The closer the Crucifixion comes, the more time Jesus spends with His disciples. He speaks to them about the sufferings awaiting Him...
The closer the Crucifixion comes, the more time Jesus spends with His disciples. He speaks to them about the sufferings awaiting Him. But His disciples do not understand Him; they are thinking not about suffering and death, but about glory and privileges. This is where the argument comes from: "Who is greater? Who will receive more authority in the Kingdom of the Messiah?" John, in addition, seeks to protect the twelve disciples from competition on the part of "outsiders." At the same time, the boundary of "our own circle" is drawn by a very simple sign: "ours" are those who walk with us.
Christ rejects both attempts to build a pyramid of power and honors and the desire to turn the community of disciples into a closed club. He says directly to John: "Do not forbid him." Then He unexpectedly begins a conversation about the danger of stumbling blocks, ending it with the words: "Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another." Here one can see an echo of John's question and of the disciples' arguments about who is greater. The desire to separate "our own" from "outsiders," and to arrange "our own" by rank, destroys peace and makes people suspicious and hostile. Without peace among themselves, Christ's disciples cannot fulfill their mission in the world: to be "the salt of the earth" (Matt. 5:13). (Let us recall that every sacrifice was salted with salt before being offered to God on the altar (Lev. 2:13). Salt, as it were, made the sacrifice fit for God).
What does the word "stumbling block" mean? Other translations of this Greek word ("skandalon") are trap, snare, noose. It is everything that by deception, on the sly, pushes the simplehearted toward a fall or simply gets in the way and obstructs. Let us think about the extent to which the struggle for power, quarrels, and divisions among Christians serve as a stumbling block for "these little ones" and hinder those seeking the Truth from coming to saving faith.
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9:14 Mat 17:14; Luk 9:37.
9:15 All the multitude seeing him were greatly amazed - At his coming so suddenly, so seasonably, so unexpectedly: perhaps also at some unusual rays of majesty and glory, which yet remained on his countenance.
9:17 And one of the multitude answering - The scribes gave no answer to our Lord's question. They did not care to repeat what they had said to his disciples. A dumb spirit - A spirit that takes his speech from him.
9:20 When he saw him - When the child saw Christ; when his deliverance was at hand. Immediately the spirit tore him - Made his last grand effort to destroy him. Is it not generally so, before Satan is cast out of a soul, of which he has long had possession?
9:22 If thou canst do any thing - In so desperate a case: Have compassion on us - Me as well as him.
9:23 If thou canst believe - As if he had said, The thing does not turn on my power, but on thy faith. I can do all things: canst thou believe?
9:24 Help thou mine unbelief - Although my faith be so small, that it might rather be termed unbelief, yet help me.
9:25 Thou deaf and dumb spirit - So termed, because he made the child so. When Jesus spake, the devil heard, though the child could not. I command thee - I myself now; not my disciples.
9:26 Having rent him sore - So does even the body sometimes suffer, when God comes to deliver the soul from Satan.
9:30 They passed through Galilee - Though not through the cities, but by them, in the most private ways. He was not willing that any should know it: for he taught his disciples - He wanted to be alone with them some time, in order to instruct them fully concerning his sufferings. The Son of man is delivered - It is as sure as if it were done already. Mat 17:22; Luk 9:44.
9:32 They understood not the word - They did not understand how to reconcile the death of our Saviour (nor consequently his resurrection, which supposed his death) with their notions of his temporal kingdom.