved to be the most honored of Jesus’ men in His coming kingdom, and thus they were arguing for their own prominence. 

 

4.6.            Jesus gives His disciples two requirements for being the greatest in His kingdom:

 

4.6.1.      You must ‘be last of all’.

 

4.6.1.1.This is a ‘paradox’ in the teaching of Jesus, for it teaches something that to our minds we in our natural minds would think is the opposite of what it should be. 

 

4.6.1.2.Each of the disciples were arguing with each other that they deserved to be first and greatest in Christ’s kingdom, but in doing so they were promoting and exalting themselves, the very thing that would make them last in Christ’s kingdom. 

 

4.6.1.3.The person who puts themselves at the head of the line, first before others, as the disciples were doing at this time, is not the one who will receive the greatest reward in Christ’s kingdom.  Rather, it is the one who is humble and thinks of others and their needs and desires first, and himself and his needs and desires last, who will be first in Christ’s kingdom.

 

4.6.2.      You must be ‘servant of all’.

 

4.6.2.1.This is yet another ‘paradox’ in the teaching of Jesus, for it again teaches something that is the opposite of what we would naturally suspect.

 

4.6.2.2.In this world, great leaders lead by intimidation, determination, and sheer energy and might.  However, the opposite is true in Christ’s kingdom.  Christ calls His leaders to be “servant leaders,” and thus those who will be considered great in His kingdom will serve, just as He has served all of us. 

 

4.6.2.3.Jesus says that the greatest in His kingdom will be the ‘servant of all’, and truly it is Jesus Himself who by His example of servant leadership who will be the greatest in His kingdom.

 

4.7.            What we as Christians have to offer the world to meet their needs is Christ Himself, and Jesus says here that the one who receives even a little child in His name receives Him, and the one who receives Jesus receives the Father (the one who sent Jesus).

 

5.                  VS 9:38-40  - “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.” – John, one of the twelve, tells Jesus that they (the disciples) saw someone casting out demons in His name and because he was not part of their group they tried to prevent him from this, and Jesus told them not to hinder others for no one will be able to perform a miracle in Jesus’ name and then speak evil of Him, and the one who is not against them is for them

 

5.1.            Evidently, because of Jesus’ teaching about true greatness in His kingdom being the result of being last and servant of all, one of the disciples began to think of an incident in which the disciples may have violated this teaching.  When the disciples had come upon someone casting out demons in Jesus’ Name they had sought to hinder him.

 

5.2.            What is interesting is that this saying, ‘he who is not against us is for us’, is on the surface contradictory to another saying of Jesus:  Luke 11:23, “23 He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me, scatters.”   Here is one pastor’s explanation of why Jesus was not contradicting Himself:

 

In the Luke 11 passage Jesus is saying that He was not from the devil for the devil would not cast out his own... a house divided will not stand.  Therefore Jesus reveals a difference between His work and the devil’s.  Jesus was casting out demons, the devil wouldn't do that, so he that is not with Jesus in this kind of work is against Jesus. 

Therefore I believe that Mark 9 is saying the same thing...  The man mentioned was casting out demons, clearly he was not doing the work of satan, so "He who is not against us is for us!"

 

5.3.            Jesus’ exhortation to the disciples at this point is for them to be charitable and not think that they have a franchise on God just because they are His followers and even the leaders of His church.  God is always working in many ways outside of any one particular church, denomination, or group.

 

6.                  VS 9:41  - “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.” – Jesus tells the disciples that a person who gives as little as a cup of water to drink to them because of their name as followers of Christ that they will not lose their reward

 

6.1.            Jesus’ disciples had been humbled after realizing that they totally misunderstood what true greatness consisted of, and then also that they had told a man to stop who was serving God casting out demons in the name of Jesus.  Jesus now encourages them that God will reward their smallest of labors for Him, that of simply giving someone a cup of water to drink.

 

7.                  VS 9:42  - “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.” – Jesus sternly warns those who cause one of the little ones who believe in Him to stumble in their faith that it would be better for him to have a millstone hung around his neck and him be cast into the sea than to cause one of them to stumble in their faith

 

7.1.            This is the most serious of warnings here by Jesus for His disciples.  To cause another believer to ‘stumble’ in their faith is so serious Jesus says you’d do better to hang a millstone around you neck and be cast into the sea.

