Does Mark 9:40 conflict with Matthew 12:30?
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Please explain why these verses do not conflict: Mark 9:40, Matthew 12:30, Luke 9:50.
Mark 9:40 and Luke 9:50 are parallel accounts. Matthew 12:30 contains the idea that seems to conflict with the other two verses. So let’s look at them. In Mark 9:40 and Luke 9:50, the disciples saw someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name. However, this person was not following along with Jesus from day to day as the apostles. Jesus’ response to them was, “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is on our side” (Luke 9:50). We don’t know where this man came from, but he obviously had some connection with Jesus in the past. In Luke 10 we read that Jesus commissioned seventy men to do miracles and cast out demons, so the work that Jesus’ did before his crucifixion wasn’t relegated exclusively to the apostles. This man that the apostles encountered was one of those people, and Jesus told them to let him continue to do his work. So Jesus told them, “For he who is not against us is on our side” (Mark 9:40). Just because someone was not with Jesus physically, did not mean that he was against Jesus.
In Matthew 12:30, we have a different circumstance. The Pharisees have accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebub the prince of demons, in essence, suggesting that the Holy Spirit was actually Satan. This is a serious accusation and one that Jesus responded to. At the end of His response, Jesus said, “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” It is not clear in this passage to whom Jesus is referring. Was he talking about the Pharisees who had denied the Holy Spirit? Was He talking about Satan who was working against Jesus? He could have been addressing both of them. The point Jesus is making is that there are those who are clearly opposed to Jesus and His work. These are definitely against Jesus because they are clearly not with Jesus. While these Pharisees were with Jesus physically, that is, in his immediate company, they were definitely not with Jesus spiritually, and so they were opposed to Him, or against Him. If someone is not with Jesus spiritually, they he is definitely against Jesus.
These verses do not conflict because they are talking about two different situations. The one where a man is not physically with Jesus, but was working for Him and therefore not against him. The other is where someone is not with Jesus spiritually, and therefore is against Him. In either case, there is no middle ground where one could be neither with Jesus nor against Jesus. Either one is for him, or he is not. Jesus makes this clear in another passage when He says, “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:37-39).