“Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ For everyone will be salted with fire. Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” (Mark 9:42-50 ESV)
Is that not an image and a verse to keep you on your toes…
I remember having many discussions on this verse or its companions in the synoptic gospels. It is better for a person to tie a millstone around their neck and throw themselves into the sea than to lead one of these little ones away…
I always thought of the millstone as a good size rock, but this picture gives a different view to me. A large rock indeed, and maybe this was the way early mobsters took care of their hits. They couldn’t do cement shoes, so a millstone will have to do…
But is this not a little harsh? We read here about all the ways we should be maiming ourselves to keep ourselves able to get into the kingdom. But does it really have anything to do with us? And who is taking this literally? I know I have joked about this section of scripture, if the males of the human race took this literally and seriously, we would all have no hands or eyes… We are always sinning it is in our nature.
Now do not get me wrong, I am in no way condoning sinful behavior. My pastor this morning told us that God gives us rules to follow so that we will be safe. Our parents don’t give us rules and make us eat healthy because they are mean, but because they love us. God gave us rules to follow because He loves us. He is trying to help protect us. There is a reason our parents told us to look both ways before we cross the road…
But really we can not keep ourselves from sinning, and we can not get into heaven by trying. Jesus did it for us! And the thing we miss in the above verse is this little gem stuck right there in the middle: “For everyone will be salted with fire” Everyone will be salted with fire… You see you will not miss the fire, for we all will see it, and it will be something that is unavoidable. We must go into the fire, but how? This morning I was told it was with the knowledge that our sin has been dealt with by Jesus, and we do not need it to weigh us down, we can give it up to Him. That is cutting off the hand, and plucking out the eye, we are giving up the sin, confessing it and letting it go. We are then able to go into the fire with the ever fireproof Jesus wrapped around us. You see it is not up to us alone to face the temptation, Jesus is there to do it with us and help us through the fire that is coming, for all of us.
So give it up to Jesus and let Him walk with you in the fire!
aSacredRebel 