 

7.2.            The New Bible Dictionary has the following definition for this word translated ‘millstone’ here:

 

MILL, MILLSTONE. The oldest and most common method of grinding corn was to spread it on a flat stone slab and rub it with a round stone muller. Such stone querns have been found in the early Neolithic town at Jericho, together with stone *mortars (PEQ 85, 1953, pl. 38. 2; for an Egyptian model, see ANEP, no. 149). The rotary quern came into general use in the Iron Age. This consisted of two circular stone slabs, each about 50 cm across, the upper one (Heb. reḵeḇ, ‘rider’) pierced through to revolve on a pivot fixed to the lower (cf. the illustration of a potter’s wheel). A wooden stick projecting from a hole near the outer edge of the upper stone was the handle. The grain was poured through the pivot-hole in the upper stone and crushed as this turned, so that the flour spilled from between the two stones (Heb. rēḥayı̂m) on to the ground. It was the woman’s task to grind the corn (Ex. 11:5; Mt. 24:41), but it was also imposed upon prisoners as a menial service (Is. 47:2; La. 5:13). Larger types of rotary quern were turned by animals, or by prisoners (Samson, Jdg. 16:21) and were kept in a mill-house (Mt. 24:41, Gk. mylōn).

 

7.3.            This picture I found online my look like how the millstone was used at this time:

 

 

7.4.            By the language we use, jokes we tell, our honesty or lack thereof, how we handle ourselves, etc., can cause young believers to stumble in their faith.

 

7.5.            What a sad thing it is when a reckless believer does things that cause other believers to stumble in their faith in Christ.  We Christians must be those who limit our freedom such that we do not cause others to stumble because of how we who are a Christian act.

 

7.6.         We as Christians are commanded to be holy as He is holy, and being holy is such an important thing for a believer.  But, what is ‘holiness’?   Here is J.I. Packer’s definition of ‘Holiness’ from his book, “Concise Theology”:

HOLINESS

GOD IS LIGHT
I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.

LEVITICUS 11:44
When Scripture calls God, or individual persons of the Godhead, “holy” (as it often does: Lev. 11:44-45; Josh. 24:19; Isa. 2:2; Ps. 99:9; Isa. 1:4; 6:3; 41:14, 16, 20; 57:15; Ezek. 39:7; Amos 4:2; John 17:11; Acts 5:3-4, 32; Rev. 15:4), the word signifies everything about God that sets him apart from us and makes him an object of awe, adoration, and dread to us. It covers all aspects of his transcendent greatness and moral perfection and thus is an attribute of all his attributes, pointing to the “Godness” of God at every point. Every facet of God’s nature and every aspect of his character may properly be spoken of as holy, just because it is his. The core of the concept, however, is God’s purity, which cannot tolerate any form of sin (Hab. 1:13) and thus calls sinners to constant self-abasement in his presence (Isa. 6:5).

…When John says that God is “light,” with no darkness in him at all, the image is affirming God’s holy purity, which makes fellowship between him and the willfully unholy impossible and requires the pursuit of holiness and righteousness of life to be a central concern for Christian people (1 John 1:5–2:1; 2 Cor. 6:14–7:1; Heb. 12:10-17). The summons to believers, regenerate and forgiven as they are, to practice a holiness that will match God’s own, and so please him, is constant in the New Testament, as indeed it was in the Old Testament (Deut. 30:1-10; Eph. 4:17–5:14; 1 Pet. 1:13-22). Because God is holy, God’s people must be holy too.

8.                  VS 9:43-48  - “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.” – Jesus said that if your hand, foot, or eye causes you to stumble you better cut it off for it is better to have it cut off than for you to be cast into hell

 

8.1.            The Wycliff Bible Commentary has the following definition for this word translated ‘stumble’:   “The Greek word skandalizō means to place a snare or trap in a person’s way, causing him to stumble.”

 

8.2.            Here the emphasis is not not causing others to stumble but to remove from your own life those things that are causing you to stumble.

 

8.3.            It is important to realize that Jesus is not speaking about physical surgery of removal of body parts when He says these things, but rather spiritual surgery of the heart.  If a person literally cut off a part of their body through which they sinned, yet their heart were not surgically repaired, then nothing is really going to change in their life.  Wycliff’s Bible Commentary says the following about these things:  “Undoubtedly the command to cut . . .off the offending hand is figurative and hyperbolic. The sense of the verse is that anything which causes a person to fall into sin should be removed immediately. These verses are not to be taken literally as commanding an extreme asceticism. It must be remembered that the seat of sin is the soul, not any organ of the physical body.”

 

8.4.            The Bible Exposition Commentary explains it this way:  “Of course, the Lord is not commanding literal physical surgery, since He had already made it clear that sin comes from the heart (Mark 7:20–23). What He is teaching is that sin is to the inner person what a cancerous tumor is to the body, and it must be dealt with drastically.”

