NOTES for Mar 9:40
The Savior's words about those who cannot both work miracles in His name and immediately revile Him appear, humanly speaking, quite reasonable and understandable. Sometimes a newly appeared religious movement needs not even support, but only more or less benevolent neutrality. But Jesus also said something else: whoever is not with Me is against Me, and whoever does not gather with Me scatters. These appear to be two mutually exclusive statements. And if Christianity were merely one more religious movement, even a messianic one, that is how it would be. But the point is that Christianity is not a religious movement, but the way into the Kingdom and life in the Kingdom.
Here everything is different from what happens with ordinary religious movements. The Kingdom is an objective reality; it came into the world through Jesus, and however we relate to that fact, our attitude does not change the fact itself at all. And in order to enter the Kingdom, trust in the Savior is important. That very trust which, in the traditional language of most Christian religions, is called faith in Jesus Christ.
Yet even for those who remain outside the Kingdom, it is not completely closed. Now that it is in the world, its breath is felt everywhere. And everyone can sense this breath. Of course, such breath, sensed by outsiders, is not the same as the fullness of life in the Kingdom revealed by Christ. But it is still better than nothing. In order to sense it, one need not even be Christ's disciple in the full sense of the word.
The only thing that fully and reliably shields one from the breath of the Kingdom is an unequivocally negative attitude toward it and toward the One who brought it into the world. Therefore everyone who has not said a clear "no" to Christ or to one of His disciples doing His work is not lost for the Kingdom. Of course, this is too little for a Christian. For Christ's disciple another principle is valid: if you do not do Christ's work, if you do not gather with Him, then time has been wasted, and something has been missed. But here there is already another path and another measure: the measure of one who seeks the Kingdom and strives to live its life.