Jealousy in the name of the Lord

September 29, 2024

Both Joshua in the first reading, and the Apostle John in the second reading, are good examples of a tendency that is found in many of us.   In the first reading, two of the Israelites who were not the ‘selected’ ones were prophesying (“prophecy” in the religious context means to “speak for God”), and Joshua was very upset by this and wanted to stop them.  In the Gospel we have John objecting that a person who was not part of the disciples’ group was casting out demons.  And Moses in the first case, and Jesus in the second case, gently rebuke their protesting disciples, in effect asking them why they should object if somebody else, not in their control, was doing good things.

What is it in our very selves that pushes us in this direction where we find self-worth, only if we are better, or more exclusive, than others?

And this is a problem that many of us may experience in our own lives, and even in the way we view our own religion. Many of us find it extremely difficult to accept that there could be goodness outside of our own  narrowly defined boundaries.  For example, those of us who accept the institution of marriage as the only valid way of having a family, are perhaps (??) somewhat upset if we find goodness and love in a live-in relationship, or in a relationship between two of the same sex and so on and so forth. In the same way, we find it difficult to accept that there could be genuine love and holiness in a couple who have divorced their previous spouses and found love in a new marriage outside of the Church.  Such challenges to our own defined boundaries may tend to trouble us a lot.  

In a sense we are not to be blamed, partly at least because  the system of competition has been so embedded in every aspect of our lives, right from our childhood, that more often than not,  we find our own self-worth dependent on how we stand in comparison to others.  So a student who gets a percent less than the student who stands first, is devastated.  Or we are upset if somebody else gets more praise than we do - and by “we” I mean not only our own selves but also anybody who belongs to what we can call our extended selves, like our families, our religion, our ethnic groups or our country.  And, as a result, when we start comparing,  genuine love for our family turns into jealousy of the other,  genuine love for one’s country turns into jingoistic nationalism, and a genuine religious experience turns into fanaticism.  And this in turn leads us to insist that our nation/religion is better than others, and we resolutely close our own eyes to what is not so good within us.

For we feel ‘threatened’ or somehow diminished, when there is value somewhere else, for that makes us feel less important.  Joshua and the Apostle John certainly got sucked into such feelings of being threatened.  But perhaps it was Paul who, with his insistence that it is only through faith in Jesus that salvation is possible, who is perhaps most to blame in embedding  this into Christian consciousness, even though he was perhaps only expressing his own experience of Jesus.  And the Church, as it became more and more institutionalised, got sucked into this mode of preaching, so that for centuries we were taught that it is only through Jesus that anybody could gain salvation. For somehow, we, as a Church, began to feel diminished, if we accepted the possibility that a person could be saved without  ‘coming through Jesus’.  We are only slowly getting out of this myopic view of salvation, and though the Church still insists that Jesus is the ultimate way to God, Pope Francis in a public statement has expressed the idea that “God wills many religions” (Document on Human Fraternity, February 2019).  I have explored this question in greater detail in an earlier blog (Can Salvation Only Come Through Jesus?  May 7, 2023)

But of course, as neuroscientists tell us, once we are emotionally attached to a particular narrative, and have held on to it for a long long time, it becomes very difficult to let go of that narrative even when we get other data that challenges it, because the emotional connect is still strong.  In the same way, the narrative that many of us have grown up with, about Christianity being the only way to God,  is a narrative that brings with it an extremely powerful emotional connect.  And that is why such a narrative is very very difficult to let go off. But why should we be threatened if there are other ways to God? Aren’t we satisfied that ours IS a genuine way to God, and why can’t we be happy if God draws human beings to him in a myriad ways?  Today’s readings are pointing out to us that neither Moses nor Jesus got sucked into this myopic way of looking at God’s ways of working with human beings. 

First Reading: Numbers 11: 25-29

Then the Lord came down in the cloud and spoke with him, and he took some of the power of the Spirit that was on him and put it on the seventy elders. When the Spirit rested on them, they prophesied—but did not do so again. However, two men, whose names were Eldad and Medad, had remained in the camp. They were listed among the elders, but did not go out to the tent. Yet the Spirit also rested on them, and they prophesied in the camp. A young man ran and told Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp.” Joshua son of Nun, who had been Moses’ aide since youth, spoke up and said, “Moses, my lord, stop them!” But Moses replied, “Are you jealous for my sake? I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets and that the Lord would put his Spirit on them!”

 

Second Reading: James 5: 1-6

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.

 

 Gospel: Mark 9: 38-43, 45, 47-48

 

“Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us.” “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.  Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.

“If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone were hung around their neck and they were thrown into the sea. If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out.  And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where “‘the worms that eat them do not die,  and the fire is not quenched.’