Brief synopsis of the readings: Our first reading comes to us from the Old Testament book of Numbers (the 4th book of the Bible). Here the Lord came down and took some of the spirit from Moses and gave it to seventy elders who then prophesied (spoke in God’s voice). There were two followers, Eldad and Medad, who would have been included but were not present. But the spirit entered them too and they also began to prophesy. Alarmed, a young boy protested to Moses and told them they must be stopped and Moses’ aide Joshua agreed. But Moses told them: “Would that all the people of the Lord were prophets! Would that the lord might bestow his spirit on them all!” In Mark’s Gospel we see John complaining to Jesus that someone (not one of their group) was driving out demons in Jesus’ name. John and the others tried to stop him. But Jesus told them not to stop anyone “who performs a mighty deed in my name. If anyone gives you a drink of water because you are a disciple of Jesus you will not lose your reward.” Jesus went on to warn his listeners against causing another to sin: “[I]t would be better for him if a great millstone were put around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.” Finally, he tells them to cut off any part of them that causes them to sin; it’s better to be saved and incomplete than complete and condemned.”

It’s hard to imagine anyone reading this is not familiar with the basic plot line of the Star Wars series. But just in case: the protagonist, a young man named Luke Skywalker, finds himself in the middle of a galactic battle between good and evil. The Force is an energy that can be used for good or ill and and Darth Vader tries, unsuccessfully, to convince Luke to join the “dark side.” Spoiler alert: he failed.

When we think about Moses and Jesus and their disciples, we tend to cheer on what they do and look askance at those who don’t follow them. Demons are bad, healing is good. Evil is bad, good is good. But can good things come from people outside our orbit? Clearly they can, but that can be hard for us to accept.

If we seriously follow Jesus we are committed to doing the right thing and that should be it. But alas, sometimes it isn’t. While there can certainly be times we advocate for the good in the face of evil, those aren’t all the challenges we face. Sometimes, in doing the right thing, we can have alternative motives.

While doing good is its own reward we can’t ignore the fact that we sometimes receive compliments and adulation for our courage or our determination. We all like being affirmed and there’s nothing wrong with accepting a compliment. But sometimes we can desire the compliment enough that it takes on more importance than is healthy.

Everyone in our first reading acknowledged that Moses had been chosen by God and gave him great authority. And they also knew that the closer they got to Moses the closer they’d get to God. So when God gave some of the spirit to the seventy it made perfect sense. Until God didn’t. Eldad and Medad weren’t in close proximity and according to our human construct they should have been excluded because of that. After all if they really cared about God they’d have been with the seventy. Joshua objected out of fear that if Eldad and Medad received some of the spirit, he would receive less.

That’s silly, of course. God’s spirit, like his love, is infinite and generosity to one does not diminish the other. But human acclaim is finite and it really was a matter of jealousy. Joshua certainly loved God and Moses but he also loved the respect of proximity to Moses.

We see something similar in our Gospel. John doesn’t begrudge someone driving out demons but God isn’t following the playbook. John’s anger toward the person healing in Jesus’ name was that same jealousy, that same belief that he “cut in line” for God’s favor. It would cause John to lose some status.

We need to understand that if we seek the adulation of others perhaps following Jesus isn’t a good idea in the long run. Good things sometimes happen spontaneously, in ways that we didn’t expect, that may not give us the glory we think crave or think we deserve.

This is rare and extreme but there is a syndrome in medicine called “Munchausen by proxy.” In it a child’s caregiver purposely makes the child sick. By seeking medical care the caregiver receives the praise of the doctor for being a good caregiver. At the end of the process the child is “healed” and the caregiver is praised. But not really. The caregiver’s need for praise causes the child to be endangered.

OK, that’s an extreme example but I think this is something we’ve all faced at some time. We’re at a meeting at work and we take someone else’s idea and make it our own so we’ll look good to the boss. Or worse, we shoot down an idea because it didn’t come from us.

At the end of the day any act of kindness, generosity or healing benefits everyone. It makes the world a better place and closer to the Kingdom of God. It should also point everyone’s eyes to God, not us. I knew a priest in the 1980s who had a reputation as someone withe gift of healing. And while he said with his lips that he was only the vessel through which God heals, he wrote a book about these healings that brimmed with pictures of him with the people “he” healed. On no level was he a humble man and he wanted all eyes on him.

If we are the disciples of Jesus we say we are we need to understand that human praise and adulation may make us feel good but we live our best lives when we do the right thing and let the praise fall where it may.