Mark 9:38-41 - Misidentifying 'us' vs 'them'

When I was a kid, my parents had a subscription to Arizona Highways that featured Arizona travel and photography. The only issue I remember was the one that featured creepy-crawly things and venomous animals in the desert: scorpions, tarantulas, Gila monsters, and various snakes.

Last summer we spent some time at the guest house of some acquaintances in Phoenix.

I woke up one morning, and went to the patio door... debating about going outside since the sun had not yet heated up the temperature. But as I looked, a black snake was slowly making its way across the patio.

My familiarity with snakes is limited to the harmless garter snakes I've seen in the Midwest. But this was not a garter snake; it had unfamiliar white markings I hadn't seen before. My first reaction was to stay inside and away from potential danger.

I immediately went online and found that it was a common king snake, and that they actually feed on venomous snakes. It's a good sign to have a king snake on your property!

In the gospels we read that,
38 John said to Jesus, “Teacher, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he wasn’t in our group.” 39 “Don’t stop him!” Jesus said. “No one who performs a miracle in my name will soon be able to speak evil of me. 40 Anyone who is not against us is for us. 41 If anyone gives you even a cup of water because you belong to the Messiah, I tell you the truth, that person will surely be rewarded. (Mark 9:38–41, New Living Translation, 2015)

The immediate passage gives caveats to, "anyone who isn't against us is for us." But it remains a warning against partisan Christianity. We cannot exclude believers who belong to other denominations, or Christians who simply don't "run with our pack." If they work in the name of Christ, if they give in the name of Christ, then they are serving the same Master.

Lord, thank you for the reminder from Jesus Himself that the family of God is bigger than our experience, bigger than our group. Teach us to serve the same Master, working toward the same end. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.