26th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Numbers 11:25–29

Psalm 19:8, 10, 12–13, 14

James 5:1–6

Mark 9:38–43, 45, 47–48


Jesus’ attitudes are striking. He gives those who do not know Him an opportunity to use His Name, to learn its power for themselves. James and John express concern because they feel that what belongs to them is being exploited. Where James and John would try to stop someone who “does not follow us,” Jesus offers a more expansive perspective: “Do not prevent him. There is no one who performs a mighty deed in my name who can at the same time speak ill of me. For whoever is not against us is for us.”

The Gospel scene is parallel to the account of Moses’ sharing his spirit with the elders of Israel. Joshua objects to the fact that two who did not make it to the meeting (even though their names were on the list) are manifesting the power of the spirit. Moses confronts Joshua: “Are you jealous for my sake? Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the Lord might bestow his spirit on them all!”

The test of a real relationship is whether we are willing to invite others to share it. Spouses who are jealous of one another’s friends are seldom free in their own relationship. Knowledge that we possess that we are unwilling to pass on will end up creating difficulties for us. Communion of life is the pattern of relationship that Jesus expects of His disciples. Everything we have and are belongs to God, and we owe it to God to share it freely. The Kingdom is planted in us as a seed, and it is meant to grow.

Jesus goes on to offer some challenging words. “If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed than with two hands to go into Gehenna, into the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life crippled than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. Better for you to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna, where ‘their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.’” 

This form of discourse is “Semitic hyperbole.” What is expressed is stretched for effect, intended to elicit a response. Children are familiar with this form. Who has not heard something like: “Take your hands out of the cookie jar, or I will cut them off!”? Mothers and grandmothers do not follow through with such threats; they often give in, and you have a cookie to eat, even though it may spoil your appetite for dinner.

Another Biblical approach to language is implicit here. The Biblical mind is concrete, starting with the real world as we experience it. There is a “literal” meaning that moves quickly to a more universal sense, which still is attached to the real world of experience. When Jesus speaks of the hand, the foot and the eye, He is using these aspects of our human nature to mean not simply the physical parts of our bodies but the spheres in which we move that are associated with them.

The hand does things. It reaches, takes, lays claim to something as “mine.” The foot moves us into different circles. It takes us into places where we can act and be influenced by others who share that space and activity. The eye looks and gives direction. It leads us to plan, creates a way of intending something in the future.

The invitation of Jesus is for us not to cut off our hands or our feet or to pluck out our eyes, but rather to pay attention to where they will draw us into situations and actions that are not part of the Kingdom. In other words, we should attend more to our own inner movements than to what others “out there” are doing. This does not mean that we should not try to influence others, but that we should leave room for God to act in the world beyond our own experience.