Day of the Church Year: 18th Sunday after Pentecost
Scripture Passage: Mark 9:38-50
You may remember that, last October, I stumbled and fell while running. I limped home, and after I cleaned and bandaged my knees, I faced the reality that I couldn’t actually walk very well. More accurately, I couldn’t easily bend my knees. So, I struggled up the one step from the welcome mat on my front patio to inside my home, certainly couldn’t walk up the stairs to the sanctuary, and could hardly get up and off the couch the first few days. I actually stumbled on a Sunday morning, so this generous community understood when I had to livestream my sermon from home and cancel that morning’s Walk-Up Holy Communion. My stumble impacted all of us, not just me.
In today’s Jesus story, Jesus warns the disciples: If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. He then goes on to describe, with dramatic hyperbole, severe recommendations for those whose hands, feet, or eyes cause them to stumble. Cut off your hand. Cut off the offending foot. Tear out your eye. For it is better to enter life lame than to go to hell, Jesus says. Lutheran preachers all over the world today are saying: Heavens. Really, Jesus? I want you to know that Jesus truly does speak in metaphor and hyperbole here. For instance, the word that is translated “hell” in this passage is actually the name of a valley south of Jerusalem where people dumped their garbage. Over time, this valley became so despised and was considered so disgusting that ancient people referred to this valley, to this dump as hell. In other words, Jesus encourages his disciples to rid themselves of toxic elements so that their whole bodies would not end up in the garbage heap, perhaps like cheese that has grown moldy on one side. Instead of throwing the whole, lovely chunk of cheese into the garbage, we can instead cut off simply the moldy parts and enjoy the rest.
We might read this passage casually and assume that Jesus advocates a moral standard that is well familiar to us. You do something wrong, and you get punished. Because it’s the Bible, we might assume the punishment is eternal, not just temporal. But I invite us into a more complex reading of this Jesus story.
Jesus begins his teaching by discouraging the disciples from putting a stumbling block before a vulnerable follower of Jesus. But instead of describing intentional acts of sabotage of others, Jesus speaks of activities that cause us to stumble, that cause us harm for he recommends: “If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off.” Jesus speaks not of someone else’s hand, not of someone else’s sins but our own, mistakes and mis-steps that impact us. While these stumbling blocks make our lives difficult, they also create stumbling blocks for others. Because what we do in the world creates a ripple, like a stone thrown into a lake. The stone enters the lake at one particular place, but the ripple in the water extends far beyond. Imagine someone—and it’s probably not too hard—who has trouble identifying and processing their emotions, someone who is easily provoked by someone else’s mindless comments, someone who is having a bad day and doesn’t have anyone to talk to about it. And then imagine that person getting behind the wheel of a car. Sure, that person who is struggling with their emotions is angry and also hurt and maybe sad, maybe overwhelmed, maybe exhausted. But when they get behind the wheel of a car, they drive in ways that impact not just them but everyone else on the road.
If we tend to our own health and wholeness, to our own growth and development and thereby let go of whatever is toxic within us, that affects others in positive ways. If we neglect our own health and wholeness, if we neglect our own growth and development and allow toxicity to grow within us, that also affects others. It creates stumbling blocks that may have real and sometimes serious consequences.
In many ways, Jesus’ teaching is refreshing for aren’t we all wondering these days: What can I do to make a difference in this upsidedown world? According to Jesus, our lives make a difference regardless of what we do; what is up for grabs is what kind of difference: a life-giving difference or a stumbling block-creating difference.
Living in community is not a choice. Whether that community is Grace or our workplace, our school or our neighborhood, our nation or our world, what we do impacts our community. What we do affects others, either in life-giving or stumbling block-creating ways. What we do affects others, whether or not we intend it. There are few private choices, friends, but instead mostly public ones with public consequences...or at least, that’s the way Jesus seems to see the world. Throughout the gospels, Jesus rejects narrow moralism and instead commands the disciples and us to seek the common good—to seek what is good for the neighbor, the stranger, the world. And wouldn’t you know, what is good for the neighbor, the stranger, and the world is good for us too.
Jesus loves the neighbor, the stranger, the world. Jesus loves us. The command to cut off the toxic parts of ourselves is not a command coming from a fierce God but from a wise and gentle savior who sees how we struggle and wants to free us from all that would make us and others stumble. For this wise and radical love, we can say: Thanks be to God! Amen.