The two in question: Mark 9:38-40 and Matthew 12:30. These are my thoughts to a meditation posted by my good friend, John Fenton, on his blog.
I would submit that the key to understanding the two is in the plural of Mark 9 and the singular of Matthew 12: "were not following US" vs. "whoever is not with ME."
Our Lord in this would perhaps warn us off from judging those who are His followers, but not in our particular fellowship. The Church truly is the Body of Christ, but it would be mistake to equate union with our jurisdiction of that Church with union with Christ Himself. A mistake on two levels: first, there will always be those in the external fellowship of the Church who are not truly "with Christ" - hypocricy remains a plague of the Church's journey through this world. Secondly, whether an individual is in union with Christ through the gift of the Holy Spirit is not ours to judge. Let our concern be whether or not WE ourselves are living in repentance and true faith in our blessed Savior, and let us leave all judgment about those who "are not following US" in the hands of Him who alone will decide at the last day who has in fact belonged to Him and who did not.
2 comments:
One way of interpreting the similar statements from Mt 12 and Mk 9 is to see Mt 12 as a corrective to Mk 9 ("ME" defines or limits "US"). Another way is to see Mt 12 and Mk 9 as saying the same thing (whoever is with "ME" is with "US," and vice versa).
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