Meditationen am Gnadenstuhl: Tuesday of Oculi (Lent III)
Tuesday of Oculi (Lent III)
Daily Lectionary Readings: Genesis 35:1-29; Mark 9:33-50; (Sirach 15)
”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.”1 Look at all the ways our hands can be a stumbling block. If something is forbidden, or should be given, or let go of, the hand can sin. It can be touching, reaching, grabbing, pointing, squeezing, or stroking. But there is a better alternative to sinning with our hands: cut them off. Now, does Jesus really mean if your hand keeps sinning, we need to amputate? Of course not, but… we can see Jesus' point, can we not? If our hand leads someone else into the fires of hell because the works of our hands became his stumbling block to salvation, then cutting it off is a small price to pay.
God is really serious about your sins and our leading another person to sin! Therefore, such radical language is needed to drive the point home: It is better not to have a hand than grab your neighbor with it and drag him into hell with you. And sinning with your hands condemns you to hell – Jesus does not mince words. “Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.”2 Hell is punishment, and hell is forever. Being handless is a temporary inconvenience by comparison. Jesus wants us to live an abundant life of service to our neighbors. Abundant life does not depend on your physical wholeness. The abundance and fullness of life rely only on Christ's righteousness imputed to you by His death on the cross, living your life for Him here on earth until you live the eternal life granted you by His resurrection from the dead.
”For everyone will be salted with fire.”3 Rest assured, the day of judgment is coming. Everyone will be judged.4 The good you do does not merit your salvation but will be rewarded. All the wrongs you have done will have to be accounted for and answered. And those that have wronged you will likewise be judged accordingly. There is true justice at the last. All your works will be set afire in the blink of an eye. Every impure thought, word, and deed will be "salted with fire" and burned like worthless rags. Jesus' death on the cross is the fuel that burns all our sins for eternity, leaving only the good you have done through the Holy Spirit's power.
”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.”5 In the meantime, we still have to live as sinners in a sinful world. We will not always remember this, which is why Paul; reminds us: “Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.”6 Our hands and feet, eyes and ears, will betray us at every opportunity for temptation, desiring to leave our faith saltless and tasteless. We will live with one another in constant tension between loving our neighbors and dragging them into our own sins. Be salty, Christians! Turn to the cross and seek forgiveness. Bear with one another. Whoever is not against us is for us.
1Mark 9:43 (ESV).
2The King James and other older English translations have the phrase “Where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched” three times in this text (at 9:44, 46, & 48). However, the ESV has it only once, omitting v. 44 & 46 entirely. This is attributed to the three occurrences not being in the oldest manuscripts and are attributed to later scribal additions. The Luther Bible retains these verses, as do many translations by the church fathers.
3Mark 9:49 (ESV).
4Athanasian Creed v.39-40.
5Mark 9:50 (ESV).
6Colossians 4:6 (ESV).