Don't Prevent

Signs and wonders weren’t unique to Judaism. When Moses threw his staff down and it became a snake, Pharoah’s officials followed suit (Exod 7:12). Hebrew rabbis talked about people like R. Eliezer ben Hyrkanos who could perform a series of miracles. Honi HaMe’agel was able to control rain just like Elijah could.

It shouldn’t, therefore, surprise us that while the Lord Jesus performed miracles, other people did, too. The disciples witnessed them. One day, John, the son of Zebedee, said to Jesus,

“Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we prevented (kolio) him because he is not following after us.” (Luke 9:49)

The disciples were like the Secret Service who protect presidents, or bodyguards who protect celebrities. They prevented (kolio) children from coming to Jesus to be blessed by him (18:16). Now, they prevented someone from performing miracles in Jesus’s name just because he wasn’t one of the twelve disciples.

Jesus said,

“Don’t Prevent.” (9:50)

Just two words in Greek (me koliethe). He didn’t want the disciples to stop whoever was bounding demons in Jesus’s name.*

Jesus’s reply would have surprised the disciples. They thought they alone had the special privilege of casting out demons in Jesus’s name. They were his disciples, and he had empowered and commissioned them to do that. So, they boldly prevented another from doing miracles in Jesus’s name. Jesus stopped them instead of stopping the other person.

Sometimes, we, too, can become somewhat arrogant to assume God can work only through us, our doctrines, denominations, or evangelic approaches. God works outside our established parameters.

When I went to teach in Fiji, the Fijian Christians took me to a remote village and told me a story. When a missionary went to their island, the tribal people killed him, cut his body into parts, and took a portion for their tribes to cook and eat. One leading chief saw the white man’s boots. He had never seen such a strange “foot.” So, he took the boots to his tribe. They cooked and cooked, but that “foot” didn’t become soft or palatable. So, they concluded his God must be strong that he couldn’t be eaten even after killing him. They surrendered to that God. When another missionary went to visit them, they gladly accepted the gospel. Who would have thought a pair of leather boots would bring a tribe to the Lord?

We shouldn’t stop anyone who boldly proclaims Jesus as Lord and demonstrates his power with miracles. Somehow, the Lord works through them.

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*Being unhappy with Jesus’s answer and looking at the parallel passage in Mark, some scribes have added an explanation: “Who isn’t against you/us is for you/us.” The mere fact that manuscripts couldn’t agree on “you” or “us” indicates that these words were added later.