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.

Usually this saying is repeated as: "Whoever is not with us is against us." In this way the overwhelming majority of people are enrolled among our enemies. Here two different sayings of Christ are confused: the one we have just read, and "Whoever is not with Me is against Me" (Matt. 12:30).

Where Jesus speaks about Himself, this is simply a statement of the fact that in relation to Christ one cannot be neutral; failure to receive Him inevitably turns into hostility. In Christian spirituality there is no state "between Christ and Belial." Jesus explains further: "Whoever does not gather with Me scatters." In Christian life there are no stops: a stone that has stopped flying upward is already falling.

But in relationships between people Jesus proposes a completely different logic. We are called to find the possibility of friendship, peace, and love with all people who do not feel unequivocal hostility toward us. Besides, we are called to love enemies too.

The Savior's words about those who cannot at the same time perform miracles in His name and immediately revile Him seem quite reasonable and understandable in human terms. Sometimes a newly appeared religious movement needs not even support, but only more or less favorable neutrality. Yet Jesus also said something else: whoever is not with Me is against Me; whoever does not gather with Me scatters. It would seem that these are two mutually exclusive statements. And if Christianity were simply one more religious movement, even a messianic one, this would be so. But the point is that Christianity is not a religious movement, but a path into the Kingdom and life in the Kingdom.

Here everything is not as it is with ordinary religious movements. The Kingdom is an objective reality. It came into the world through Jesus, and however we relate to this fact, our attitude does not change the fact itself in the least. 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.

But even for those who remain outside the Kingdom, it is not completely closed. For now that it is in the world, its breath is felt everywhere. And anyone can feel this breath. Of course, such a breath, sensed by outsiders, is not the same as the fullness of life in the Kingdom opened by Christ. But it is still better than nothing. To sense it, one need not even be a disciple of Christ in the proper sense of the word.

The only thing that protects one completely reliably from the breath of the Kingdom is an unambiguously negative attitude toward it and toward the One who brought it into the world. This means that anyone who has not said an unambiguous "no" to Christ or to any of His disciples doing His work is not lost for the Kingdom. Of course, for a Christian this is not enough. For a disciple of Christ, another principle is in force: if you do not do Christ's work, if you do not gather with Him, then time has been lost in vain, something has been missed. But here there is already another path and another measure. The measure of one seeking the Kingdom and striving to live its life.