 

8.5.            The hand, foot, and eye in this warning from Jesus could symbolize specific lusts of the flesh or specific sins that a person might commit.  These things need to be put away from our lives if we have come to know the Lord.

 

8.6.            This is the most solemn of warnings from Jesus, one that has eternal implications, for in each case (hand, foot, or eye) the warning is that if you don’t cut them off that you could end up In ‘hell’, a place described as having ‘unquenchable fire’.

 

8.7.            The Bible Knowledge Commentary says the following about this word translated as ‘hell’ here:  “The Greek word geenna (“Gehenna,” trans. “hell”) is transliterated from two Hebrew words meaning “Valley of Hinnom,” a place south of Jerusalem where children were once sacrificed to the pagan god Molech (2 Chron. 28:3; 33:6; Jer. 7:31; 19:5-6; 32:35). Later, during the reforms of Josiah (2 Kings 23:10) the site became Jerusalem’s refuse dump where fires burned continually to consume regular deposits of worm-infested garbage. In Jewish thought the imagery of fire and worms vividly portrayed the place of future eternal punishment for the wicked (cf. the apocryphal Judith 16:17 and Ecclesiasticus 7:17). Jesus used the word geenna in 11 of its 12 New Testament occurrences (the one exception is James 3:6).”

 

8.8.            A Commentary Critical And Explanatory says, “The language of this verse is taken from the LXX of Isa 66:24. The worm that dieth not is a figure of speech drawn from the actual valley of Hinnom, where worms were continually at work. It is a picture of the unending torture and destruction of hell.”

 

8.9.            The Bible Exposition Commentary speaks of how the Valley of Hinnom was actually a place of worship for wicked King Ahaz:  “The word translated “hell” is gehenna. It comes from a Hebrew phrase “the valley [ge] of Hinnon,” referring to an actual valley outside Jerusalem where wicked King Ahaz worshiped Molech, the fire god, and even sacrificed his children in the fire (2 Chron. 28:1–3; Jer. 7:31; 32:35).”

 

9.                  VS 9:49  - “49 For everyone will be salted with fire.” – Jesus tells His disciples that everyone will be salted with fire

 

9.1.            Many Bible commentators have mentioned that this was one of the hardest passages in all of the scripture to interpret.  Editors even added to the verse another clause to the end of verse 49 that is not found in this translation in order to make it understandable:  “and every sacrifice will be salted with salt.”

 

9.2.            A Commentary Critical And Explanatory writes the following:  “For every one shall be salted with fire—A difficult verse, on which much has been written—some of it to little purpose. “Every one” probably means “Every follower of mine”; and the “fire” with which he “must be salted” probably means “a fiery trial” to season him. (Compare Mal 3:2, &c.).”

 

9.3.            The Bible Knowledge Commentary states basically the same thing but explains better perhaps:  “They will be salted with fire in the sense that as salt preserves food so they will be preserved throughout an eternity of fiery judgment. (2) “Everyone” could refer to every disciple living in this hostile world. They will be “salted with fire” in the sense that Old Testament sacrifices were seasoned with salt (Lev. 2:13; Ezek. 43:24). Disciples, living sacrifices (cf. Rom. 12:1), will be seasoned with purifying fiery trials (cf. Prov. 27:21; Isa. 48:10; 1 Peter 1:7; 4:12). The trials will purge out what is contrary to God’s will and preserve what is consistent with it. (3) “Everyone” could refer to every person in general. All will be “salted with fire” in a time and manner appropriate to their relationship with Jesus—for nonbelievers, the preserving fire of final judgment; for disciples, the refining fire of present trials and suffering. This last view seems preferable.”

 

10.              VS 9:50  - “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.” – Mark quotes Jesus saying that salt is a good thing but it must remain salty otherwise how will it remain salty, and then telling His disciples that they are to have salt in themselves and be at peace with one another

 

10.1.        Salt is a preservative, and Jesus taught often that His disciples were to be salt and light to the people of this world.  By our deeds were to be a witness to the world and a preservative, preserving holiness in this world and those things that make up “the image of God”.

 

10.2.        We as disciples must keep ourselves salty (holy) otherwise we cannot be a good preservative for the people of this world.

 

10.3.        We as Christians are likewise to be peacemakers in this world, and especially with each other, as He says to us, ‘be at peace with one another.’

 

11.              CONCLUSIONS:

 

11.1.        Strive to be holy as He is holy, in all things.

 

11.2.        Beware of being a stumbling to other Christians by the things you allow in your life.

 

11.3.        Cut off that part of your life that is causing you to stumble.

 

 

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