Pentecost 17
September 30, 2012
Mark 9:38-50
Can you imagine the side
conversations going on between the disciples after Jesus’ teaching here?
What does he mean cut your
hand off if it causes you to stumble? Doesn’t he know how much that is going to
hurt? Is he serious? And what exactly does stumble mean? What are the rules we have to follow if we
are going to do just what Jesus said we should do? But again, is he really serious? Cause I gave that other exorcist a dirty look
earlier for not following the rules…does that mean I should go take my eye
out? I don’t know if I could do that.
And it all started because
John and the disciples were threatened that there was someone outside of the
twelve who was able to cast out demons in Jesus’ name…and they had had some
trouble with it. He wasn’t one of
them…he hadn’t been in the inner circle…how was he able to cast out demons in
Jesus’ name…that’s not fair…Jesus, make him stop…he’s not following us!
Wait us? I thought you were
all following Jesus…shouldn’t John have said he’s not following you? Actually,
he couldn’t have really said that because it wouldn’t have been true. The man
was following Jesus and had apparently picked up some tricks in regards to
casting out demons in Jesus’ name.
So Jesus responds to John
“don’t stop him from doing deeds of power in my name. He’s making a difference, and if you stop
him, the deeds of power being done by him in my name are going to end. And there’s really no reason for you to be
worried, someone who does a deed of power in my name isn’t going to be speaking
ill of me anytime soon.”
That’s when Jesus launches
into the better than’s…it would be better for you if a millstone were tied
around your neck and be thrown into the sea than to make a little one who
believes in me stumble…it would be better for you to enter life maimed or lame
than to have a hand or foot that causes you to sin…it you would be better for
you to have one eye, than two eyes that cause you do things you shouldn’t.
And we repeat…boy, I really
hope he’s not serious.
And Jesus isn’t serious. He doesn’t want us to cut off our hands and
feet or tear our eye out if they cause us to sin. There would sure by a lot of bloodshed if
that happened. Instead, Jesus takes the
opportunity to employ a bit of exaggeration to get the attention of the
disciples…and our attention as well. Be
careful of the things we say, the things we do, and the way we look at people
sometimes. It’s easy to be hurtful when
we are not careful. And it happens to
all of us, when we get cut off in traffic, when someone participates in an
activity that we don’t approve of, we a project we are working on gets messed
up, or when someone steals the spotlight from us…when we get annoyed, or
frustrated, or become focused solely on ourselves, it gets easy to say and act
in ways that we wish we could take back later.
It’s in these cases that it’s
good to know that Jesus isn’t always dead serious when he teaches…that
sometimes he bit of a flare for the dramatic when trying to get a point
across. It’s also a good thing that
there really is no such thing as a true biblical literalist. Otherwise, there would be a lot of people out
there walking around missing an eye, a hand, a foot…maybe even a tongue. If we did take everything in the bible
literally, then maybe the group of disciples would look like what Pastor
Michael Coffey, from Austin,
Texas, described in this
poem.
"One of them came in wet with
a millstone and a rope
knotted around his throat
gasping for air having dragged
the darn thing up from the
bottom of the river
where he once was baptized a
while back
because he had cursed at a
child for high pitched screaming
Another came in with her
right hand
hacked off – she was
left-handed –
and she dripped crimson drops
all the way
down the hall to Jesus'
living room
admitting she had used the
missing appendage
to flip someone off in
traffic for cutting in
One more limped in with a
lopped off foot
in his hand and he dropped to
the floor sobbing
because he had tripped
someone in line
in front of him to get a
better seat
at the Bruce Springstein
concert
Then there was the disciple
who had an eye patch
and fumbled her way through
the door
having glared at her next
door neighbor with
a rude stare because she
looked way too good
in that new dress and those
shoes with red soles
and wished she would trip and
tear her ACL
The poem doesn’t end
here. But what comes next really hits
what Jesus was trying to get across to the disciples. And to us.
They gathered around Jesus,
each face
with a seriousness that
puzzled the good Lord
except for the one with the
plucked out eye –
it was hard to look puzzled
with the patch and all.
He looked at them and said,
holding back an
uncharacteristic chuckle:
For God’s sake, stop
damaging yourselves.
You know I was kidding,
right?
Have you heard of
hyperbole, people?
Just don’t do those mean
things anymore
and if you do, say you’re
sorry, make amends, and move on.
Lift up the lowly and
respect the helpless.
It’s just not that
hard.
Come on,
folks! Get over yourselves!
You're not that bad, and
you're not that good."
There’s no actual call for us
to damage ourselves when we do wrong by our neighbors…but rather, a call to do
our best to be at peace with each other, to keep our actions and our words in
check, because we never really know what the reactions will be to them. None of us are perfect, we’re all going to
offend someone at some point, whether we mean to or not…it’s a fact of life.
And knowing that none of us
are perfect and that sometimes it is hard for us to be at peace with each
other, Jesus went to the cross and initiated the peace making process. For in that act, Jesus made peace between us
and God, which opened up for us a pathway through which we can to be at peace
with one another. To make amends when we
mess up, to love one another and to be that salt that adds flavor to one
another’s lives. That sounds like a much
better deal that cutting our limbs off.
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