“If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go into hell, where the fire never goes out. And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where ‘the worms that eat them do not die, and the fire is not quenched.'”
(Mark 9:43-48 NIV)
We think of the New Testament and we think of grace, don’t we? How good and loving and patient our God is. But this text, straight out of our Savior’s mouth, doesn’t set too well with our happy perception. It reads like Jesus takes a very hard stance against sin. He’s telling us to cut it out – whatever it is that causes us to stumble – at whatever cost! He says to extricate it from our story, amputate if necessary. He believes it’s better to walk through this life maimed and repentant than able-bodied and immoral.
Do we meet this hard line on sin? Are we willing to remove the limb of transgression? Or do we tolerate our infractions? Relabel them. Excuse them. Justify them. The problem with soft approach on sin is exponential growth: unconfessed transgression magnifies over time and multiplies through generations. Sin’s deadly grip is not limited to our narrative, it snags for our children and grandchildren’s souls as well. Eventually we are no longer talking about only an arm or leg lost to the trauma of sin, but an entire family and maybe a nation.
We need adapt Jesus’ zero-tolerance policy for sin in our stories. We need to treat transgression with the contempt that Jesus does; cut it off and stop the insidious spread towards vital organs and ultimately our family tree. When we can accurately see sin’s potential, Jesus’ preceding verse makes a lot more sense.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones – those who believe in Me – to stumble, it would be better for them if a large millstone was tied around their neck and they were thrown in the sea.” (Mark 9:42 NIV)
Today’s sin has the potential to infect and condemn generations after us. We must keep this in mind when we face temptation. We must fight our flesh for the sake of our descendants.
Earlier in this chapter, three of the disciples had gotten a good glimpse of the transfigured Jesus. They now had a better idea about about eternity than maybe any other living person to date. Heaven was no longer a hazy image in the distance, it was an appointment on their calendar.
I suspect that this impending reality of heaven is what can motivate to cut sin off at the pass here and now. A properly weighted eternity can tip the scale on what we do today. A bit of discomfort and discipline here and now can attain an eternal glory if we’ll only stay focused on what is most important.
“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Corinthians 5:17-18 NIV)
Lord, further develop our zero-tolerance policy for sin in story. Let us hate it enough to cut it out completely, to lop off the cancer that seeks to corrode our entire bodies and our families. Keep eternity in focus. Let us live with great care here and now so we can enjoy forever fully with You. Protect our children and grandchildren from the lies and snares of the enemy. Bring us all home to You one day soon. Amen.