8 “If your hand or your foot gets in the way of God, chop it off and throw it away. You’re better off maimed or lame and alive than the proud owners of two hands and two feet, godless in a furnace of eternal fire. 9 And if your eye distracts you from God, pull it out and throw it away. You’re better off one-eyed and alive than exercising your twenty-twenty vision from inside the fire of hell. Matthew 18:7–8 (The Message) .
Ouch! Of course, we know that Jesus didn’t mean us literally to cut off hands and feet and pluck out eyes. That kind of self-mutilation is a sign of mental disorder, not of genuine holiness. It’s like the two-ton millstone round the neck: a huge exaggeration to make the point. So let’s not throw this in the Crazy Religious Nuts box just yet. Jesus is teaching something vital to all who want to follow Him all the way to Jerusalem to pure, total freedom from the chains of the past and from the “flesh mind.”
Anyone who has ever tried to break a bad moral habit will know that it sometimes feels like cutting off a hand or foot. Anyone who tries to stop a bad attitude towards others will know that it’s almost as hard as plucking out an eye. And the habits and attitudes that Jesus has in his sights in this passage are as hard as any.
Cutting off the ‘hand’ that refuses to give to the poor; cutting off the ‘foot’ that refuses to walk to the soup kitchen to help out; and, in particular, plucking out the ‘eye’ that refuses to notice the weak, the vulnerable, the helpless all around us, in our cities, on our streets, in our wider world: all these pose a challenge every bit as severe today as the day Jesus first issued it. N.T. Wright, Luke for Everyone.
It would be easier but not as effective if He had made a list of things we must stop doing. Therefore, if you love me and want to go to heaven when you die, stop these things: exaggerating your stories, avoiding difficult people, looking at porn when you feel alone, spending money you don’t have to make yourself feel better, pointing out your spouses flaws, fudging your expense report, etc. You get the idea. In essence, that was the system of the Scribes and Pharisees who got so upset with Jesus (you know they are going to kill him don’t you) because He went to the people doing those things (tax collectors and sinners) and did not give them the list!
There are so many negative examples here of what not to do. I think of one from church history for those of you wanting to go deeper. His name was Origen 185-254. Warning: rabbit trail. Go there later!
My wife and I began our walk with Jesus to Jerusalem when we were twenty-six and loved our hard rock. We were 1970’s Hippies and had a lot of records and a big sound system. We loved everything from Hendrix to Zeppelin and spent a lot of time and money at concerts and . . . . You can imagine. (Note: no one ever tells a testimony about being a nerd and repenting of studying too much.) Anyway, we decided that the old habits were blocking us so we hauled the records outside and burned them all! Now just to finish my brag, let me note that what was available in Christian music was not what we have today. It was rather soft and squishy or it was four men singing four-part harmony in matching suits. It was a rough turn. It did hurt. And since then many have challenged our decision, but in retrospect it was necessary and from God. We were stopping something so we could start something better. Is the possession of rock music sin? It would make the list for some enforcers, but this is why we do not have comprehensive lists. Rather we learn by sitting at the feet of Jesus and learning His ways.
He calls us to follow. Peter, Andrew, James, and John had to leave their fishing businesses and their family to follow. They could not do both. They had to stop something to start something. They could not do both. We are no different. Some things block us from following. Some things distract us.
I once visited Celebrate Recovery at a church and after the opening worship went with other men to a small group for those not in substance abuse recovery, but in recovery for other things. There a young man told of his struggle with porn and that he had put his laptop computer out in the trash that week. We were shocked. How will he function without his right hand? One member suggested that was a bit extreme. He could have sold the computer and given the money to homeless. (Mark 14:3-5) The “helper” was told that we do not make suggestions. We listen. That incident has remained with me for many years. “If your laptop causes you to stumble, THROW IT AWAY! It is better to go through life without a computer than to suffer the attacks of Satan forever.”
Those are two extreme examples. We probably do not have such interesting hands and eyes to control. Our cuts and plucks are probably less interesting and dramatic, but most important all the same if they keep us from following Jesus 100%. That is where He is leading and we can sense it. He wants all of us, and we need all of Him!
As we walk with Jesus, we notice that the hill gets a little steeper the further we go. This is not a picnic or a site-seeing excursion. This is real life. There are many things in our way that block and distract us. In deciding to spend a time of silence in solitude for Lent we ALL were confronted with the distractions. But the issue is not to list them, but to listen to Jesus today concerning the ONE thing that is blocking and distracting us. We don’t know the second one until we decide to give up — cut off or pluck out — the first. It is probable that many of our losses, our failures and issues that we consider to be unwanted and problems, actually are God’s hand of grace removing from our lives competing distractions.
Only Jesus knows. Have courage. Stop so you can start.
