Mark 9:43-48 43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 44 45 And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell., 46 47 And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, 48 where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.
In Mark, these verses are referring to "stumbling" in general. In Matthew, they are specifically referring to adultery. At first glance it is easy to write these verses off as just being plain weird. They talk about voluntarily maiming one's self for the purpose of ending one's own stumbling (note: this is not about dealing with the stumblings of others - but about our own personal stumblings). Some have taken these verses literally over the centuries. The famous first century theologian Origen, for example, castrated himself after reading theses verses. But the point is not to physically maim one's self, but to radically deal with the causes of sin in your own life. Jesus wants his followers to take their personal stumblings seriously and remove the causes. BUT as impossible and ridiculous as it is to cut off your own body parts - it is equally impossible and ridiculous to try to deal with sin based on determination and discipline.
When you consider the verses that come just before them (see yesterday's post), Jesus talks about how it is the heart that is the real problem. So how is maiming one's self going to change much of anything if the heart is still the real issue? I think this is actually Jesus' point. I think he is saying... "if you won't let your hearts be made right, then maiming yourself is the next best thing." I think Jesus is using sarcasm to drive home his point that our hearts must be made right and we are powerless to do that on our own strength.
In the book of John, Jesus talks about why people stumble. "Those who walk during the day do not stumble, because they see the light of this world. But those who walk at night stumble, because the light is not in them" (John 11:9-10). Stumbling happens when we aren't letting the light of Christ transform our darkness into light - when our hearts haven't been transformed from places of sin to places where Christ is served.
Rather than slashing body parts today - deal with your sin by letting Christ transform your heart. Ask Jesus to change your heart - then the stumbling will stop. I speak from personal experience... the power of Christ to change us is real.
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Another gospel weighs in...
Matthew 5:29-30 29 If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better for you to lose one of your members than for your whole body to go into hell.
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