I’m so glad we get the disciples as major characters in the gospels. Not because they’re great role models; they’re actually pretty bad at hearing instructions, understanding theological concepts, and actually following Jesus. I mean, yes, they did literally FOLLOW him around the Galilee, but when it comes to doing what he said to do or behaving like Jesus did, the disciples mostly fail.
In this particular run of Mark’s gospel we get a great set of discipleship failure scenes: Peter starts rebuking Jesus for telling the truth, then the whole bunch of them spend an entire day arguing about which one of them is the best, and in this week’s passage from the end of Chapter 9, John has resorted to tattling on some other exorcists in town.
The disciples come off as aternatingly clueless, inane, ignorant, willful and childish. I’m so glad we have them in the story.
In this particular passage, John is upset because someone who “is not with us” is casting out demons in Jesus’ name. “Jeeeeesuuuuus! He was HEALING PEOPLE! He was ridding them of their demons! IN YOUR NAME! But don’t worry, we tried to stop him because we know you need our protection and our allegiance.”
And Jesus, who has literally JUST told the disciples to learn some humility and figure out how to live as “servants of all,” heaves YET ANOTHER annoyed sigh and tells John that there is absolutely no need to stop some guy from helping people just because he’s “not with us.”
This particular passage is kind of weird, because Jesus starts talking about cutting off hands and feet and tearing out eyes if they cause us to sin, and then he goes off on this tangent about getting salted with fire.
What?
Jesus is getting poetic, here, and Mark is using that poetic power to make a big point: stop being a tattletale and deal with your own shit, first. In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus says it this way: “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”
Stop worrying about what those other guys are doing and trying to stop them from the good, healing work they’re doing and get your own house in order. If you tended to your own wounds, allowed your own rough edges to be worn down and transformed, made your own penance and confessed your own sins, THEN we’d be able to get somewhere.
“Have salt in yourselves,” he says. Salt preserves things, purifies things, and enhances flavor. It cleans things up, sands things down, and refines what needs refining.
The point of this isn’t asceticism or self-flagellation or some false humility. Jesus isn’t telling his disciples to berate themselves or *actually* cut off their hands and feet out of guilt or remorse. “Do this,” he says, “so that you may be at peace with one another.”
Finger-pointing does not lead to peace. Tattle-telling doesn’t either. Naming someone else’s spiritual flaws and character shortcomings is not the way toward resolving conflict and moving together toward more mercy and justice. That is not to say that naming harm and exposing deadly systems is wrong; but if we feel called to do those things, we’ll certainly need some spiritual strength and inner power, the capacity to wrestle our own demons and process our own emotions.
Self-reflection, spiritual discipline and having salt in OURSELVES is not really a strong suit of modern American culture. We’re way more likely to accuse, blame, point a finger or tell on somebody else. Maybe, the next time we feel that urge to run to Jesus or the internet to tattle about somebody else’s abhorrent behavior, we could take that instinct as a cue to interrogate our own actions, reflect on our own hateful thinking, salt and refine our own twisted hearts. Maybe then we’d be a tiny little bit closer to being at peace with one another.
Amen