Reflecting on Luke 11:14-23“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.” (Luke 11:23)
On another occasion, Jesus said something that sounds the opposite.
The disciples saw a man casting out demons in Jesus’s Name.
But he was not one of them, not with them as they followed Jesus.
“‘Do not stop him,’ Jesus said. ‘For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.'” (Mark 9:39–40)
How do these two sayings relate and make sense with each other?
The key is in what they are doing.
In this section, Jesus is being resisted because of His work.
The religious leaders are against Him and His healing and helping people.
They see him helping people, and accuse him of working for Satan.
They are definitely against Him.
In the other story the man is imitating what Jesus is doing.
He sees Him helping and healing, and is eager to do the same thing.
He is not against healing and helping, he is definitely for it!
He may not be close to Jesus, and he may not know Who Jesus is.
But he know goodness when he sees it, and is definitely for Jesus.
Some people leave churchianity because they do not see goodness.
They are committed to social justice, compassion, kindness, generosity.
They know goodness when they see it, and they are definitely for it.
They are leaving the church, but are they actually leaving Jesus?
Yes, they may lose their faith in the church’s version of Jesus.
But if they are committed to healing and helping, they are actually for Jesus.
It is not the healing and helping they are rejecting.
They are for what Jesus represents, not against it.
I suspect there are many people who are with Jesus, but not with the church.
And we know that there are people with the church, but not with Jesus.
They do not share with Jesus a heart for what Jesus’s Name represents.
The Name of Jesus is not the 5 letter label we’ve assigned to Him.
The Name of Jesus is the identity and character associated with Him.
That Name is the same Name as God, the Name revealed to Moses:
“The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin.” (Exodus 34:6–7).
The religious leaders are against what Jesus does, how He loves people.
In their opinion, He is loving the wrong people.
They are rejecting and resisting God’s character and identity of love.
As I see it, if we don’t love the wrong people with Jesus, we are against Him.
If we stand with those who make life hard on others, we are against Jesus.
Jesus is with the hungry and thirsty, the naked, the sick (Matthew 25:34-40).
Jesus is with the stranger (refugee, illegal, immigrant, outsider).
Jesus is with those in prison (detained, deported).
“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.” (Matthew 25:40)
This explains my struggle with how many evangelicals support ICE in the U.S.
I fully support a government with clear and fair immigration policies.
But I cannot support immigration officials who use the cruel practices of ICE.
There are compassionate, fair and just ways of enforcing immigration policies.
What we are seeing in the U.S. is not compassionate, fair and just.
When christians support this, they are standing with the wrong strong man.
In their rejecting one bad spirit, they are filled with something 7 times worse.
By all means we should resist evil, BUT DO IT IN A JESUS LIKE WAY!
If we are not with them, helping and healing, we are not with Jesus.
If we oppose helping and healing such people, we are opposing Jesus.
Jesus did not gather in people to detain and deport them.
He gathered people to feed, heal, bless and help them.
This is what the community of Jesus followers is called to be and do.
I want to be where Jesus is, and for those who Jesus is for.
I want to heal and help in Jesus’s Name.
With, like and for Jesus, even if it means being against churchianity.
PRAYER
Lord Jesus, I don't want to be a church-follower, I want to be a Jesus follower. I want to help, heal and bless people in and out of the church, those close to me and those who are strangers to me. Your family - those who are for You - includes people inside and outside the church... all those who are committed to showing and sharing God's gracious love to all people.