Sermon Tone Analysis
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*42 *“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.
*43 *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.
*45 *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.
*47 *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, *48 *‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’
*49 *For everyone will be salted with fire.*50
*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.”
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It is hard to imagine more difficult words to absorb from Jesus than what we read in this passage.
These words are difficult both because of what we can easily understand from what Jesus says and also because of what will require a little more contemplation.
It is clear from this passage that Jesus believes in hell (vv.
43, 45, 47) as the alternative to life (vv.
43, 45) and the kingdom of God (v.
47).
The description he gives of hell in verse 48 is graphic and terrifying, and one of those things we all probably would like not to believe.
There are also several things about this text that seem to obscure the meaning of what Jesus has to say here.
What of this talk about cutting off one’s hand and foot and tearing out one’s eye?
What is he teaching us in his allusion to salt in verses 49 and 50?
In spite of these more obscure words, it is the seriousness of these words of Jesus that urges us to take a closer look, as difficult as it may be for us to do so.
Now this is a continuation of the message from last week because I believe we are meant to read verses 42-50 along with verses 30-41.
If that is the case we are helped in interpreting this passage by what we find in the previous verses.
This section begins with Jesus’ second prediction about his death and resurrection.
Mark records three such predictions by Jesus, each of which is followed by some sort of rebuke of his disciples.
Here we find the disciples arguing about which of them would be the greatest in God’s kingdom.
Jesus takes the opportunity to teach his followers about true greatness.
In God’s kingdom true greatness is about being last rather than first.
Why is that so?
It’s because we are our own worst enemies in the pursuit of greatness.
Being last means you are not concerned about making yourself great, and only then can we have eyes to behold him who alone is great!
But how subtly we can turn our pursuit of Jesus into a pursuit for our own kingdom.
In the story of the unknown exorcist that follows (vv.
38-41), Jesus’ disciple, John, appears to be defending Jesus by trying to stop this man from casting out demons in Jesus’ name because he was not one of them.
But Jesus reminds his disciples that it is allegiance to him that matters, not allegiance to us.
That’s the context in which we find our passage for today.
So what is the connection between verses 42-50 and verses 30-41?
It is a solemn conclusion to those verses.
It shows us why Jesus sat down (v.
35) to interact with his disciples and their argument about who is to be the greatest.
It shows us why pursuing greatness wrongly is a big deal.
!
Stumbling Blocks
It’s a big deal because there are eternal consequences at stake in this passage.
One of the most important words we find in this passage is the word that is translated “cause to sin” in verses 42, 43, 45, and 47.
How we understand this word is crucial to how we interpret this passage.
Originally the word meant “to trap” and is used in reference to catching birds and animals.
In Christian literature it began to be used to describe the danger of sin.
Sin can “ensnare” us or at least “trip” us, causing us to stumble.
This is why some modern versions translate this word as “cause to stumble” (NASB, NKJV).
However, this word is not typically used to refer to a single violation of God’s moral law and that is clearly not the way it is used in this passage.
There is something much more serious being described here.
The purpose of the trap is disaster for the one who gets caught in it.
That’s why another way to translate the word here is “to cause the downfall of someone” (HCSB).
What kind of disaster or downfall is in view here?
It is being thrown into hell, into the unquenchable fire (vv.
47-48).
It is, in other words, suffering the full force of the wrath of God forever.
So the “cause of sin” being discussed here perhaps is best understood as causing one to lose faith (GWT, GNT).
What is being described in these verses, then, is unbelief, the direct opposite of faith.
!
The Little Ones Who Believe in Jesus
Now what complicates this interpretation is the identity of the ones that are in danger of this snare of unbelief.
There are two individuals in view.
First, in verse 42, Jesus speaks of “one of these little ones who believe in me.”
He says that whoever should cause one of them not to believe, “it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea.”
Who are these “little ones”?
Since Jesus has just spoken of children in verse 37, some say it is a reference to them.
The problem, though, is that this is not the most immediate context for verse 42.
If verse 42 followed immediately after verse 37 that would be a sound interpretation, but apparently Mark does not want us to read verse 42 in that way.
It is more likely that “little ones” refers to disciples of Jesus in general.
These “little ones” are those “who believe in me.”
Why does he refer to them as “little ones”?
Because in the most immediate context, they are those who do even the most menial tasks in the name of Jesus, like offering another disciple of Jesus a cup of water to drink.
They are followers of Jesus but otherwise unknown among their fellow man.
But though these disciples may be insignificant to others, they are not insignificant to him.
Just as the most menial tasks done by one of these little ones in Jesus’ name will not go unrewarded, so anyone who causes unbelief in one of these little ones will not go unpunished.
!
Taking Drastic Measures to Fight Unbelief
So Jesus warns against the danger of causing another follower of Jesus to stop believing.
But he also warns against the danger of falling into unbelief yourself.
“If your hand causes you to lose faith, cut it off . . . .
If your foot causes you to lose faith, cut it off. . . .
If your eye causes you to lose faith, tear it out.”
Hands, feet, and eyes are used here as figures of speech, representing the totality of life: what we do, where we go, and what we see.
It is tempting when we read this to conclude that there are things outside of us that can cause us to sin or to lose faith.
We start compiling a list of things we should not do and places we should not go and things we should not look at.
But this is to misread what Jesus says here.
In keeping with what he taught in Mark 7:15 (“There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”),
the danger of falling away from faith is not found in something “out there;” the danger lurks within our own heart.
If what you do causes you to lose faith, he doesn’t say, “Do something else;” he says, “cut off your hand.”
If where you go causes you to lose faith, he doesn’t say, “Go someplace else;” he says, “cut off your foot.”
And if what you see causes you to lose faith, he doesn’t say, “Change your scenery;” he says, “Pluck out your eye.”
These are drastic measures, for sure, but they indicate that unbelief is /our/ problem.
It comes from within, not from without.
And so what about these drastic measures?
Rest assured that Jesus does not mean for us to take him literally, or else all serious disciples of Jesus would be blind and maimed.
Again, if we are defiled by what comes out of us, then cutting off our hands and feet and plucking out our eyes /still/ does not get at the root of the problem.
So Jesus is not advocating bodily mutilation as the way to overcoming the threat of unbelief.
He is speaking here in hyperbole, purposefully exaggerating in order to make a point.
The point is that there is nothing worse than losing faith in Jesus or causing another to lose their faith in Jesus.
It would be far better to be violently drowned or physically maimed.
! Anything Is Better than Hell
What could possibly be worse than a violent death or living with severe physical disabilities?
The answer, according to Jesus, is hell.
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