Soli Deo Gloria
Listen
to these words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and ponder for the next
little while what they mean:
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.'
A
little shocking, isn’t it? Well,
Jesus didn’t speak like this for no reason at all.
It wasn’t that He was having a bad day that caused Him to
speak with such severity. Neither
was it that the stress of being the world’s Savior just got to
be too much for Him to handle at the moment, and He opened His
mouth without thinking about what He was saying.
It wasn’t because He was fed up with human impenitence
and hardness of heart that He spoke so harshly – or that He was
frustrated with the unimpressive results that followed upon His
two years of preaching and teaching about the kingdom of God.
So
why then did He talk this way, in such a black-and-white,
uncompromising manner? Let’s
face it: All this talk about self-mutilation doesn’t sound much
like the Jesus who described Himself as being gentle and lowly in heart. It
doesn’t sound much like the One who said that He came to provide
rest for those who are weary and heavy-laden. And
it certainly doesn’t sound anything at all like the Jesus of
popular belief, who’d never harm a fly, many people think --
who’d never dream of doing or saying or demanding anything that
would make a person uncomfortable, who just wants everyone to be
happy and secure in their self-esteem.
And
yet, there’s no denying that this is what Jesus actually said to
all who would come after Him in the way of discipleship and faith.
If your hand causes
you to sin and gets in the way of your following Me, then chop it
off. If your
foot causes you to sin and gets in the way of trusting in Me, chop
it off. If your eye
does it, then tear it out. Better
for you to enter life lacking a member of your body than that your
whole body should be cast into hell. Sounds
ruthless, doesn’t it? Well
that’s how seriously Jesus views sin.
And while our Lord doesn’t mention any other members of
the body to be treated with similar severity, presumably He would
say the same thing about our tongue if it causes us to sin, or our
ears, arms, legs, and minds. Better
that you enter life lacking a member of your body than for your
whole body to be separated from God forever in the unquenchable
fires of hell.
It
might be comforting to think that Jesus was just having a bad day
when He said these things. We
might be relieved to learn that He was overcome by frustration,
speaking words that He later regretted.
But that’s not an option for us.
For with these harsh words, our Lord Jesus Christ intends
to do something. He
intends to inflict the complacent and self-deceived who think that
unrepented sin can co-exist harmoniously with faith in Him.
Jesus intends to show us that a radical break with sin is
called for from those who would follow Him.
He demands of all of us that we repent of our sin, forsake
it, and follow Him in the way of faith.
Now
as the Second Person of the Godhead, the One through whom all
things in heaven and earth were created (including the human
body), our Lord is not encouraging us literally to mutilate
ourselves. He’s
speaking in hyperbole. He’s
overstating and exaggerating to make a point.
He does not intend to be understood literally.
After all, according to the Catechism, God gave us our bodies
and souls, eyes, ears, and all our members, our reason, and all
our senses, and still takes care of them.
God wants us to take care of what He has given us –
that includes our bodies also.
In addition, the Law given to Moses at
Mt.
Sinai
specifically forbids mutilation of the body that God created.
So all that being the case, what does Jesus mean by telling
us to get rid of the hand that offends, the foot that offends, and
the eye that offends?
The
real problem is not that we sin with our hands, feet, eyes and
other members of our body. After
all, a quadriplegic can sin, even though he can’t move his arms
and legs. The problem,
you see, is not so much the body but the sinful heart.
For example, the sin of murder begins in the heart with
hatred or anger toward someone before the finger ever squeezes the
trigger or the hand ever plunges the knife.
The problem isn’t the finger or hand that uses the weapon
to murder someone. The
problem is the sinful heart. And
the problem isn’t the eyes that gaze upon pornographic images in
magazines or on the Internet; the problem is the sinful heart.
If the heart were right no one would ever be tempted to
look at pornography. No
one would ever commit the sin of murder.
The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, the
Scripture says. And
because the heart is deceitful and wicked we therefore sin with
our hands and our feet and our eyes and our minds and all the
other members of our body. Out
of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication,
theft, false witness, and slander, Jesus said.
The sinful human heart, corrupted by the sin of Adam, is
the fetid breeding ground in which the actual sins of hatred,
murder, adultery, coveting, gossip, and stealing are spawned.
So
when Jesus says to rid ourselves of the offending member, what
He’s telling us is to repent of and forsake the sin that we
cherish, the sin that has in actuality become our god because we
cling to it with such devotion.
Jesus asks us, Do you love your sin of sexual immorality more than you love Me, who
died for your sins? Then
you have a false god. Repent.
Turn your back on your sin and turn in faith to Me, who
died for you to forgive and set you free.
