Both
Jesus in the New Testament and Moses in the Old, were asked to draw
lines, lines that would draw some people out based on something that
didn’t matter. Both absolutely refused.
While
Moses and the seventy elders were meeting with the Lord, two men named
Eldad and Medad remained in the camp prophesying, which means, speaking
on behalf of God. Joshua, Moses’ right-hand man, insisted that Moses
stop them. Moses refused. “Would that all the Lord's people were
prophets, and that the Lord would put his spirit on them!" The problem
was not that they were false prophets. They weren’t. The problem was
that they weren’t authorized prophets. Getting the job done is more
important than having the right credentials.
The
situation with Jesus was similar. It seems that there was someone
going around casting out demons in Jesus’ name. It isn’t that he was
saying he could do something he couldn’t. He could. It isn’t that he
was taking advantage of people, taking their money in return for selling
them snake oil. He wasn’t. It was that the disciples didn’t know
him. This unknown exorcist’s offense is that he didn’t have the proper
franchise from Jesus’ inner circle. And so John complained, “Teacher,
we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop
him, because he was not
following us.”
Jesus,
like Moses, saw the fallacy of this. Isn’t being against demons more
important than making sure someone has the right stamp of approval from
the “official” disciples of Jesus? And so Jesus said to John and the
other disciples, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power
in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.”
In
Jesus we can stop bickering about who has paid their dues and start
doing the work of God. We can stop worrying about whether he’s part of
the “right” denomination and start doing the work of God. We can stop
checking out whether we like someone personally or not and start doing
the work of God.”
What
matters is that the man was casting out demons. He was even giving
Jesus the credit for it. Oh sure, his exorcism style may have been a
little unorthodox. He may not have used the right words in Elizabethan
English right out of the 1928 Book of Common Prayer. He may not have
worn exactly the right vestments. Why do we care about that? The point
is the man got the job done. People were being freed.
When
it comes to Jesus, what matters is getting the job done. When it comes
to casting out demons, what matters is not what words you use, but
getting rid of the demons. “Whoever is not against us is for us.” That
ought to be enough for us.
I
learned this poignantly as part of a duly authorized and official
delegation of The Episcopal Church seeking to bring our church into full
communion with nine other denominations. The sticking point had to do
with credentials and authorizations, the historic episcopal succession
in particular. All of the churches there recognized the importance of
this succession of laying on of hands as a symbol of the church’s unity
across the ages. Not all were so sure about the whole idea of bishops.
The Presbyterians had problems with the idea of a personal episcopacy.
The United Methodists didn’t particularly like it, but they could
probably bring
themselves to do it. The United Church of Christ could go along with it
as long as they could call the bishop something else.
But
the Gospel truth got put on the table by a Bishop of the African
Methodist Episcopal Church. He made this point, which brought the
Episcopalians absolutely up short. He said, “You all say we have to
have the laying on of hands in an unbroken succession stretching back to
the apostles. Back when we wanted it, you wouldn’t give it to us. So
we just went on about our business and God gave it to us. What makes
you all think we need it now or would want it now?” It is an awfully
good point. What matters is getting the job done. Joshua, John, and we
should be ashamed of ourselves when we put anything else above that.
+Stacy
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