Do you love your sin of hating your neighbor above any love
that you have for Me? Jesus asks.
Then repent.
Forsake your false god and turn in faith to the Triune God,
whose mercy and love and forgiveness I alone reveal.
Faith in Jesus and unrepented sin cannot coexist.
Now
when we sincerely repent of our sins and seek to amend our lives
– particularly a sin that we cherish and hold dear – it can be
as painful as cutting off a hand or foot, or gouging out an eye
would be. The fallen
sinful nature that clings to each of us loves its sin like a
junkie loves his drugs. To
repent of and forsake our sin may seem like dying – but in
reality, it’s death to hold onto our sin, to refuse to repent.
For unrepented sin destroys faith and pulls us away from
the grace of God in Christ Jesus.
So
really, what choice do we, the baptized, have?
Our Savior calls us to a life of daily contrition and
repentance. Daily we
Christians are to drown the Old Adam with all his sins and evil
desires that a new man might arise to live before God in
righteousness and purity forever.
Daily we are to say “No”
to the Old Adam who would lead us to lust, fornicate, covet, hate
other people, neglect God’s Word, and whose ultimate goal is to
destroy our faith in Christ. Daily
we are called to use our bodies, which the Triune God created and
redeemed, for godly purposes.
We are to use our hands to serve our neighbor, our feet to
carry us to share the Gospel with others, our eyes to read and
study God’s holy Word through which the Holy Spirit engenders
faith. Our bodies are
not our own. They
belong to God, and are to be used as He would have us to, in a way
that pleases Him.
What
do the Scriptures say? You
have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God with your
body, 1 Corinthians 6.20 says.
How can I
glorify God with my body if I use that body for evil purposes
rather than as a vessel dedicated to the service of God?
Romans 12.1-2 tells us:
I appeal to you therefore,
brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a
living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your
spiritual worship. Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal
of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the good,
acceptable and perfect will of God.
As those who have been redeemed by God, and forgiven all our sins for the
sake of our Lord’s death and resurrection, we want to be
conformed to the will of God, not to the corrupt ways and values
of a fallen world.
And
so we repent of our sin as the faith-destroying spiritual cancer
that it is. With the
Holy Spirit’s help we seek to amend our lives as through Word
and Sacrament He transforms us by the renewing of our mind.
But it’s not our will-power, our personal determination
and grit that bring this transformation to pass.
Yes, the Scripture says, Work
out your salvation with fear and trembling.
But it goes on to say that it is God who works in you, both to
will and to work for His good pleasure.
The
Triune God who sent His Son into the world to be our Savior is at
work in us, through the Means of Grace, that our whole life would
be one of repentance and faith.
And it’s all because of Jesus.
Christ our Savior came into the world to suffer for our
salvation. He who was
holy and innocent of all wrongdoing was disfigured on the Cross by
our sin. He was
stricken, smitten and afflicted for our iniquities that He might
take our guilt away. And
while Jesus does not literally call us to mutilate our bodies by
cutting off a hand or foot or gouging out an eye, look what
happened to Him. He was beaten, tortured, abused, and crucified.
Isaiah says that so intense were His sufferings on our
behalf, that
His appearance was marred beyond human semblance.
Jesus
suffered all these things for you.
He suffered these things for your salvation.
He suffered these things so you could be forgiven, set free
from sin’s guilt and power, and made to walk in that newness of
life which Holy Baptism gives.
So that you could be given a new heart that knows and loves
God. So that you could
serve God with your body and all of its members, as one who has
been bought with a price.
As
you come to the Sacrament this day, you of course come confessing
the same faith that we, as a congregation of the Lutheran
Church-Missouri Synod, confess.
You come recognizing the Real Presence of our Lord’s Body
and Blood in the bread and wine.
You come acknowledging your sinfulness, acknowledging your
need of God’s forgiveness. That
forgiveness was accomplished by Jesus’ life and death, and is
delivered to you in the Sacrament.
But you also come to the Sacrament knowing your weakness,
knowing your need of God’s help if you are ever to amend your
life and repent of your sins against your neighbor, against God,
and against His commandments.
That
help, dear Christian friends, is present for you in the Sacrament
of Jesus’ Body and Blood. So
let us, you and I, come to the Lord’s Table this day, confessing
our sin, confessing our great need, and seeking God’s help in
laying aside the sin that so easily besets us.
Christ our righteousness is present in this Sacrament to
forgive and strengthen us as we continue to follow Him in faith.
It’s just as Hebrews 4.16 says:
Let us therefore boldly approach the throne of grace that we might
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Gloria Patri. . .
